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Silicon Valley's Tech Employees Are Getting Nervous (vanityfair.com)

Posted by msmash on from the impending-future dept.

An anonymous reader quotes an article on Vanity Fair: Private tech companies are feeling a contraction in Silicon Valley. The funding that venture capitalists have thrown at start-ups is dwindling, in small seed rounds and mega-rounds alike. There's a new postmortem written weekly about a start-up that's run out of cash and shut its doors. Start-up executives are sobering up, realizing that their companies actually need a path to profitability. Now, not wanting to be stuck on a sinking ship, tech employees are thinking about the bubble, too, as they plan their career moves.

4 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. GOOD. by Thud457 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Give those special little snowflakes a taste of what everybody else has been living with for the last eight years.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:GOOD. by Aighearach · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think it is funny people automatically assume that it takes a "bubble" to cause this.

      Venture Capital management strategy is to run each startup so that it has a less than 1 in 10 chance of surviving. They usually target 1/14th or so. They want to maximize the size of the ones that succeed, not the percentage that succeed.

      People go to work for a startup but don't know that, they should learn about who they work for before taking a job IMO. They just figure they're special and the world should be fair to them, even if fairness would call on them to understand their own part in it.

      There is no bubble, because there isn't extra money getting invested. Duh. And most startups are supposed to fail. It is the system. What a dumb story. Also true: if you work experience is just at failed startups, you get harder to hire because those companies are seen in the market as having different culture than the more traditional businesses that care about surviving. And most tech jobs are in other places, not just in one small part of California. For people with non-startup skills, there is even still usually a worker shortage.

  2. Tried the startup culture, hated it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Never again. I value my personal time with my wife and children too much to devote it to a mere job, no matter how "good" that job may be. I'm interested in working with interesting tech, primarily things relating to command line tools, regexp, pattern matching, you get the picture. I left the startup culture for good and went to non-profits. Why? Because I have more latitude with how I work and what I work with than I ever did following some young, inexperienced founder(s) hellbent on getting rich. I work 40 hours a week, 8-5, Monday-Friday. These are normal, healthy hours. Anything else is for monkeys and those foolish enough to believe working 70 hours makes a difference.

    You have one life. The time you have is precious. There is no rewind button. Do what you love, but do it largely for yourself or your family if you are married and have children.

  3. What is old is new again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They're all too young to remember the dot-com bubble bursting 15 years ago. We're living in the same times.