The Big Tech Hiring Slowdown Is Here and it will Hurt
The Big Tech Hiring Slowdown Is Here and it will Hurt
Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon have all dramatically slowed or frozen hiring. How will this impact the rest of the tech industry?
In December 2022, 2 months after publishing this article, the New York Times reported on the same trend: new grads struggling getting positions at Big Tech in the article Computer Science students face a shrinking Big Tech job market. Subscribe to The Pragmatic Engineer to get a pulse on the software engineering industry - sometimes well ahead of mainstream media outlets reporting on trends and changes:
The Scoop is a bonus series covering insights, patterns, and trends I observe and hear about within Big Tech and at high growth startups. Have a scoop to share? Send me a message! I treat all such messages as anonymous.
The Scoop sometimes delivers firsthand, original reportage. I’m adding an ‘Exclusive’ label to news that features original reporting direct from my sources, as distinct from analysis, opinion, and reaction to events. Of course, I also analyze what’s happening in the tech industry, citing other media sources and crediting them as I dive into trends I observe. These sections do not carry the ‘Exclusive’ mark.
I closed the last issue of The Scoop by noting that Big Tech earnings were due soon, and that these earnings calls would give a clear indication of how the businesses of these tech giants closed their latest quarters. Now, the information is out, and we can tell plenty about what it means for hiring. Amazon is to announce its earnings late on the day of this issue’s publication, but I have scoop about the company from other sources.
Today, we cover:
Amazon: a sudden hiring freeze. Starting this week, several units within Amazon have put a temporary hiring freeze in place, expected to last until January 2023, at least. However, some parts of the business are unaffected. I talked with people inside Amazon for a clearer picture on where hiring has been frozen and where not – at least not yet. Exclusive.
Meta: expect the hiring freeze to stay through 2023. Revenue is down at the social media giant, while the number of employees has risen sharply to 87,314. So, expect very little hiring until the end of next year. Could layoffs be on the table as a way of cutting costs? I share my view. Analysis.
Google: slowing hiring for the remainder of 2022. The search giant published somewhat disappointing earnings results and confirmed hiring will slow, in general. Still, the company plans to grow certain teams. Which areas are most likely to be hiring? Analysis.
Microsoft: not hiring because business is good – but not great. Microsoft posted standout results, and is the only Big Tech company which seems to be unaffected by the prospect of recession. So why is the company hitting the brakes on hiring, and which organizations might be exempted? Analysis.
The Big Tech hiring slowdown is here, and it will hurt. Tech giants pulling back on hiring will be felt across the industry, and I explore the reasons why this is. Could it benefit startups, hiring managers, and software engineers? Analysis.