Job hunting in times of pandemic
I’ll preface this by acknowledging what a privilege it is to work in the tech industry. It’s a field in which one can reasonably expect to find work without leaving home, even while a global pandemic threatens to cause a recession. That’s not the case for everyone, unfortunately, and my heart goes out to those who are struggling to pay the bills.
We must all remember to be kinder and more considerate through these times. Tip your delivery person well. Avoid going outside. Stay away from other people. Covid19 can be asymptomatic: you might have it and not know it. You might spread it to those who are vulnerable, and to those who society needs to continue to function. Every doctor and nurse who catches it and needs to stop working is a lot of lives lost. Stop the spread, stay home.
As a software professional with long years of experience it’s easy to be confident. Experience taught me that there’s always demand for people who know how to code. Is that still true today?
Confidence is great. Knowing that programming work was always there for me to fall back on if times got tough, I allowed myself to explore other career paths in tech, and even to dabble in a bit of contracting in pure Customer Success. That confidence propelled me and my wife to embark on long term traveling last year, felling sure we’d come back to Berlin, a tech hub, and have a wealth of great jobs awaiting. That was true a few months ago, but things are changing quickly.
Thanks to some really bad timing, I’m rolling out of a contract right as social distancing measures come into effect here in Berlin. Again, it could be worse, but let’s talk about how this is changing things for us tech workers.
Pretty much everyone who can work remotely is doing so. That means most people in tech: programmers, designers, sales people, marketing, copywriters, HR, recruiting, etc. The most interesting experiment in remote work is taking place right now and we’ll be poring over the results for years to come. Right now, it looks like a mixed bag. Some companies seem to be doing ok, others not so much. But, to a greater or lesser extent, work goes on.
It’s a different story for recruiting. Even companies that are used to hiring talent from overseas, running the entire recruitment pipeline online, tend to rely on in-person experience for onboarding. Getting your laptop, finding your desk, meeting your team, introducing yourself to the company…conventional wisdom is that the first days and weeks need to happen on-site. Companies with no experience onboarding remotely are struggling to hire. As a result, job boards are still full of open positions but many are offering starting dates months from now, hoping to secure talent for when the crisis passes. This raises big red flags, as there’s no way to predict the future. What if the starting date rolls around and we’re all still in some form of lockdown? How can a candidate trust the company will have learned how to onboard remotely by then?
Then there’s economic instability. The prospect of a recession is sending consumer spending tumbling, which has a knock-on effect on the entire economy. This is not a great time for real estate, travel, tourism, the automotive industry and so on. Companies in those industries are almost guaranteed to be freezing hiring. Businesses that serve those quickly follow.
This is a good time to pay more attention to companies’ business than their tech stacks or office perks. Here are a few things I’ve noticed:
1. Anything delivery-based seems to be in high demand right now. However, there can be immediate concerns about supply chain, and longer term concerns about demand if the economy does tank.
2. Related to point #1, logistics services will probably continue to be in high demand. Hygiene and staffing requirements will be challenges, meaning we might see changes in how those services are managed and priced.
3. B2B companies seem more resilient than their B2C counterparts. Especially B2B SaaS, with their paid-up-front yearly contracts, are fundamentally well placed to weather the storm. However, that depends on their cash position. Many are VC-funded and not cashflow-positive. Those face the same problems as everybody else and might even consider layoffs. Look for mature companies with a recent history of being cashflow-positive.
Companies whose business model is fundamentally resilient, and which have sufficient capital, would do well to crack remote onboarding, as they stand to sweep up a lot of quality talent while others struggle to hire. I have a few thoughts on that, maybe material for another post.
Resiliency also goes for us professionals. Me, personally, would normally be looking for managerial positions only. The reason being that I have that experience and enjoy doing it. It’s very rewarding to help teams with their technology direction and practices while giving them the representation and coaching they need, collectively and individually. But times are tough and if an opportunity comes around to do hands-on coding at a solid company, you bet I’m going to consider it. I’ve been through the 2008 financial crisis, and there’s a lot to be said about going back to basics and doing hands-on honest work on things that matter.
That’s it from me today. If you’re hiring experienced software developers, architects or managers, drop me a line. If you’re looking to be hired, consider the fundamentals of the companies you apply to in order to maximize your chances.
Take care and stay healthy.
