Anecdotally, a large number of experienced engineers I know at big tech companies have been secretly hoping to be included in an upcoming layoff round.
So many people have mentally checked out of their current jobs but are too lazy to grind leetcode and go through interview loops. Unless you are in a financial crunch or have other issues like visa sponsorship, getting paid for 6+ months to fully focus on the next step of your career sounds like a dream.
Microsoft/Google/Meta/Amazon/Salesforce and the like are spending many billions of dollars and unknowingly setting up the largest startup incubators in the world right now (and getting nothing out of it in return).
“Lazy” is the wrong word. People work for 8 hours a day and then are expected to cook, clean, exercise, and maintain some sort of social life. Adding in Leetcode on top of that is going to cause something to give. There’s only so many hours in the day.
As evident by my current habits - I'm far more willing to walk in the cold wind and workout at the gym for two hours than I am willing to do even one leetcode problem.
I've been going to the gym 4-6x/week for the last couple months. I cannot get myself to do almost any leetcode even though I should be doing it. I've just accepted I'll not work for a while longer and keep going to the gym anyway.
Regardless of the exact word choice, if you have a life goal that requires some extra effort and sacrifices, and you cannot get yourself to do it, you can't really blame your busy life or anything else. There are others who do all of the above and still make the time, and they are going to be more successful than you while you continue to complain about the industry/interview process/leetcode/whatever else.
That grind set mindset, “you can do anything you set your mind to, so you can only blame yourself for not having {life goal}” is a recipe for depression and burnout
Now if only 6mo (or even 3mo) severances were the norm outside of FAANG on this wave, it wouldn't have been quite as painful of a lurch for some of us.
Wondering why they are giving such big serverences. Surely its not out of goodness of their hearts. 7 month severance at google seems a bit over the top to me.
So many people have mentally checked out of their current jobs but are too lazy to grind leetcode and go through interview loops. Unless you are in a financial crunch or have other issues like visa sponsorship, getting paid for 6+ months to fully focus on the next step of your career sounds like a dream.
Microsoft/Google/Meta/Amazon/Salesforce and the like are spending many billions of dollars and unknowingly setting up the largest startup incubators in the world right now (and getting nothing out of it in return).