TL;DR: People in big tech companies in the Bay Area are surprised when they get laid off. Several companies that had layoffs are listed. People miss their big paychecks when laid off.<p>You have my permission to skip this one.
> A career in technology seemed like a natural and safe path after his service in the military<p>No shade on military folks, though I don’t remember the last worthwhile thing the US military did, maybe the Spanish American war?<p>But anyway, I have met precisely 0 high end developers with a military background. If you are a person with that sort of brain, military just does not really make any sense for you to do. It’s way too much work for way too little money and you are going to be surrounded by people who can’t understand what you are thinking at all.<p>Oh I have met a few from countries with compulsory military service, but I don’t count that since they didn’t have a choice.<p>I feel like people forgot the insane hiring spree everyone went on after 2020. That didn’t seem sustainable at the time, and it wasn’t. Surprise?<p>Am I in a weird bubble? Are there actually a lot of Iraq veterans in Silicon Valley?