The headlines paint a bleak picture. Across the world, more than 120,000 tech professionals have lost their jobs. The most high-profile story is (just in case you’ve been living under a rock) of course the fallout from Elon Musk’s multi-billion takeover of twitter, with his ‘hardcore’ vision of ‘twitter 2.0’ being a much slimmer organisation. But there have been less contentious, but no less serious, moves from others including Meta, Lyft, Amazon and Snap. So, does this signal a shift in the job market? Time to batten down the hatches?
Well, no. There have certainly been some big-tech redundancies on this side of the Atlantic. But let’s not confuse the Silicon Valley giants with the broader tech sector. The average IT function is not feeling the slowdown of online advertising, didn’t expand suddenly in the wake of the pandemic and wasn’t ever tied to a crypto exchange. Different sector, different issues. While the trials and tribulations of social media vanity projects make for some juicy stories and twitter threads – either hilarious or horrifying, depending on your perspective – it’s not the picture we’re seeing here.
Today, in Scotland and the wider UK, demand for tech talent still far outstrips the supply. Any software engineers that found themselves without a job very quickly found themselves with a new one. (If not, call us.) Demand remains high across other areas of IT too, and that’s putting it mildly.
We’re not in the business of pre-hatch chicken-counting. But, for now, we’re confident that your skills are highly sought after. So if you’re thinking of making a move, now’s a great time. Just avoid Elon’s circus for now.
Michael Phair
Operations Director