Should you jump jobs or stay put, in this market?
Summary
While 2023's brutal layoff market has shifted, staying put at slow-moving companies risks leaving you without AI tool experience that will command premium demand in 2-3 years. Proactively network and explore opportunities now, especially at startups offering autonomy and modern tech exposure.
Key Takeaways
- Engineers with hands-on AI tool experience from the last 1-2 years will remain in high demand; those with zero years of experience risk obsolescence in future hiring cycles.
- Current market differs significantly from 2023's brutal all-layoffs environment; companies are actively hiring now, making it an opportune moment to negotiate tier jumps to startups or leadership roles.
- Staying at slow-moving companies blocks access to autonomy, modern tooling, and product-building opportunities that accelerate career competitiveness regardless of future market conditions.
- Adopt opportunistic job search strategy: monitor openings, engage network conversations, and maintain recruiter relationships without committing—reduces switching costs while preserving optionality.
- The skill gap between early AI adopters and laggards is widening; not gaining hands-on experience now creates compounding disadvantage in 2-3 year hiring cycles.
Related topics
Transcript Excerpt
When the job market is really volatile and uncertain, like staying put can be a good strategy. At the same point, I would not stop [music] looking for opportunities because on one end, the job market feels a bit different than in 2023. 2023 was a brutal market. It was layoffs everywhere and no one was hiring. Right [music] now, there are some layoffs, but so many companies are hiring. So, now could be a great opportunity to jump a tier up to a startup, [music] to building products, to having more autonomy, to using more of these AI tools. And if you stick at a company that is just really moving slowly, you might not have that opportunity. I talked about the engineers who are really in demand. They have a few years of hands-on experience with these tools. [music] They will be in demand in a…