Why Tech Hiring Isn't Dead  [Music] I'm Jason with the All Things Open  team. We're here with Taylor. We're   going to talk about tech hiring,  AI upskilling, and more. Welcome   to the We Love Open Source Studio. Please  introduce yourself to the ATO community. Yeah, my name is Taylor Desseyn. Excited  to be here. Second year in a row,   obviously chatting with you. And I'm VP of Global  Community at Torc. Torc is a community first   talent platform, right? So, think of us  as kind of the next generation of talent   and staffing solutions. The big thing that we  focus on is giving back, right? Upskilling,   allowing people to be in community with one  another, connecting people, giving them resources   to upskill via the internet or in person. And  I kind of head up the whole thing. So, cool. We're going to start off strong. You say tech  hiring is dead. What do you mean by that? Yeah, I mean I so I would say tech hiring is  not dead and here's what I mean by that is that   there's a ton happening in the ecosystem and I  think the general nature of it is that hey big   tech is not where it's at anymore. And this is  what I'm presenting obviously in my keynote on   Tuesday and this is what I presented with you guys  obviously a few months ago. But I think there's   just this general mindset of like I want to get  into big tech. I want to work for the FAANG. I   heard it's MANGO now for the record which was  wild and for me it's one of these things where   the startup ecosystem is growing tremendously  and especially in the sea of AI there are new   companies spinning up, new individuals are getting  investment. You know one part of my talk is AI   specific tech startups funding is through the  roof there right and so when I think the general   nature the things that make the headlines  right now is Netflix is laying off people,   Amazon's laying off people, Microsoft is  laying off people. So everybody thinks,   oh my gosh, tech hiring is dead. When in  actuality, if you look a few layers under,   it's thriving. It's growing. Torc and Randstad  is growing from a business perspective. So   it's really exciting to see, but a lot of  that is because of the AI boom right now. Love it. All right. Well, there's  a lot of discussion about AI's role   in development. Do you think  AI will replace developers? So, I don't think AI is ever going to replace  the role of developers. In my perspective and   talking to other developers alike, I think  what's going to happen is it is going to   probably chip away at headcount, right? I don't  think we're going to see dev teams hiring 30,   40, 50 engineers anymore. I think it's going  to be, hey, we need to hire 10 really good   engineers that know how to use a Claude  or a Cursor or whatever, right? You know,   the way I kind of think about this, and I've  pitched this to a few of developers that I   know to make sure I'm right. Some people have  argued against me, but it's fine. I have the mic,   they don't. But for me, it's so, pre AI, it was,  it was one, like think of an engineer as like 1.0,   right? Like a whole number. With AI, it could  be 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 right? So if you need to   hire originally 50 engineers you could kind of  take that down to maybe 25 or maybe 20 right? So   now that's interesting it's a whole another  conversation what does it look like from a   staffing industry and talent solutions perspective  but do I think AI is going to replace developers?   No, but I do think it's going to cut back  on the amount of talent hired at one time. Okay I like that good answer so  what do you say to developers who   are concerned that AI is going to take their job? So again teasing my keynote. So I've recruited  since 2011 right which is I was recruiting when   .NET MVC came out right people like we need .NET  MVC no more VB.NET we need C# right I mean and   then you know I went through the other phase  where I was like oh my gosh React came out you   know we have to have React and this was a part of  my slide from for the keynote on Tuesday where we   are in that trend. We're in the phase right  now where we were with React in that people   can stick their head in the sand or people can  learn it, right? And I think right now I want   to encourage engineers this is a trend that you  cannot ignore that you cannot stick your head in   the sand and that you really, really need to  invest in. And it's really simple because you   know why? Everybody's on the same playing field,  right? Like everybody's at zero right now. Like   you have senior engineers, staff level, principal  level engineers just getting started using Claude   and then you can have a junior engineer learning  AI and Claude and Cursor, right? So, everybody's   on the same playing field, but you can't  ignore it. This is the new way of the internet,   right? It's not JavaScript anymore. It's AI and  you have to get comfortable using these tools. Okay. Well, let's get tactical really quick.   What can people do to prepare  themselves for an AI future? So, I think the first thing is  find a mentor, right? You know,   like I try to put myself in the shoes of a  developer, not a singular shoe, two shoes,   where it's like what would I want? And I would  say it would be overwhelming right now if I   was a developer trying to learn AI and what to  do. Find yourself a mentor. One of the things   I'm really proud about at Torc is we're launching  our second cohort of our mentor mentee program in   January. We're going to get really big on this,  right? We're going to have key principles or   topics to get invested in. One of them is  going to be AI, right? If you want to learn AI,   we're going to match you up with an individual who  obviously can help mentor you. There is no way for   you to figure this out on your own. We are meant  to be in community. That's why All Things Open's   a big fan of that. That's why we at Torc are a big  fan of that. You have to find a mentor too. Start   talking about it, right? Like listen like Kenneka  Toliver, fantastic engineer on Twitter. She like   posted a Substack and I read it and it was great.  It was basically just start talking like hey like   if someone asks you who are you be like hey I'm  a senior engineer using AI to empower the next   generation of front-end platforms. I don't know  something like that right? I don't know if that   even made sense but like start talking about it,  be known for something. So find a mentor, start   posting about it, start document your learnings  in it. You know I talked about this in my talk as   well we're just really teasing out my keynote  here but you know Angie Jones, Kent C Dodds,   both of them. Angie Jones huge Java champion,  Java advocate. Kent C Dodds huge React, JavaScript   person. Guess what they're preaching now? MCPs,  right? They're all they're talking about is AI.   So, you can pivot, but you got to be known for  something. You got to start talking about it. Cool. Well, because you get  to talk to so many developers,   you're kind of on the front lines and maybe  a little bit of crystal ball in the future,   you know, outside of AI, what existing or  emerging tech should we be talking about? So, I still think cloud still runs today,  right? On my episode of Guidance Counselor 2.0,   my podcast, I interviewed an individual in  the Microsoft space, Azure space and this   individual was saying like it's so hard to find  Azure talent still, right? It's so hard to find   really good AWS talent, right? Data, right? Data  is gold. I know we've been saying it for a while,   but even more so now because it's got to affect  the way AI consumes that data to make decisions,   right? So, you know, even if you're like, well,  I don't know, like, you know, okay, I don't want   to get into AI from a development perspective,  like from a JavaScript perspective or whatever,   what else can I do? Look into data, look into  Azure, look into cloud services, but also too,   I just want to say I truly think like the next  evolution, and I've read this in so many articles,   like people skills and sales is like AI can't  do that. So, for me, it's like if you like   talking like I'm a recruiter. I started as a  recruiter and now I'm sitting here keynoting a   tech conference. Like what are we doing? Right?  So again, for me it's like you can get into   tech in many different ways. And so if for some  reason you can't get the AI role you're wanting   like look into other avenues, right? Look into  project management, look into being a recruiter,   look into all these things for you to get those  skills, for you to get in the industry. But again,   to answer your question, I think data and  then cloud services are really hot still. All right, Taylor, we're going  to end with something fun. Sweet. The Hot Fix Minute. All right. Don't overthink it. I love it.  I won't. I won't. This is going to be fun. Okay. Linux, Mac, or Windows? You know, it's funny. I don't  code. One word answers. Mac. Books, movies, or podcasts? I don't read. Movies. Pizza, salad, or tacos? Pizza, but it hurts my tummy. Rock, country, or hip-hop? I mean, I'm from Nashville, so do I have to say   country? You can say whatever you  want. I'd probably say country. All right. Star Wars, Star Trek, or Stargazing? I grew up watching Star Trek,  so I'm going to go Star Trek. Android or iPhone? iPhone. ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini? ChatGPT. The future of AI is helper  robots or robot takeover? Helper robots. All right, Taylor, you survived the Hot   Fix Minute. Thanks so much.  Appreciate your time today. That's right. Thank you,  sir. Thank you. All right., Why Tech Hiring Isn't Dead, YouTube, 01kh9rnwfrecct3fj8y2nz4hn8.