This text is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers e-newsletter. Enroll now to get insider ideas, skilled recommendation, and sensible methods, written in partnership with tech profession improvement firm Taro and delivered to your inbox totally free!
Final week, Microsoft laid off 6,000 workers—3 % of its workforce—bringing the variety of tech workers which have already been laid off in 2025 to almost 60,000, in accordance with layoffs.fyi. In a future version we’ll think about the function AI is taking part in on this, and the way software program engineers ought to safeguard in opposition to ever-smarter LLMs. However for now, I wish to share my high advice should you’ve been laid off.
I simply spoke to a mid-level engineer who was laid off from a Large Tech firm in London. They had been understandably distraught and feeling demoralized.
The best recommendation I’ve is kind of easy: You could establish your benefits and exploit them.
When you do some reflection, you’ll be capable of establish a protracted listing of individuals, sources, or alternatives that you’ve got distinctive entry to. The inquiries to ask your self:
- The place do you’ve got a powerful community of people that may refer you? (That is seemingly your former colleagues or faculty alumni.)
- The place do you’ve got confirmed experience in a talent that could possibly be precious for employers? (For instance, being very efficient with website positioning or prompting.)
- What are the domains that you simply’ve been enthusiastic about earlier than they grew to become cool? (Saying that you simply’re enthusiastic about AI doesn’t depend since everybody appears to be enthusiastic about AI lately.)
The “spray-and-pray” strategy for job purposes will not be solely miserable but additionally ineffective. Please don’t waste your time making use of to random jobs on LinkedIn or Certainly. As an alternative, observe the template established by folks with essentially the most enviable careers: discover positions the place you’ve got an “in.”
Too many engineers establish a buzzy firm and use the usual approaches in making an attempt to land a job. In an age the place the market is flooded with job seekers, there may be an excessive amount of competitors for this to be efficient. As an alternative, work ahead from distinctive benefits and promising conditions.
—Rahul
Why Engineers Nonetheless Want the Humanities
Amid widespread funding cuts to many U.S. companies, humanities analysis grants are being slashed. Historian and IEEE Spectrum contributor Allison Marsh explains how engineering is, and at all times has been entwined with the humanities. “The bygone engineers of the twentieth century acknowledged this sturdy bond to the humanities,” Marsh writes.
Balancing Work and Life: An Engineer’s Information to Achievement
How can busy engineers obtain a work-life stability? The important thing to managing your profession and private life may very well lie in reframing the query. “Cease viewing work and life as opposites and begin recognizing how they complement one another.” Just a few easy methods might help engineers with this frequent problem.
ICYMI: This Man Made the Modem in Your Cellphone a Actuality
In late February, Broadcom cofounder Henry Samueli obtained the 2025 IEEE Medal of Honor for his pioneering work in broadband communication and networking expertise. Examine his profession on this profile from Spectrum senior editor emeritus Tekla Perry.
