Laid-off devs who left tech?

Question

It's been almost 3 years since the post-covid tech layoffs began. And the tech job market has steadily gotten worse since then. So now is a good time to check in on the state of out-of-work devs. Specifically, if you have left tech as your main job, what do you do now? And do you work on personal projects or a tech-related side hustle? Are you looking to jump back into tech when things improve, or have you found something better?

histriosum · Accepted Answer

I've been without an IT gig for the last year, though it had nothing to do with the overall tech market tightening.
Prior to my gig ending, I'd already made the decision to change careers (at least for a while), so I haven't really looked for anything new, I've been focusing on the career change. At 46, I just wasn't really looking forward to starting to experience the tech ageism; and, the AI craziness is really grating to me. It's feels like the seagulls from Finding Nemo except instead of "Mine Mine Mine" it's "AI AI AI". :-D
I'm about two weeks away from leaving for pilot training at a regional airline, so hopefully in a few months I'll be just another cog in a machine for a while, flying people around on jet powered busses. If the airline life turns out to be my speed for the long haul, then the goal would be to get over to a mainline carrier ASAP; if not, I can always fall back to tech later, and for now I'll enjoy the office view from 34k ft.
I'm aware that I've traded upcoming implicit ageism for explicitly regulated ageism, but if I am lucky enough to stay healthy I don't have to worry about that kicking in until I'm 65.

abnercoimbre · Answer

Our tech sector in general is in hot water, but gamedevs are getting massacred [0].
The stories I hear is they're taking on contracting work to survive, risking it all as an indie, or going into manufacturing (typically as quality assurance managers.) That last one seems surprising, but it's more common than you'd think.
Source: I run a community full of gamedevs.
[0] https://www.gamesindustry.biz/topics/layoffs

volk45 · Answer

Laid off game dev from 2024 (3D art). Looked into how I could participate in industries and economy at the county level.
Became a survey tech for a survey firm that has been around for three generations.
I’m looking to enjoying a new career where there is no homework, small supportive team, and helps serve people and businesses that are part of the community I live in

lordkrandel · Answer

The layoffs affected mostly the US market. In EU, there never has been an excess of salaries or hiring, so it's almost just bad as usual. You don't see much "funding" and "VC"s here. If you wanna stay on the market, you better have positive cash flow. In Italy, salaries are about 1/4 of what's overseas, it is very hard to job hop, those who do are seen as opportunistic people. So, you feel this slightly less.
All this AI marketing thing is another thing that is specific about Silicon Valley and investments, and "growth". In EU, you don't have much growth, and that's all.
I guess the US tech market has been drugged on free cash for too long, to even have an idea of what the real world is.

almosthere · Answer

I was ready to go into construction (which I actually enjoy) but I just got an offer today for a lower pay remote tech job. The only reason I got this job is because the company can only hire US citizens.I wouldn't be surprised if a large portion of devs have gone hard nationalist after Biden's tech layoffs. (Zirp ending + S174 left to wither during Biden)