2021: A Year in Review - Blind

2021: A Year in Review - Blind

While the world took steps to move past the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 remained a year of uncertainty. The working world was not spared.

Many workers decided to call it quits in what would become known as the Great Resignation. The unpredictability of the ongoing pandemic no doubt had an impact, as many companies set often-changing return-to-office and COVID-19 vaccination workplace policies that gave professionals little clarity.

Check out some of the top stories in tech this year, as told by the content on the professional social network Blind.

News happens on Blind before it makes the headlines

The search for “meme” stocks may have started on Blind. Personal finance is one of the most popular topics on Blind. It is no wonder, as there are so many finance and even investment banking professionals active on the social network.

On Jan. 13, a verified Microsoft professional started to crowdsource investment ideas, in particular, what might be the next “100x” stock.

Some professionals on Blind expressed interest in buying into an obscure corporate finance strategy to take private companies public through targeted acquisitions and recommended others buy into these so-called special-purpose acquisition companies.

Then, on Jan. 25, a verified Amazon professional described a new community of day-traders on Reddit targeting their next investment or “bet.” The online community settled on a strategy to pressure institutional investors who have bet against forgotten about companies, such as GameStop.

Two days later, the video game retailer’s share price reached record highs.

The Great Resignation

Professionals across the U.S. voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse at the start of 2021. The quitting was so widespread many industries saw record-breaking turnover all year long.

Some of the most viewed discussions on Blind were success stories of professionals earning record-high salaries and total compensation.

The top discussion in 2021 came from a verified BMW professional in Europe who earned a job offer at Facebook as an “E6” software engineer. The “E6” job level at Meta, which owns Facebook, can pay $500,000 or more in average total compensation. Fortunately for the rest of us, the engineer shared his Facebook interview preparation strategy, including the textbooks and courses he studied.

Similarly, a verified Dropbox software engineer explained how they got multiple offers without studying coding problems or coding practice platforms, such as LeetCode. The engineer’s framework resulted in five job offers of $400,000 or more, including companies such as Brex, Coinbase and “hyper-growth” tech startups.

A verified Red Hat programmer detailed how they cleared “staff” or “L6” software engineer job interviews at Amazon, Databricks, Elastic, Facebook, Google and Twitter. The senior engineer said they spent six months preparing system design concepts and processes before applying for new roles.

Executives on Blind

Executives and managers are active on Blind. With nearly 6 million verified professionals on the professional social network, you should not be surprised.

But one Blind user’s comments surprised the world.

Less than two days after laying off 900 people by video conference, the CEO of Better.com, an online mortgage provider, defended his actions directly on Blind. In his comments, he told Better employees that their former colleagues were “stealing” by being unproductive.

The CEO then confirmed to a reporter he had made those comments on Blind, standing by his claims. Two weeks later, the founder stepped down from the company after his layoffs went viral.

Surely, we can all agree that is how you should not act on Blind or as a leader.

What is going on in the workplace?

Blind is a top go-to source for career and workplace insights. The professional social network regularly surveys its community of professionals, and some notable trends observed include:

Job security is not a given, even in the hot tech job market.

  • One out of three professionals were worried about layoffs in 2021.
  • More than one in five professionals at Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Netflix fear getting fired daily.

Many professionals prefer working remotely.

  • More than three out of five professionals (64%) would give up a $30,000 raise to continue working from home.
  • One out of three professionals would consider moving, even if their pay was cut post-move.
  • Austin, New York and San Francisco were the No. 1 picks for a thriving tech hub, networking, and tech career opportunities, respectively, among tech professionals.

Most people support COVID-19 vaccination policies at work.

About Blind

Blind is a trusted community for transparency in the workplace. Nearly 6 million verified professionals anonymously share advice, provide honest perspectives, discuss company culture and discover relevant career information to break down professional barriers and inspire productive change.