The tech industry may be grappling with wave after wave of layoffs, but startups are emerging as the real winners.
Big Tech’s largest companies began laying off employees in 2022 and have let hundreds of thousands of workers go. According to a new report in The Wall Street Journal, startups are emerging as the biggest beneficiaries, snapping up laid-off workers.
While startups can rarely compete with the paychecks employees were pulling in working for Big Tech, the chance to have a meaningful impact on a company’s future is an appealing alternative.
“We’ve been able to attract some pretty high-quality talent because what we’re doing is different,” said Scott Ruffin, Pandion’s founder and CEO.
For other workers, Big Tech has lost much of its appeal in the wake of the layoffs, with many disillusioned after years of companies telling their workers how important they were.
“While some of them go back into big tech, for others the industry has lost its luster,” said Ruth Ebeling, a managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group.
The WSJ’s report echoes a previous one that found many tech workers were emphasizing stability over the status of being hired by a major tech company.
Ultimately, Big Tech may one day regret laying off so many workers, especially if some of them begin struggling to attract the best and brightest.
