Ok so they aren’t technically “tech” companies but the point still stands that there are plenty of tech jobs outside of traditional tech companies. Working for an insurance company may not be as sexy as working for FAANG, but if you’re a software engineer and that’s who’s hiring then that’s still an option regardless of whatever downsizing is happening in the tech sector.
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A job is a job. And if you’re a new-ish college grad and you do NOT have a full time job yet and what you REALLY hoped for was a FAANG job but they’re not hiring, but you’ve got programming & other tech skills AND the healthcare insurance company or healthcare provider parent company down the road or the next city over or whatever is willing to hire you and you need to pay your rent, then who gives a flying fart if it’s not a sexy ‘make technology’ job?
It’ll pay your bills.
And you go work for that non-sexy job and rock everybody’s socks off at it. Put in a year or 2 worth of experience there and use it as a platform to jump off to the next bigger and better job.
OR you can stay at home living in your mom’s proverbial basement under-employed and feeling sorry for yourself because you didn’t get hired at a sexy FAANG company.
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Please re-read my post.
I merely pointed out that not all companies are tech companies. And I defined the latter as those that make technology (yes that’s the definition of a “tech company”).
I never said anything about other companies not having technology jobs or them not being good enough or that only FAANG jobs are desirable or any of the other things you’re suggesting. Or if I missed something please point me to where I said any of that. Thank you.
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And believe it or not, there are lots of jobs outside the traditional tech industry & lots of people who wanted to work in tech are working in those jobs. I don’t know for a fact, but I’m guessing that they’re not all miserable. Sometimes in life, we have to pivot.
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Seems like Tesla was not a good choice for interns this year (and it might not have been a great choice anyway if some internships are unpaid):
Tesla Inc. is rescinding offers just weeks before internships were set to start, prompting aspiring employees to take to LinkedIn to appeal to other employers to take them in.
“At 8:46am, I opened a Tesla email for flight info. By 11:25am, my internship offer was gone,” wrote Miami University student Joshua Schreiber, who said his start date was three weeks away and that he had already spent “thousands on housing.”
…
Revoking intern offers is unlikely to save Tesla much money. At least one of the posts was for an unpaid position, while paid internships at the company typically offer $18 to $28 an hour, according to data from Glassdoor.
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Gifted. A tough year for 24 grads
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It’s scummy.
They can afford it.
It sends a terrible message.
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It sends a worse message to have a cohort of interns starting just as department heads are laying off fulltime employees. I’m not defending the company- god knows they have a tin ear when it comes to communications and transparency-- just pointing out that there are more terrible things than canceling internships.
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This is not uncommon. Additionally, Tesla is also undergoing a fairly major re-org.
On another front, Google is also making organizational changes. They recently shut down an entire group (Python) and they are also moving some key roles to India and Mexico.
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Yes, there are other internal factors at play - I get it.
But for these interns, they’re now screwed most likely for the summer. You don’t get credit for having on your resume - internship cancelled last second.
Interestingly and thinking back, when I hired out of grad school, I had someone come up to me and was like - so we just hired you. Yep. Do you know we just let x amount of people go in the last month? The person wasn’t pleased with me - like I had anything to do with it.
So I get what you are saying from optics.
But sucks for these kids just starting out - with no resume to fall back on.
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My son was supposed to intern with a federal law enforcement agency during the summer of 2020. Covid blew that up. He survived.
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Totally agree. 
I hope this is transitory and the start of an even larger wave of tech layoffs (there’s already been quite a few).
I also wonder if, for companies like Google, the layoffs are also part of the effort to remove undue politics from the workplace. Some rumors I’ve heard seem to indicate that is the case.
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Tech, and tech-heavy companies (like Tesla) were, in my view, irresponsible to go on a massive hiring spree during the pandemic and post-pandemic boom times, as if completely oblivious to the fact that the economy has ups and downs and the good times don’t last forever. Unfortunately it’s a pattern that repeats itself in Silicon Valley.
I feel terrible for these kids who had their internships pulled last minute.
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Im hoping the byproduct of these layoffs is that some employees who worked for the top companies start their own venture and will create new opportunities for themselves and future Americans.
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Kids will survive - it’s just a speed bump.
But it still stinks for them - because they likely go from interning to something unrelated.
Covid was different - the playing field was more level. Most everyone was screwed.
These kids - yes, it’s just another hurdle to overcome, but if they don’t find another opportunity, they’re still without relevant experience going into next season and experience makes the next internship easier to get.
That’s all I’m alluding to.
But it is what it is and all these kids will have bigger issues in life.
Not a good look though for the “ruler of the world”.
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We don’t know the future - or in four years from now - but all these kids who do chance mes where the majority seem to be in CS - they may be in for a rude awakening.
It’s one thing if that is their true interest - but is it really?
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On average their career prospects remain bright, tho perhaps not at the glitzy employers. The need for cybersecurity remains great. They are far less likely to be underemployed than many of their peers.
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Back in the early 2000s when the tech crash occurred in Silicon Valley, my DH was graduating from SJSU in electrical engineering. The job market for all engineering and computer science jobs crashed. The ONLY job offer DH received was for the very small company he was interning at part time, only the company was relocating to Reno, NV, and MY employer wouldn’t allow me to work remote and us living apart was not an option.
So instead, we relocated to Arizona and I got a better job while DH was temporarily unemployed. Out of desperation, he got a job at CompUSA selling computers & electronics. Worked there for about a year and a half before he got an entry level, super low paying job at a small company where a friend of ours worked. Used that job to build his skills and jumped 2 yr later to the next better paying job and so on.
My coworker’s daughter graduated late last year with a degree in applied computer science. She’s currently working with the Geek Squad at Best Buy. It’s not a sexy job, but it’s a job and it’s better than having nothing on your resume at all. And she continues to look for something better.
So many comp sci & engineering majors have viewed FAANG (+ probably Tesla) companies as the holy grail of tech jobs. Well, guess what? They’re ALL laying people off. You will NOT be working there. Heck, how many times have we read parents here on the parents forum saying essentially that if you have a tech degree and don’t work for a FAANG company, then your kid basically has failed? That attitude is foolish.
But if you look outside the box a little bit…if you don’t have tunnel vision, one will see that there might be other options out there for you. So lick your wounds, brush yourself off, and then get out there and try again. and again. And again until something sticks.
All of the jobs that Google is sending overseas to India? Nobody should be surprised by that. Pretty much every tech company uses overseas resources. Back when D24 was only 1 yr old, I got laid off from my big tech company job because they outsourced my job to India. Guess what? I got to even train my overseas replacement. It sucked.
When D26 was born? I was a contract IT/tech worker, which translates to “no paid vacation time.” It sucked. But we had bills to pay and DH was still working on growing his career & hustling to move up and earn more $$. It was hard. Long hours + little sleep with an infant & a 2 yr old, both of which got sick once a month, meaning I lost income every time they were sick…because, guess what? No relatives nearby willing to help us out to watch a sick baby or toddler.
But we did it because we had to. There was no option to move back in with Mom & Dad.
Are you willing to take a less ideal/not your dream job in a podunk town somewhere in the middle of Iowa so you can get your career started? If you are, then that could make the difference in jump starting your career sooner.
The tech job market ups and downs is something that really sucks. Nobody should have been surprised by any of this. But every time it happens, there’s this shock & awe that rings out everywhere because nobody thinks that it’ll happen to them. When it happened to me, I had gotten stellar performance reviews every year prior to the lay off. Sometimes, stuff happens that’s just totally beyond your control. You can’t control bad stuff happening to you sometimes, but what you CAN control is how you respond to it.
</end soap box>
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My D’s experience amongst her peers were that the “glitzy” companies were the first to rescind internships and job offers during covid. Smaller, lesser know companies, moved forward.
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My daughter’s BF just got his first offer - may be one more next week.
When he described to me what it was - I thought outstanding - fund company, doing stock analysis, research. It’s a small firm and he said he’ll wear other hats too. Lots of learning I thought.
Mr. I expected six figures isn’t close and my daughter said - it’s only $65K.
Hmmm - daughter, you’ll have (in one year) a degree in Poli Sci and Intl Studies - that’s two years salary for you 
If you find a job.
Kids today - already bemoaning jobs - as opposed to, wow thank you so very much for the wonderful opportunity that no one else has provided me.
If he takes it, his plan is to “live” his fourth year of college (it’s nearby) as he graduated in 3 years and he can still have the “living” of a 4th year student - or at least that’s the plan.
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