Question for those who lost their Job at Microsoft in 2008 great recession
Hello, I'm on the cusp of deciding which company I will work for. I am on the verge of deciding between: Military Engineering Job, A Firmware Engineering Job In France, and a Microsoft offer. I have been doing research into potentially deciding to Go back to Microsoft (I've worked there before) however I was in Highschool during the Great recession. Can anyone give me a list of warnings and lessons learned that they wish the would have known before the Bubble burst in 2008? Should I go to Microsoft KNOWING that the Bubble is beginning to burst.
Microsoft is probably the safest bet out there.
Ok cool. May I ask how long you have worked there? It looks like I might be joining Azure. When I worked there before I knew that Azure was the safest bet because of the cloud but, I want to see what people who got laid of have to say as far as warnings.
I have been here for just over 4 years. Came in as a new grad. But I was told, only 2 people out of 50+ in my greater team got laid off in 2009, and they were apparently exceptionally bad at their jobs. My advice, be in good terms with your colleagues/management and stay competitive/valuable. Lot of people get lazy and tend to coast and that’s kind of risky during a serious downturn. PS . If you ask me, a serious downturn is very unlikely in the near future.
I worked at Microsoft in 2008. My thoughts: - FTEs (and CSGs) were mostly isolated from the economic downturn. Sure.... maybe base salary increases were lower... but there weren’t mass layoffs. - Applying for a job there was tough. I remember Waterloo students, for example, were lucky that their school had a special program that reserved internship spots for them. They were amongst the very few interns taken at that time. - Microsoft in 2008 isn’t Microsoft in 2019. Just because they didn’t let people go then doesn’t mean they won’t now. Perhaps they use the opportunity to clean house. Ya just don’t know.
Thank you for this insight. Were you a contractor for Microsoft in 2008? Did you lose your job? The forecast for this next bubble is unlike 2008 because 2008 economy collapsed from the Bottom up from the poor people. This time the forecast is that the bubble will burst from the top down because of all of the loans to companies like Microsoft who are doing heavy Mergers and Acquisitions. The merge and acq of 2019 spiked. The fed is giving loans that companies are just NOT paying back.
I was Full Time Employee. To be honest, I’d be more focused on the next tech bubble. Historically those have had a greater impact on our industry. Some folks talks about what will happen next time.... as traditionally the VC money supporting us comes from Silicon Valley, but this time we have massive outside investors like Soft Bank. The question to ask is.... what if the Soft Banks go away. What happens to all these Airbnb, Uber, etc. employees? They all apply at Microsoft, Google, Amazon.
I was in the layoff at Microsoft in 2009 August. At that time I just joined Microsoft from college and had no idea which team was good and what to look out for. I had offers from multiple teams but choose a really bad team/group. Azure is big, but there will some teams that might be impacted, so make sure you pick a team that Microsoft really needs from business point of view.
Knowing the bubble is beginning to burst? How do you know this? CNN?
Trends Forcasting. Been tracking it for few months now. Check out Gerald Celente at trends research. 29T in corporate debt. Market volatility as well as a global economic slowdown at hand. US small farms in an average debt of $1.5M . I think this will be a tech bubble burst specifically.
People have been using those stats since 2012. If you know it’s going to burst, you have no excuses for not becoming a billionaire.
I worked in Microsoft in 2009 and was able to chat with some fairly high up people and even with Bill playing a big role and wanting to not do any layoffs the board pushed for the layoffs. These days Satya and Amy have no qualms and infact there are mini layoffs every year in Microsoft nowadays that you don't hear about. I expect to see a reasonable number let go when a recession hits and as a new fairly junior hire your severance will be on the lower end. If you are impacted then it is better if it is sudden and quick. Otherwise the environment deteriorates if people know it is coming but takes a few months or more. In such an environment people turn on each and start fighting for the scraps. Maybe leadership even lets it fester intentionally so they can increase the 'voluntary' attrition and not pay severance. In this case even if your are spared the work environment will be very bad. If you anticipate a recession and are risk averse I would take the most stable offer like the military.
Thank you for this information. I've been leaning toward Federal shit anyway. I just wanted to understand what the environment was like for People at Microsoft during this flash point in history. I know that Azure is pretty stable and that it generally expanded during the recession but, if the idea is normally consolidation at Microsoft then I'm not going. Last recession they severed most Contractor positions and 60% of the cuts took place in the U.K which makes since from several end points. Another commenter in this board stated that FTEs were generally safe in '08. But the jobs which were cut came from the Windows Org, and the Microsoft Office org. It's so fuckin risky man.
Is military stable however? When they close camps / reduce staff it's pretty brutal. Also you can get moved to a camp on the other side of the continent, no choice to you. Then what about your prospects when you get out compared to the Microsoft tag on your last gig?
Don't put all your bags in a job for income purposes, invest in assets (real estate or others) whenever you can.
Stop worrying about such stupid questions and LC. If Microsoft ever lay you off, take severance get a new job. In other words, you earn a job, not beg for one.
How much is severance usually?
What bubble? Theres nothing remotely like the housing bubble going on now so comparisons to 2008 aren't going to be useful.
You're right nothing remotely like it. Because it's more like 1987, 2001, and 2008 combined (a great depressionsized bubble). Ill never forget that Alan Greenspan magazine cover which called him and to other bankers the "Men who saved the World". Ha!!! My mother said that's gonna come back to bite them. Jesus is the savior. No matter what your faith is. It is universally accepted that bankers are doosh bags.
I was around in 2001 and 2008. It's not at all like that.
Increase your work capacity, don’t worry about getting laid of, if you are competitive, you won’t be in the list, or if so, you will be able to find other jobs, I wouldn’t worry, and if it really happens, just go back home and play video games, take advantage of social security and don’t give a fuck, I don’t know why we need to live so intensively, just pick whatever work environment makes you happy
If you know when the bubble is going to burst you would not need to worry since you will make a killing on shorting stocks, no?
Not particularly. I'm not suggesting that I know dates.
You dont need to know dates. Pick the year and make a million bucks