Industry Veteran Jonathan Corrales Researches Tech Mass Layoffs, Finds Self-Doubt and Alienation Across Job Market
Back in 2020, the pandemic nucleated an unemployment rate that hadn’t been seen since 1948, from 3.5% in February to a grim 14.8% in April. Zooming in on one of the hardest-hit sectors, the tech industry saw the number of unemployed workers jump to a staggering total of 23.1 million people in April 2020. To this day, there are still twice as many unemployed workers in tech (10 million) than in the pre-pandemic market. This year, there have been 1,004 tech layoffs constituting 225,152 newly unemployed individuals— or, to put it into perspective, an average of 730 firings a day.
Despite this overwhelmingly negative outlook on the tech job market, the industry itself continues to expand, as does the projected rate of its job growth. It’s estimated that 356,700 tech positions will open each year, due to the potential for fields like AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.
Jonathan Corrales, software industry veteran and founder of Ready Aim Interview, attempts to bridge the gap between how it looks on the ground for job seekers and what the overall industry trends claim. He’s conducted an independent survey of 278 software technology job seekers to understand the effects of the mass layoff pandemic on a granular scale.
The survey consists of a sample of 150 men and 128 women, aged 19-60, who have been in the industry for 1-38 years across the range of education from high school to Master’s degrees. It summarizes widespread feelings of alienation, distrust, fear, and self-doubt.
With a median unemployment period of 5 months, individuals have to overcome various material and mental hurdles to persevere through the often long and painful process of the job search. Many surveyees shared that 50% of the available positions on job sites are ‘ghost jobs’ that don’t exist. Studies corroborate this estimation, reporting that 40% of all job postings are fake — a ploy by companies to conduct market research on the employability and replaceability of filled positions.
At the same time, viable positions often drastically undervalue job seekers’ worth, reporting salaries $20,000-$40,000 lower than their previous job. With thousands of applications a month — with one participant reporting almost 3,000 applications, along with 365 rejections and 2,533 no-responses — job seekers find that the emotional labor involved in handling each application round and eventual rejection is progressively dismantling their sense of self-worth.
There’s a whole host of consequences on job seekers’ mental and financial health that come with lengthy periods of unemployment, outside of looking bad on one’s resume. Individuals lose their jobs and suddenly become unable to maintain their or their family’s livelihoods. Many participants reported that losing their jobs “killed” their confidence or morale, they were “embarrassed” about their perceived deficiencies, or they were ashamed that they had to rely on other sources of income. This includes moonlighting in retail and service jobs, relying on family for borrowed income, and temporary and meager unemployment benefits between jobs.
The extreme stress of one, never mind multiple layoffs a year, leads to feelings of exploitation and abandonment from the tech industry. As job seekers continue interview cycles only to get rejected in the final round, they feel exploited with ‘take-home assignments,’ and get an overwhelming lack of closure after all is said and done, and participants still don’t have a job. The industry’s lack of post-application care (application responses and interview feedback) only further exacerbates feelings of burnout.
Yet, this doesn’t erase the need for job seekers to find fulfillment and provide for their families through financial security and stability through their work. Many participants joined Jonathan’s survey in the first place solely to release the pressure they’d been holding through months of unemployment. “Most participants wanted nothing in return for their participation. The only reason they signed up was to talk about their often harrowing experiences,” he recalls.
Jonathan is committed to making his mark on the tech job market through his 15 years of experience as a hiring manager. He observes that interviews take up most of the effort, emotional and otherwise, and they are also where much of the candidate’s worth can be reflected, and their leverage negotiated.
Through his clients at Ready Aim Interview, Jonathan Corrales finds that feelings of depreciated self-worth can be reversed when candidates feel assured that they’re prepared by the time they reach the interview stage. Ready Aim Interview’s services circumscribe the job search, from CV and cover letter writing to behavioral and technical interview preparation. Currently working on a book to report the survey’s findings and possible causes, Jonathan is committed to empowering his clients to advocate for themselves throughout their careers.