If it's anything like 2011-2015 these former-FAANG employee heavy startups are going to be desiccated once FAANG decides to start hoarding talent again.
[Also, I’m wondering if FAANG are now more interested in hiring people with AI/ML experience (i.e. competition for the talent of the latest trend and so as to deprive competitors of the talent…)]
Far be it from me to try to change your mind here, but based on my first hand experience this isn't true.
Myself, and all of members of my team in my location, were laid off 2 weeks ago from one of the big 4 tech companies. Within the 4 people on my team one was stack ranked within the top 20% of the org of ~75 engineers earlier this year and another was in the process of being promoted. The other two were new to the team.
From a strategic perspective as a company, firing us can be considered trimming the fat, but it isn't a reflection on the quality of the engineers. It's a reflection on the leadership of the engineers and if they believe they will be essential for the operation/growth of the org over the next few years.
Before this happened to me I had the same mindset that you had here -- that there was some responsibility the fired engineers had for being fired. I can tell you, from the other side, that just isn't so. The world is bigger than any single person and this stuff happens regardless if you are skilled at your craft or even liked by your coworkers.
It's painful right now for everyone who has been laid off, but from a holistic perspective, I agree with this article. It will be interesting to see what all of these people do with their talents.
Exactly my experience. Most of the layoff sweeps are to eliminate projects or business lines, not people. Very few orgs got a "remove your bottom 20%" mandate, they just canned 20% of orgs.
