- Tech workers laid off by startups don’t get as much support as those laid off by giants like Meta and Twitter.
- Tech experts told Insider that workers at startups are just as valuable as those at big tech companies.
- They explained three reasons why startup tech talent is in high demand at companies.
Tech companies laid off thousands of workers this year in preparation for the coming recession.
According to the latest data, over 150,000 tech workers will be laid off in 2022, with Meta and Amazon laying off over 10,000 employees last month.
Since then, many former employees of big tech companies have taken to social media to share their experiences of being laid off in viral posts, prompting a flood of job offers. Stephanie Washington, a former contract recruiter at Meta, shared a post about her layoffs on LinkedIn that got more than 5 million views before she received interview offers from Lyft, Amazon, and TikTok. rice field.
But employees laid off by startups aren’t so lucky. Hundreds of startups and small businesses, including companies like SwyftX, Bybit, Polly and DataRails, are also laying off staff.
As one recruiter Adam Karpiak put it in a LinkedIn post:
“Don’t get me wrong, I sympathize with everyone, but I can’t imagine being fired and not getting much social love because no one knows where they worked and their Because the layoffs weren’t news.”
Nikita Gupta, a technical recruiter and founder of job search firm Careerflow, told Insider that recruiters feel “more confident” in hiring talent from big tech companies. Told.
But she stressed that workers laid off by start-ups also have relevant skills and qualifications that can help them find jobs.
Gupta and another expert identified three reasons why startup employees are in high demand at companies.
1. Startup employees have more extensive experience
David Richards, CEO of software company WANdisco, said he prefers to hire employees of startups.
“Really big companies are often little cogs in very big processes, like parts on a production line,” Richards explains, adding that “great brand names” aren’t. I was. enough to get hired.
He said that given a choice between an employee fired from Twitter and an employee fired by a lesser-known company with the same qualifications, he would likely choose the latter.
“[At big tech firms] The scope of your work is so narrow that you cannot touch on the many things that small companies do. For example, in a small company, if I don’t build this feature, the company may go out of business. work. But at Twitter, no one cares if I don’t build this feature. ”
Mr Richards asked:
Startup employees have more contact with senior management like the CEO.This means that “it’s much closer to the strategy of the business than a large company that doesn’t really understand why or what the purpose is of the decisions being made.”
2. Brand impact
Gupta said employees who have done impactful work for the company are the most valuable hires.
In interviews, candidates emphasizing beneficial contributions to the company, such as increased profitability or other great work, said, “I worked for XYZ Technology Company and had no impact.” Much more valuable than those who say
“I don’t think brand matters at all,” she said. “If someone at that small startup has a good network and connections, and they’ve made an impact, nobody can stop them.”
3. Big tech employees are overwhelmed with offers
Many times, employees at large companies who have been laid off and made headlines on social media are so overwhelmed with messages and offers that reaching out as a recruiter has little impact.
“Even if you leave a message there or contact the person, they may already have a job,” Gupta said.
Gupta said she wouldn’t “rely on” a large tech workforce for a role, but instead continued her sourcing and outreach to other candidates.
“If I get a candidate from a small company or a start-up and I have a role filled by that candidate, that’s good for me because the goal is to fill that role with quality candidates. That’s why,” she said. “So for me it doesn’t matter if they’re from Google or a small company.”
