cgb223

I've been laid off 3 times in the last two years, with the most recent just occurring recently. I've worked in tech for a little over 10 years now.

The frequency and absurd reasoning for these layoffs is really getting old, and I'm sitting here wondering if I should just expect this every 6 months to 2 years working in this industry, and if so if I should switch career paths altogether.

To be clear, I know I'm decent at my job. I can measure the impact I had, and see the customers we made happy, the usage our products created, and the monetary value it created for my former employers.

This is more asking if the frequency of layoffs I've experienced is normal, or something unique to me right now

Lots of layoffs in tech these past few years.

If the tech sector were to unionize, could that union be used to effectively push back and prevent any layoffs or acts of "doing more with less" via an aggressive PIP culture?

In a pre-COVID world, I used to have recruiters in my LinkedIn 24/7. Now I cant even get an initial interview when proactively applying to hundreds of jobs.

Its a different job market we're in that requires more cleverness to be noticed.

What tricks do you use to stand out and quantifiable increase callbacks / recruiter reachouts on your resume or LinkedIn?

I feel like I’m stuck in a rut and I have nothing that I’m passionate about.

I want to find a job where I feel fulfilled or at least a hobby that I get actively excited to do. Maybe start my own company based on the above.

But I have no idea how to find that “thing”.

When I was a teenager, I had a ton of excitement about specific things and the energy to go learn every little thing about them, but now in my 30s, even if I know I’m interested in a subject, I barely pursue the topic.

It’s like there’s a wall of apathy between the thing I might be interested in and the act of following it.

I’m not depressed.

I have an active social and dating life, I eat well, sleep well, have a good relationship with my family.

But the spark and passion that I felt maybe 10 years ago is gone.

How do I rediscover what I enjoy and do something with that?

I feel like I’m stuck in a rut and I have nothing that I’m passionate about.

I want to find a job where I feel fulfilled or at least a hobby that I get actively excited to do. Maybe start my own company based on the above.

But I have no idea how to find that “thing”.

When I was a teenager, I had a ton of excitement about specific things and the energy to go learn every little thing about them, but now in my 30s, even if I know I’m interested in a subject, I barely pursue the topic.

It’s like there’s a wall of apathy between the thing I might be interested in and the act of following it.

I’m not depressed. I have an active social and dating life, I eat well, sleep well, have a good relationship with my family.

But the spark and passion that I felt maybe 10 years ago is gone.

How do I rediscover and do something with that?

Is this just part of getting older / the human experience?

Assuming we’re at a mid to large sized tech company, where these people are managers of others and do not directly run a product, what do these roles do day to day?

As someone who’s been an IC their whole career I’ve never really understood what that looks like.

I can tell that these people are extremely busy, and at the higher end even need people to schedule their calendars.

But because I haven’t made it there (yet!) its hard to understand what these folks are doing behind the scenes, besides having 1:1s with their reports.

It appears that product features come from the bottom up almost always (at least at my current and previous companies), and PMs across orgs reach out and work with each other directly. So it doesn’t seem related to that.

I hear “strategy” is a part of that, but I’m not really clear how that translates into daily activities.

I’m sure someone will come in with a snarky comment about how middle management isn’t necessary, but let’s assume in this case these are people who are great at their jobs, and delivering value.

I’m going through a bit of an existential crisis and would love to understand more about what we know about our universe, how it works, and maybe even how things like quantum mechanics/physics play a role in that

I loved Neil Degrasse Tyson’s series on this, and want something that’s a little bit more in depth

Also, if anyone has found a reasonably good answer to calm themselves about the absolutely absurd nature of life and the universe, would love to hear it. I’ve been having panic attack after panic attack. Not ideal

I feel like a few years ago all the rage was that Amazon and other retailers were going to deliver things via drones, straight to your doorstep

Food delivery companies as well seemed to be testing out robots that would bring your food to you albeit in a more sidewalk bound way

Its been a few years and I have yet to have a single thing drone delivered to my house

What happened to that alternate future? Are companies still working on it? Or did we move on from that idea for some reasons we discovered?