800,000 tech workers jobless in silicon valley. Most were cut prior to the rise of AI. That’s billions in California state income tax lost.

Photo above - screenshot courtesy of the film "Office Space". This worker did not recently lose his job to AI. He was axed previously.

“California tech workers were hoping things would rebound this year.” There’s so much wrong with that sentence, I don’t know where to begin. If you’re jobless, and became that way because of dot.com consolidations, bankruptcies, and advancing tech, then how could you possibly believe that the adoption of AI was going to reverse your fortunes? (see LA Times link below)

The article goes on to lament that “everything which used to guarantee great jobs is no longer working: refreshed resumes, creating a Linked In profile, and interviews”. (Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over, and hoping for a different result.)

But wait, it gets worse. Some laid off techies have retired, which seems okay. Some are going back to school, presumably to obtain official AI credentials – still okay. And some are launching startups. Whaaaat? Nobody is willing to hire you for the job you used to be good at? So you assume you can do all the executive tasks in an entire company?

Probably more realistic are the workers who are pivoting to gig jobs – uber drivers, contract programming, barista, fitness center attendant. Big pay cuts, but still . . .

What does the future hold if you were a $300,000 a year Google “account manager” before you got your pink slip? What does a Google account manager do, anyway? Try to lure corporate clients to spend more for sponsored ad placement in browser search results? Is this like a car salesman calling and trying to sell you on a new vehicle while you're still making payments on the current one?

What the LA Times article DOES NOT provide are first person interviews with programmers now living in tents. Presumably some of that is happening, but it's probably still in the early stages. If you moved to California during the bubble to strike it rich, dine well, and surf, it could be tough to go back to Kansas and live in mom’s basement. Besides, it's still possible that some company could unexpectedly hire you tomorrow, with a giant pay package and stock options.

I’m just sayin’ . . .



'Brutal': Growing tribe of jobless techies is stuck in Silicon Valley's new reality

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/brutal-growing-tribe-of-jobless-techies-is-stuck-in-silicon-valley-s-new-reality/ar-AA23ymM0?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=6a0d79e268364cd3961df10d1e3549f6&ei=25