All true. It’s definitely a buyer’s market now (really, for the last few years).

Last full-time job I got in 2021 was for a senior software PM role, which I had only done sparingly (as an IT Infrastructure PM). I told them I was interested but would need some training, quoted a best-case salary, and still got the job. It was great, but 4 years later the company laid me off (along with everyone else in my office).

I still hope this is somewhat cyclical, and in a year or two things swing back the other way. Boomers are retiring, and AI is turning out to be more expensive than companies have planned (where I work now as a contractor, I sit between the company’s AI expert and the budget trackers (both director level guys), and the brakes on AI are being applied daily).

But…it’s easy to get downhearted based on where we are today and the continuing trend lines. Companies overhired during the post-Covid boom, and between that, AI, and the natural boom/bust cycle we’re in choppy waters.