tech hiring is not dead, no matter what the headlines say

full transcript

auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.

All right, so a little bit about me real quick Who am I so I'm a father I'm a husband To two amazing kids We have not announced this yet But we're pregnant with our third. Yep. Not planned whatsoever. Anyways, we also have I loan a farm on 15 acres north of Nashville I have four horses a miniature donkey named Dudley I have a corgi named Walter I am a mediocre golfer Matt who's gonna come up here is way better than I am But I also play ice hockey and we're really good back to backchamps in my in my city So who is Tor so I want to go where Torque is Because I think what we're doing is fundamentally changing the way staffing is done and will be done moving forward So Ron Stead bought Torque last year Torque is a community Shout out to Danny my guy Pat over here raise your hand boys raise your hand those guys are very active in our torque Discord yeah, give it up for yeah, there you go They're very active basically we want Torque to be your home base throughout your career whether you need a job now or in the future Whether you want to meet some new friends whether you need your resume reviewed whether you need Just somebody to encourage you We would love to have you again scan.

I have that QR code on every slide So we'd love to have you and of course if you are looking for engineers hit on my boy mad over here week we hire engineers across the globe and honestly we're pretty damn good at it. So Moving on like I said join our jobs platform so this links you directly to our jobs platform. It is free We only ask you for your social security number So please sign up there. We'd love to have you again. It's free and also I get judged when I speak at these things How many people join so please join to continue to do these fun things all right next what do I want to get again?

There's the Keeps game that if you want to connect me love. I'm on every social media but Snapchat That's weird And I'm on TikTok, but I don't dance all right. What I want to get across few things one hiring and tech is not dead I am really sick and tired of the headlines right now that hiring's dead It's not we're gonna go over. We have a great panel and store I was actually hanging out with Matt the wrong side office today. We went over some numbers Ron said it's crushing it when it comes to hiring But tech hiring is not dead no matter what the headlines say number two I fundamentally think The big tech companies are not the standard anymore.

I recently was at a Conference and the speaker goes who in here wants to work for big tech almost nobody raised their hand Hiring is changing and I truly think if you have not looked at the startup ecosystem Please do that and finally listen ai's here whether you like or not. Yeah, it just is We can't stick our head in the sand anymore and feel like it's gonna go away. It's not It's not like you're annoying X. It is gonna be here forever All right, so like I said essentially what we know is change is about tech. I'm real quick listen I put a bunch of numbers on slides that we're gonna go through but listen tech hiring is up y'all we are so up seven million tech jobs were posted Switch to 16% year over year from 2023 IT unemployment is at a 2.8% down from 3.5 AI job postings are up 7x So this 2024 fun fact the stat was like all job postings last year in AI were like 0.12 now It's like 2% but you took it to point and then also listen some proof I cite my source me my friends are still getting jobs So people are getting jobs is an actual thing.

However, you're probably like wondering Taylor something's up Because I do know the market's not as good as it was and listen yes It is not quite as good as it was in 21 20 1 1 20 1 2022 I always say that tech hiring in 2021 2022 is like your ex-girlfriend or boyfriend When you're in a relationship. We've all been there whether you want to admit it or not We always hope our exes go back to the person they were before they got toxic That is what the state of the job market is right now everybody thinks we're in the downturn Everybody thinks it's all AI's fault because we still go back to 2021 2022 which is an anomaly I made a lot of money in 2021 2022 right?

I loved it But the end of the day that is not where at that was an anomaly. This is normal get used to it next thing Lattam near shore hiring is becoming more of a conversation. It's just call what it is literally working with a Tech founders about to secure a $22 million series a he wants to hire a handful of dads out of Mexico and wants to use us It is a very real thing we're competing it's right now 96,000 individuals at least were laid off already Highest is 2023 and listen I still truly believe that we are dealing with the over hiring in 2021 2022 somebody asked me other day they go Taylor how much longer are we gonna keep using that excuse?

I say I said at least three to five more years I Still think we are dealing with the consequences of hiring managed in tech being stupid Giving a lot of money and hiring a bunch of people it was reckless abandonment. It just it is what it is We're still gonna deal with it. All right, so let's talk about AI real quick Yeah, everybody left. Thank you. I have a personality. All right, so AI related job titles have surged Projected Gen AI spend a 60 64 billion across the globe up 76 percent for year before Compensation packages are looking like NBA contracts. Listen, I'm sure if we are all on X if you are on X You've seen this kind of image whether it's fake or true or AI generated Absolutely is a real thing people are getting poached for insane amounts now for me This was this honestly slide is for me you can just ignore it But I was like what does it look like for AI hiring right now?

What type of roles are being hired? This is 2024 42% is Gen AI right NLP ML and then obviously we follow up with some other roles. This is just mainly for me I wanted to know really what was going on who was what type of roles were hiring all right? So let's talk about big tech real quick Microsoft plans 80 billion dollars in AI spend Amazon plans over a hundred billion dollars in AI development meta with a multi billion dollar investment again We're talking about bees not M's which is huge with scale AI however, let's read the second half of the sentences 9,000 layoffs 22,000 layoff thousands of layoffs Right we got to read between the lines here people I feel like a lot of us into tech world I know so many devs and we'll get to this in a second you put your head in the stand and go I'm not changing At the end of the day the only thing that is consistent in this life is what change Again Taylor please for the love of the Lord give me some good news fam I got you all right here.

We go. Let's talk about startups listen start up funding is through the roof right now, right? U.S. startup funding crazy you can read these slides I don't know why keep reading the things on the slides. Let's move on all right So you're probably like well Taylor this this date is good give me more Wait a minute. There you go. What should you do about it? This lag is killing me? Nope, okay. All right, so first off. I want to say you're not behind Okay, you're not behind You are not Bons All right now however this trend reminds me of something Mind you. I've been recruiting engineers since 2011 I Have seen and recruited through major trends dot net MVC came out.

Oh buddy Dot everybody I was I've already knew dot net anything. We don't need web forms I don't want to have that has web forms VB dot net C sharp don't send me a resume with VB only C sharp Right I even I still think jay kirry's hot. That's kind of my whole joke inside joke jay kirry's hot I've seen some Twitter stuff about jay kirry. Maybe it's back But listen, I've gone through these shifts the biggest change that this reminds me of is React We got one guy period. Yeah, that'll preach all right. So react when this came out Everybody jumped on it. Now everybody some people right started blogging about it right and about it taken on side projects Do we whatever you people could do to get react experience?

Right now there are people who stuck their head in the sand and go React dumb listen react could still be dumb if you have some thoughts on that that's fine Don't take it up with me But at the end of the day a lot of people put their head in the sand a lot of dollars ago I'm not gonna react it's stupid I Know developer single-hanging my network that have said that and they have consistently had issues Finding jobs moving forward and that is where I think we are at with AI right now I think you have to start using it have to start researching it Understand how to implement your workflow now.

Is it time to pivot that is your decision That is your decision, but I want to call out some all things open speakers in the past The great Angie Jones every know who Angie Jones is right your hand. Yeah. Yeah, Angie Jones amazing job was a job of champion now She's all goose all the time All the time goose is good anyways And so when it comes to this she immediately pivoted started talking about AI started blogging about it started getting public about it Gantt my boy Gantt from infinite red heavy react native consulting shop guess what he started to do go on on AI He's speaking at conferences.

He's talking about it online. He's writing blogs about it. He's getting involved Can't the great Kent C. Dodge over there. Can't see dodges. Yep epic web had a wonderful opportunity to MC his conference this past March pieces here This past March in Salt Lake City guess what he is react. Yes, he's remix. Yes, but guess what he's talking about a lot now MCP that MCP that AI this AI that these individuals are pivoting and I will tell you this one thing that I've seen through the course of my career as I am not a developer or myself I have seen other developers and I see the tailwinds listen times are a change in Somebody said that right times are a change in you need to be aware of that right?

So it doesn't have to be tomorrow, but this is what I would do you ready first step If you get anything from this talk, this is it the last few bullet point slides were all just fluff This is it so if you zoned out for the last 10 minutes come back real quick come back Take screenshots connect with me on every single social media platform join Torque You know the deal first step get involved in a local texting listen everybody look around everybody look around this is not normal This is I know I don't think you understand Every meet up that I know of has folded in the Nashville area.

There's like three or four left I'm trying to pull a Todd Lewis and like trying to help run the National JavaScript user group now to try to get it back to where it was right This is not normal get involved here This this is where your next check for your business could come from this is where your next opportunity There are people in here that I have worked with through the course of my career and root up here. I'm placed this guy 12 years ago and He showed up This is where the jobs happen Okay next thing online communities listen at the end of the day everybody needs to be an online community I don't know if all things that you guys have a slack You guys have a discord you guys just pure email in conference and meet ups Pure all right props.

So find all online community. I wanted to get some shouts. There's a Ben leg at next play Anybody heard of Ben leg in next play No, cool check him out. He's great Ben leg just he was ahead of the head of the community at notion Now he is at head of community for cursor great guy I have popped into his meetups in Amsterdam I have broken bread with some next play people in Barcelona when I spoke at spring I owe this past year amazing community get involved Andrew Yang with me fit up in New York City Erica Wagner up in New York City as well Parker Angels capital find these folks Get involved follow them engaged with them also find some job boards If you want to know where the jobs are get on some dad got my job boards the next slide will go over that Go to networking events and listen find a mentor if I were a developer and This conversation gives you anxiety not only because I didn't yell and at you the entire time But also because you don't know what to do in this overwhelms you Find somebody who is doing AI or who is doing what you want to do reach out to them asked to be a mentee Drive that conversation.

That's a whole nother conference talking to yourself about how to be a mentor mentee relationship By the way, we have a mentee mentor program at torque humble brag So again find a mentor right ask questions figure it out next thing So you think you think of screens if you want by the way if you want these slides email me Taylor at torque Dot dev tail it torque dot dev But yeah some some job boards slides are some job boards all right second steps listen I know we're almost that time here use Twitter I still call Twitter use Twitter Okay, listen that is where the conversation happened you probably could be less this your entertainer I don't do social media.

So I'm not asking you to post I have a whole other conference talk on how to post and create branding I just gave it last week in St. Louis at DevUp. We can go over that I will talk your ear off about that you need to use X to watch to Learn to listen. I'm fine with you lurking in this situation Okay, I'm fine lurking three people laughing my jokes. That's a lot better than my wife All right, so listen use lists is everybody know what lists are on X raise your hand 6 sweet 6 of y'all so Learn how to use list what the way I use list is I have all of my hiring managers Right Matt to give you an idea how I do sales on X.

I have a list of all the people that I want to do business for from prime Example a guy tweeted that I talked about earlier. He's I put him on a list. It's called founders in tech Literally, he tweeted about hiring needing Mexico City engineers. I slid into his DMs sign the contract Now we're sending engineers to him all because of X if you are not on X you need to next thing start Learning or building in public Angie Jones. Can't see dogs. Gantt all those guys in gals They are constantly talking about what they're learning in AI or constantly talking about what they're learning in JavaScript Listen as a recruiter and we'll have recruiters come up here in a second like the way we operate is hey I need a react person in my mind.

I'm like who in my mind is a react person Funny story Pat Clark in the back. He was on one of our lives one of the questions I asked is you like coffee or tea and he said I like Pepsi and I was like wow that's crazy But here's the deal Pat now is known in the torque discord of about 5,000 members as a Pepsi guy Yeah, yeah, that's still unhinged behavior for the record So again, you have to be known for something if you are not known for something You're not going to be top of mind with recruiters or hiring managers when they need somebody Next thing create something I got five I got five ideas right now that can be monetized Two of them could probably full-fledged businesses that I need created if you're a junior developer and you need You need experience.

I out bunch of ideas. I need I tried to vibe code the other day. I broke the vibe It still does not work for me, but I could use your help That's obviously a little bit of a shameless stuff plug but listen If you want to program something AI ask ask ask your family friends if there's like a business that needs help Start doing this stuff real time because it absolutely helps also look at that in job descriptions If you want to become an NLP engineer, I don't even know what that is But if you want to do an LP Go to publicly posted job descriptions for a LP see what the job description says and then reverse engineer your entire career of what that person needs The answer is there to the test the answer is there.

I was terrible test taking the answers there for the test You just have to reverse engineer and get those skills To reiterate one more time big tech is not setting the tone in the market anymore Do not get caught up in headlines just because Microsoft doing this Netflix is doing that. That is not an indication of the entire tech market Hiring tech is not dead specifically obviously an AI if you have a consider a startup look at it Start learning to get experience in AI listen that was my talk I have large and extra large t-shirts if you take a picture of me right now and post about it There's only limited number first come first serve.

I'll be in the back. I'll give you way free tork shirts very few people have it My handle is at t-dessin Please join the tork platform. We love to having our discord torqued out dead backslash discord. Thank you so much. I love you Hey, you did it you listened to an entire episode and I am very grateful because you know why there's a lot of podcasts out there There's a lot of episodes and I myself rarely finish an entire episode So I appreciate you so so much for listening quick reminder Please rate and review this podcast in the app store I want this to be discoverable to others and the only way that happens is if you take the time right now and rate and review it Please like right now Unless you're driving then don't do it.

So thank you again If you need to reach out to me at t-dessin on all social media handles and I hope you have a fantastic day