Brittany Luce

Tech companies are getting leaner and leaner.

What's behind these layoffs?

Like, is it AI or is it something else?

Part of what we wanted to talk about here was the culture story of this.

For years, when journalists got laid off, for example, the advice a lot of us received was, you know, learn to code.

Like it's this kind of this golden ticket, you know, like beyond that comment being kind of rude.

I think it speaks to the perception of tech jobs being good jobs, of the tech industry having more of a future than more humanities focused jobs.

Where did that perception come from and how have things changed?

You know, you mentioned that like new grads trying to get into tech are not getting hired, at least not the same way that they were before.

Natasha, what's going on there?

Well, I think a couple of things are going on.

Wow.

I feel like I'm seeing a lot of the same patterns of tech companies going to schools and universities and exerting a lot of influence over what their curricula look like.

you know, in terms of like tech and coding and all of this stuff, maybe 15 and 20 years ago, it feels very similar.

The pattern feels quite similar now as far as perhaps trying to convince universities, students, and, you know, job seekers that like, yeah, AI is what's next and you need to be prepared for it.

Okay, I want to kind of zoom out here.

Like we have unpacked all of these shifts and changes in what previously defined AI.

a quote unquote good job.

What are laid off tech workers or new computer science graduates like pivoting to?

Like what are the quote unquote good jobs now?