A Slowdown in Bay Area Tech Hiring# JobHunting - 待字闺中
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http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/slowdown-bay-area-tech-hiring-tru
I believe the answer is both, true and false. There is undeniably a slowdown
in VC funding in the Bay Area as of late 2015 with all the unicorns and
even giants falling in valuations due to “tech corrections”. Fundraising
is not as easy as it was before because the bar has been set a bit higher
for startups who are raising money. I know this because we fund raised our
seed fund of $1.5M in late 2015 right before things started to slow down and
right now we are gearing towards another fundraising round. The money is
there, and investors are investing left and right even in the Valley, but we
do see a slow down of seed money invested and more of latter rounds as
indicated by CrunchBase January 2016 and MatterMark. It almost seems like as
if investors suddenly got smarter with their investments (no pun intended).
Good companies that performed well are still raising successfully
especially with all the hundreds of millions invested just lateb January
2016.
How does this translate to hiring? Well, hiring is slowing down yes, but
that’s mostly because open job positions that have been there for a while
are now filled. Fewer jobs are being offered by seed stage companies and
fewer new job positions overall, but what are we comparing this to? Is
hiring now much worse than the .com boom in 2004? Is it much better than the
bust in 2008? Let’s look at the data. Let’s observe Google Trends search
in the US which indicates what people search for that month and year
signaling level of interest for hiring and recruiting?
The answer is it’s a lot better than 2008 bust, but about the same in 2004
boom. One interesting thing we can observe from this graph is that hiring is
indeed in full swing but the acceleration slowing down, and recruiting is
picking up exponentially. There are three reasons simple reasons why this is
happening. First, we are running out of is left of unemployed or
underemployed tech talent caused by the slower economy since the last
regression. Second, the easy jobs got filled leaving the most challenging
roles open. Third, the market has become so saturated and competitive for
tech talent especially in the Valley.
Comparing this January 2016 to January 2015, hiring is in full swing across
all industries especially the +136% in transportation and +20% in IT
compared to same time last year. However, looking at last quarter and month
in IT sector, we can see zeroes or negative figures in growth. Anyone who
took college Physics or Calculus can mathematically derive that although the
quantity of hiring is very high and in full swing and yearly velocity/
growth is amazing, monthly velocity is becoming negative, which means that
the acceleration is slowing down, and we are near the peak of the hiring
boom. We are in the early beginning of stage from points B to point C in the
picture. For example, the IT industry graph validates this even to date (
April 2016).
My advice for job seekers for the next few months is to act fast on any
offers they get before the open jobs are gone and hiring slows down. If you
are considering switching careers or change now, act fast. There is still a
good window. Who knows things might pick up after a while, it’s the economy
after all. One thing is for sure, when the economy goes up, it must go down
eventually. Looking for a job in a recession is tough. From my personal
experience, I graduated from Cal and fundraised for my previous venture
during the recession in 2012, and it wasn’t easy to secure funding then. It
is much easier even now after tighter VC funding. Many of my engineering
friends who graduated in 2012 couldn’t find a job for more than one year.
Don’t wait for that to happen.
Is this something you are experiencing now or am I completely wrong? I would
love to discuss, feel free to connect and message or contact me anytime at
ninhtran AT hiretual DOT com or tweet me at @NinhTran09.
I believe the answer is both, true and false. There is undeniably a slowdown
in VC funding in the Bay Area as of late 2015 with all the unicorns and
even giants falling in valuations due to “tech corrections”. Fundraising
is not as easy as it was before because the bar has been set a bit higher
for startups who are raising money. I know this because we fund raised our
seed fund of $1.5M in late 2015 right before things started to slow down and
right now we are gearing towards another fundraising round. The money is
there, and investors are investing left and right even in the Valley, but we
do see a slow down of seed money invested and more of latter rounds as
indicated by CrunchBase January 2016 and MatterMark. It almost seems like as
if investors suddenly got smarter with their investments (no pun intended).
Good companies that performed well are still raising successfully
especially with all the hundreds of millions invested just lateb January
2016.
How does this translate to hiring? Well, hiring is slowing down yes, but
that’s mostly because open job positions that have been there for a while
are now filled. Fewer jobs are being offered by seed stage companies and
fewer new job positions overall, but what are we comparing this to? Is
hiring now much worse than the .com boom in 2004? Is it much better than the
bust in 2008? Let’s look at the data. Let’s observe Google Trends search
in the US which indicates what people search for that month and year
signaling level of interest for hiring and recruiting?
The answer is it’s a lot better than 2008 bust, but about the same in 2004
boom. One interesting thing we can observe from this graph is that hiring is
indeed in full swing but the acceleration slowing down, and recruiting is
picking up exponentially. There are three reasons simple reasons why this is
happening. First, we are running out of is left of unemployed or
underemployed tech talent caused by the slower economy since the last
regression. Second, the easy jobs got filled leaving the most challenging
roles open. Third, the market has become so saturated and competitive for
tech talent especially in the Valley.
Comparing this January 2016 to January 2015, hiring is in full swing across
all industries especially the +136% in transportation and +20% in IT
compared to same time last year. However, looking at last quarter and month
in IT sector, we can see zeroes or negative figures in growth. Anyone who
took college Physics or Calculus can mathematically derive that although the
quantity of hiring is very high and in full swing and yearly velocity/
growth is amazing, monthly velocity is becoming negative, which means that
the acceleration is slowing down, and we are near the peak of the hiring
boom. We are in the early beginning of stage from points B to point C in the
picture. For example, the IT industry graph validates this even to date (
April 2016).
My advice for job seekers for the next few months is to act fast on any
offers they get before the open jobs are gone and hiring slows down. If you
are considering switching careers or change now, act fast. There is still a
good window. Who knows things might pick up after a while, it’s the economy
after all. One thing is for sure, when the economy goes up, it must go down
eventually. Looking for a job in a recession is tough. From my personal
experience, I graduated from Cal and fundraised for my previous venture
during the recession in 2012, and it wasn’t easy to secure funding then. It
is much easier even now after tighter VC funding. Many of my engineering
friends who graduated in 2012 couldn’t find a job for more than one year.
Don’t wait for that to happen.
Is this something you are experiencing now or am I completely wrong? I would
love to discuss, feel free to connect and message or contact me anytime at
ninhtran AT hiretual DOT com or tweet me at @NinhTran09.
