Hey! this is Overpass Insights my name is Eric and I make apps now today let's talk about
how to handle a recession as a software developer
alright so the weather here in England today is beautiful it is so we're in the middle of a
heat wave right now and I absolutely love it right a lot every time there's like
every time it gets really warm in the summertime here which is it's not that often right
but we'll have like a few days each year where it gets really really warm and everyone complains
well it's just too hot too hot but I just I just love it it reminds me of growing up in
in Southern California growing up in San Diego and then you know the summers and just being like
walking outside and it's like a blanket that goes around you i just love this kind of weather
so anyway so I had to do the video outside today so today I wanted to talk a little bit about
the R word you know recession right I've seen a lot of youtubers technology youtubers lately
talking about how to survive the recession as a developer because we all know there's a recession
coming right it's just you know things have been too good for so long you know we're going to be on
a downward you know spiral here a little bit we're going to like things are going to get a little
bit worse right and I've been a developer for a long time and I've been through quite a few reset
quite a few recessions I've been through the the technology burst in the early 2000s in 2008
when the big crash in 2008 being like I was working in an investment bank at the
time right so we went through a lot of that kind of stuff and I could tell you that recessions
they suck right they're just you know they just they are what they are but the thing about
recessions are and the thing about which I think is stupid about giving advice about recessions is
there's nothing you could do about it right yeah a recession is like bad weather right
you need to be ready for it you need to you know see that it's coming when times are good when the
weather's good you need to know that eventually the weather's going to be bad things go up things
go down you need to be marketable you need to make sure you're you know you're you're
ready for it which means again a lot like with bad weather if you're stuck out in bad weather
and you're indoors it might be best just to stay indoors right so if you're in a job that you like
or if you're in a job at all you might want to work really hard to stay in that job right there's
you know you want to be the most indispensable person in that company because if they start
if your company is the company you work for is going through any trouble they're going to need to
make some cuts right they might not want to but they might need to make some cuts and you want
to make sure that you know in a very machiavellian way that you know you got to be that indispensable
person right you can't just be you know I only work on GUI I only work on server I only work on
databases right you got to be that person who's like okay my primary thing is this but you could
do anything you'd be the person who could fill any gap right i think one of the nice things
about the recessions is and you know I hate to say this is but the people with the biggest egos
and the biggest salaries are the ones that go right they're the ones that like you know
they're thinking hmm can we do without this guy right so if you get to be a team player you know
that's good right and again so and for those of you guys who don't have a job or if you're in a
job that you hate or you're or you're not in a job or whatever or you're doing your own kind of stuff
and you need to find a job it's still possible right that's the thing it's like the only
the only benefit you have about thinking about a recession is well there's no benefit right
because you still have to do what you have to do right you it's just going to be a little bit
harder so if you're looking for a job you need to apply to loads more jobs you need to send out
way more cvs you need to make sure you're not one of those people who sends out a cv and says
I'll just wait to see what happens no you got to be like every single day right my I went from
being a permanent employee to a contractor in a really really bad market I was working this
company I was there for I was at the last time I was a permanent employee I was at this company
and I was just miserable you know I know we talked before about the toxic workplace this
was just a toxic workplace you know there was you know everything was a blame culture if you ever
worked a place with a blame culture that's what it was I worked in this place which was definitely a
blame culture and it was you know I was just sick you fed up with it and eventually, I just quit I
kept applying for other stuff trying to look to something else to go to and eventually I just quit
and it was scary I can remember going to I had just I went to
all these different recruitment agents you know applied for every single thing got no interviews
for like a while for like a month and I can remember this one recruitment agent saying to me
are you telling me I can remember him for some reason I had to go to his office it wasn't on
the phone and he goes are you telling me that you left a perfectly good job in this market and
I felt dude man I felt this small I felt like you know like I didn't know what I was doing and he's
in he caught me called me out on it you know and but I did I found like a job that paid
more than double or nearly don't nearly double what i just left right because there
were positions out there but a lot of people were scared to look or they were afraid to leave the
job that they were in because we were all afraid of the recession like everything was going bad so
I just wanted to put this out there because recessions happen right they're the kind of thing
where you know like I said the developers with the biggest ego they're the ones they're going to be
you know right hopefully you know the ones that you know that's it kind of levels the
market and everything like that it's just one of these things that happens you're the only
thing you could do again through good markets and bad markets is keep your skills up make sure that
you're marketable make sure your cv is up to date make sure that you know you're up with the
latest technologies don't be one of this kind of people who are like oh man I was going to learn
that new technology but my boss wouldn't let me that's no excuse right you're responsible for your
own education and for your own future and your own career I don't know let me know if you guys
agree with me or disagree with me you know I tend to be a bit machiavellian about this kind of stuff
the end of the day it's all about you and your family you know taking care of yourself
and when you know when heads are on the chopping block job-wise you need to make
sure that you are proving yourself and then your skills are marketable and you know if you need
to go to something else there's people looking for you and if you need to stay where you are
you know there's no way they would let you go because you just contribute so much
anyway let me know guys just agree with me or disagree with me it is beautiful out here today
I hope you guys having a great day having a great week that is it for today oh thank
you for liking and subscribing yada yada that is it for today I'll talk to you again next time