Job Market and bootcamp

Hi! I'm combining my take on things into a top level comment. I started working at Facebook in 2009, right during the end of the great recession. I started interviewing and doing university recruiting in 2010, shortly after the great recession. I know some some people might have also lived through that time, but I can share my view working in tech during that time. I also have hundreds of colleagues and former colleagues who worked through both that recession and the dot-com crash of 2000. I also work with a lot of experienced engineers now, helping them get jobs at top tier companies and am very familiar with the market, and know people at almost all the top companies. I know a lot of people have opinions in the other comments, I'm just presenting my perspective for a different point of view for anyone reading. 1. Tech is not going away. The efficiency improvements to all aspects of life brought from engineering work, and software specifically, are moving humanity forward and there is tremendous value in these skills. Now some companies have already proven that value, and some are valued based on their "projected growth". The latter will be hit harder in a recession for now, but in the future when we return to strong growth, surviving companies will bounce back. 2. For interviewing, recessions increase "variance". Job recs might suddenly disappear and popup again. Interviews might get cancelled. Recruiters might reply slower as they are waiting on headcount. Offers might get rescinded. I know for bootcamp grads, the process is a little emotionally rough already, and in a full blown recession, it's going to get a lot rougher. Similar to the start of COVID, I would also expect companies to focus on hiring candidates with several years of industry experience already, rather than bootcamps grads and new grads (w/o internships). 3. Past performance does not indicate future performance during a recession. Choosing one of the top bootcamps might help you do better than at other bootcamp, but not a single bootcamp existed before the Great Recession, and almost all bootcamp leaders started working in the industry well after the dust settled from the last one (Ludo at NuCamp is one person that was around). All things equal, choosing a top bootcamp like Codesmith, HackReactor, Rithm, etc... would be my advice, recession, or not, but in a recession don't expect the same results. 4. If you lose your non-tech job, and have a personal runway financially, it's a great time to invest in a new skill. 5. When companies do layoffs, as people said, they try to keep engineers over other roles. But when engineers are laid off, it's the lowest performers at the companies, and the most expensive ones. This doesn't mean "bad engineers", but just people who are performer lowest AT THE SPECIFIC COMPANY (for a wide variety of reasons not related to raw skill). For job security, if you are a bootcamp grad with ZERO real experience, you actually want to come in at the appropriate entry level bucket and outperform the most possible. I would give this advice for Codesmith grads, where their LinkedIn page says 25% of people get senior or higher jobs, and 70% get mid level jobs - for people with zero experience who want job security in these times, I would suggest setting the bar lower and crushing it (I'm speaking about setting the job responsibility level and its expectations, not about salary, always try to negotiate the best salary)