Tech's Hidden Gatekeepers: How to Spot Them in the Moment

In this week’s newsletter:

• 🕵️‍♂️ Tech's Hidden Gatekeepers - How to Spot and Tackle Them Head-On!

• 📉 Data & Trends - The Tech Sector May Be Starting to Stabilize

• 📚 Useful Reads - Expert Advice on Leveraging LinkedIn; What is an ATS?

• 🛠️ Job Seeker Tools - Himalayas (Job Board), Prepper (Interview Coach)

🕵️‍♂️ Tech's Hidden Gatekeepers: How to Spot and Tackle Them Head-On!

Hey there, tech darlings! We're about to delve into an often overlooked aspect of the tech world: gatekeepers. These self-anointed custodians of the digital sphere often take it upon themselves to control who gets to participate in the Silicon Valley party. But are they genuinely safeguarding innovation, or merely playing power games?

Red/orange flags are typically quite obvious during the interview process if you know what to look for, however desperation can excuse even the most egregious behavior. Let’s a take a look at some of the characters to stay wary of.

1. The "Jargon Jugglers": You know you’ve encountered a gatekeeper when they start throwing around mysterious technical jargon and expect you to have some magical decoder ring to understand it all. It’s like they’re trying to create an exclusive club, but really, it’s just an obnoxious game of buzzword bingo.

2. The "Trivia Tyrants": Gatekeepers love to turn interviews into a high-stakes quiz show, firing off obscure questions that have nothing to do with the actual job requirements. It’s almost like they get a thrill from watching you squirm while they revel in their power to stump you.

3. The “Culture Cops”: Beware the gatekeeper who claims to be the ultimate arbiter of company culture. They’ll grill you on whether you’d fit into their little tech utopia, and if you don’t share their love for an obscure sci-fi show or a particular programming language, you’re instantly deemed unworthy.

4. The “Red Tape Ruler”: These gatekeepers delight in creating never-ending hoops to jump through during the interview process. Multiple rounds of interviews, endless assignments, and a labyrinthine hiring process designed to make you question your sanity. It’s almost like they enjoy watching you run through the maze like a lab rat.

5. The “Nepotism Nudger”: Ah, the gatekeepers who can’t resist favoring their buddies or connections. If you don’t have a “friend of a friend” in the company, good luck getting past their velvet ropes, no matter how qualified you are. It’s like tech nepotism on steroids.

The key takeaway is to stay vigilant and respect yourself during the interview process. If you’re multiple rounds deep and run into a big, blatant, red flag, it can be very difficult to move in any direction except forward. After all, you just met with 3 other employees that you LOVED. Maybe this red flag isn’t so bad. Or that rent check is looming heavy and you’ll take anything at this point. Everyone’s scenario is different, but if I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that my gut is often telling me the right move to make.

🎧 Listen While You Read

📉📈 The Tech Sector May Be Starting to Stabilize

For the first time since early 2022, the number of tech company layoffs during the most recent three months is less than cuts announced in the prior three months.

The tech economy appears to have settled somewhat, with fewer layoffs likely due to recovering stock prices, slowing inflation, and a more positive overall economic outlook

Key Job Data:

• Nationwide, technology job cuts were down 79.5% from a year ago in June.

• The U.S. private sector added half a million jobs in June 2023

• The unemployment rate is expected to dip to 3.6% from 3.7%

• The tech sector in the Bay Area may be starting to stabilize after 18 brutal months of layoff announcements

• The overall number of pink slips in the technology sector has stayed extremely low despite a cavalcade of layoffs

• Job postings for future tech hiring increased by 22,408 to 268,898

Notable Layoff Data:

• During the week ended July 14, at least 16 companies cut U.S. tech jobs

• Crypto exchange Binance recently cut over 1,000 people

• Sonos announced it will cut about 130 jobs

• Tech companies in the Bay Area filed plans for a total of just over 5,200 job cuts in the second quarter of 2023

📚 Useful Reads:

• How to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job: Expert Guidance for Job Seekers - tealhq.com

• What Is An ATS? 8 Things You Need to Know About Applicant Tracking Systems - jobscan.co

🛠️ Job Seeker Tools

Himalayas

himalayas.app 

Discover the best remote and work-from-home jobs at top remote companies.

Prepper

adzuna.com/prepper

To use Prepper, job seekers provide the large language model with the job description they’re interviewing for, and Prepper will generate company- and job-specific interview questions. Users type their responses, and the tool provides feedback on those answers, suggesting responses.

WARN Tracker

www.warntracker.com

A WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice is a notice required by the federal WARN Act in the United States, which mandates that employers with 100 or more employees provide at least 60 days advance written notice of a plant closing or mass layoff affecting 50 or more employees.

WARNtracker tracks these and conveniently displays them in a database. They have also recently launched a new job board with 16,000+ jobs from over 300 companies!