The New Job Reality For Tech Pros

I am never the type to tell people there are no jobs because I have had to recommend over 20 talents across multiple tech roles to founders already this year and have had to do this for the last four years across all levels in tech (cofounder down to customer support). But what are the current realities of the tech job market you need to know?

1. Multiple Jobs Per Person Is The New Norm: The average person in tech works two to three remote jobs till they no longer need to. UX designers to Marketers to Product Managers, I know people working multiple jobs to meet up with their financial responsibilities (family, rent, school, etc). This makes it a notch harder to land a job when you have to compete most likely with people already with experience to land that job.

My Advice : Focus on putting your best foot forward in every application and try to leverage more on referrals for roles. 60% of most hiring I have been part of in recent years (and there's been a lot of them) are based on referrals).

2. Lower Pay Compared To Salary Expectations : The current reality for startups is frugality, most startups are low on cash due to reduced funds disbursements from investors and also reduced paying customers (for those with paying users). So the frugal way around it for founders is laying off or cutting down on salaries to have longer runway.

My Advice: If you are job hunting this time, some of the salaries might not meet your exact expectations but choose what is best for you. If you are out of a job, I always advise to choose momentum of being in a job than being out of a job and work your way up, but if you have the financial runway to take your time to search for your dream job, why not?. But if you are on a job, go higher not lower (amen?).

3. Too many audio?career Profiles : LinkedIn and X can be good and also very deceptive with how people can prop themselves up profile wise and demand what we call “armed-robber salary” only to contribute almost nothing to the company. I have seen founders suffer from this a lot in 2023 only to end up cutting their losses eventually. So you don’t want to be one of these audio tech experts.

My Advice : Content creation is good but ensure you back the talk up with workings (demonstrated skills and experience) to differentiate yourself.

4. More Founder-led Hiring Processes : If you are looking to join a tech startup at this time, be ready to face one of the founders during the interview, do not be scared about this, hiring the right talents to move the company forward is actually part of the key responsibilities of founders in the early stages.

My Advice: You can actually use it to your advantage, The founder understands the vision more than almost anyone and will ask you questions to see how you can come in to help achieve it for them, if you impress the founder, you are almost certainly already in.?

5. Heightened LinkedIn Activities: You can no longer leave your LinkedIn idle and not update your profile with your most recent achievements, at least not in 2024 when LinkedIn has now crossed over one billion professionals using the platform. Even the Pro Twitter folks are now posting more on LinkedIn this year because it’s still your best chance to stay top of mind for recruiters and founders.?

My Advice: Breaking the ice and fear of LinkedIn is a lot, nobody wants to make a post only to see two likes but try to focus on posting first for yourself not for likes. ?Share things you have learnt recently, contribute to posts by dropping valuable comments, look out for key players in your sector to network with and try to reach out (don't start with asking for jobs).

I hope these help you map out your career plans for the rest of the year as we start counting down to the end of Q1, I wish you nothing but success and fulfilled dreams

Love from Harry (No-Code TechBro)