Beautiful theory, but only that.
Then again, I have zero network. Maybe you can just call someone on the phone and jump ship next week? I can't. Many other people cannot as well.
My idea right now is to find ways to do things mostly my way and introduce a near-perfect meritocracy in my team. No seniors or juniors; I am technically "the most senior" but we all have differing and unique experiences. I share my experiences and when I feel stronger about something I make it clear why but I don't go sad in the corner if the other engineers overrule me.
Regardless of how the market is, I like getting along with people. Of course sometimes (actually: often) it's not possible in which case either a team restructuring should be done, or one should indeed leave (which is the nuclear option; not just "oh well, things did not work out").
I mean, yeah, that's the issue. Even without a network my LinkedIn is full of recruiter spam because my profile is optimized, which is a skill anyone can learn and do, same concept as SEO.
> I like getting along with people.
Sure, who doesn't? The issue is when one becomes a doormat, just as in other social situations; in this case, it'd be being nice to others when in reality you'd need to be firm but fair that their writing huge PRs is negatively affecting everyone else. It's the paradox of tolerance applied to the engineering world.
Everybody is not you.
The market is bleak - but don’t mistake everyone’s leverage - or understanding their leverage - for your own.
Perfect example of a non-sequitur. Irrespective of whether or not the statement is true, it has no bearing on the veracity of the original claim: that in the current market, the majority of workers simply do not have this leverage.
I likely would have avoided commenting, if it was.
The original claim was “almost no engineer”.
Anyway, the point is, if you take little interest in the “full stack” of whatever you’re working on (the technical stack, BizDev, whatever),
you will obviously be easier to replace with an automaton - AI or human.
Can you pick up the phone and be in the next job the next week?
I can’t even imagine having 50 acquaintances I see in a year, currently, so I don’t know I’ll be able to offer advice specifically…
but generally?, I think I’d be pretty upset if I knew 50 people and none of them would bring me on their team, or start something up with me.
