Oh the techbro, how around this time ten years ago the liberal hack smugly told people (from an ergonomic chair in the home office of their gentrified San Francisco flat) tragically losing their jobs: "learn to code" are now facing down the barrel of a looney tunes style cannon packed with layoffs and debt. Did they not know they too were on the chopping block of capitalism? Did they honestly think the party would last forever- that their jobs would be secure? Sorry not sorry, you're no exception in dunking when the music stops and the self proclaimed "job makers" start tightening up purse strings to fulfill profits and appease their pushy investors.

Your first mistake as assuming your employer wasn't a fumbling mess of lies wrapped in smooth talking hype. What exactly has your employer or by extension the silicon valley done for "innovation"? Making servers and networking equipment run slightly faster? Web based apps? PCs that load windows in 10 seconds? Trivial garbage... Do you not notice that the ebbs and flows nearly mirror themselves every other decade? Don't believe me? Take a look at this stock market value comparing Nvidia AI hype to the telecom hype of the early 2000s - one could easily make the same argument how apps, electric vehicles, biomed, .coms and crypto have all had similar hypes and catastrophic crashes.

This is a direct call out to work from home techbros who think they're still safe. Right now, as we speak, the silicon valley continues to shave off workers to save money, accrue revenue and keep up with the never ending demand to maintain an annual profit. If you aren't in a clique with management, you will certainly be axed and replaced with some level of automation (AI or otherwise), a useful idiot temp who will get paid half your salary/wage or even more sinister, overworked call centers and contractors from "developing" countries being grossly exploited by the "western world". Even chumps working for the MIC are no match as large institutions like Lockheed Martin are announcing cuts to keep up profits. Everyone is on borrowed time...

Why do you liberal hacks cry about China "stealing tech" when we threw our own technologies into the caprice of money laundering capialists who grift for subsidies, underperform, then lay off workers when the wells dry? Have you not once thought it was the fault of large corporate wigs? Leeches who bilk taxpayers, get complacent, and barely create any form of innovation?

If there's anything I recommend (if you're so stubborn) when entering the IT or tech industry is either saddle your resume with expensive certificates, or be a failson shithead. Honest hard work (particularly in support) only winds up stalling you with underpaying contract to hire positions who need a warm bag to reinstall windows and plug in desktops or configure and deploy servers and switches. But be warned for even the first two mentioned characters are no match to vicious wave of spontaneous layoffs. Silicon valley is not safe from the bust boom cycles of capitalism, as clearly demonstrated with above mentioned. Just because we put it in apps or offload it to AI doesn't mean its not a useless doohickey that burns away the money of an impatient venture capitalist. Large swaths of IT workers are under the boot of cruel managers who slash wages to appease their bosses; stewards of capital who squeeze as much production value out of their IT personnel as possible- like the ghoulish vampires they are.

You're probably telling me "oh well most jobs are like that anyways" - well yes, while correct, this is not an implication that the grass is greener in other industries. My tirade is mostly a warning, as I have seen many fresh eyed ambitious people enter the IT industriy, initially in support roles, with the prospect of working somewhere beyond that of their equally crummy retail, trade or foodservice jobs.

Subvert the expectation that a company would be willing to train you and front your certificates. If they're willing to slash your hours and provide little to no benefits, what makes you think they will empower you with learning material? Most companies are not compelled to train and empower their IT as it risks creating a loss; either by the worker demanding a better pay or them leaving outright to something "better". Managers may hide behind the excuse of material being "cost prohibitive". While that is a flimsy cop-out, it is not based on fantasy; as the lowest bargain bin certificate, a TIA A+ is 250 dollars and would be a big ask for stingy corporations working on margins. Such a cert would be useless anyways as it only tells employers "hey I know how to open up a PC and remove the memory sticks!".

There isnt a shortage of workers, just a shortage of cheap labor. When they say century old tired phrase: "no one wants to work" they mean "no one wants to work for my shitty wages"

I can only hope for more techbros to absolutely suffer. They've completely destroyed the region their microchip country club sits on top of. Underneath all the PCBs, mangled AI hands, patagonia puff jackets and cybertrucks was a rich culture of people- now nearly pushed away or rendered into an inert version of its former self. Outpriced and alienated for craft beer breweries, smartwatches, rent to own apartment homes, vampire weekend and guacamole made with cream cheese.