A Tech Engineer's Tumble into Precarity: AI-fuelled Job Market Woes
Unemployed Metaverse Expert Turns to Food Delivery Service and Resides in a Mobile Home Trailer
In an intriguing narrative, a former metaverse software engineer shares his plight, now scraping by with door-dash deliveries, eBay sales, and residing in a trailer. Twelve months prior, Shawn K, decidedly known as "K" legally, was sacked from Virbela - a metaverse solution company owned by eXp Realty - plunging him into a precarious reality, far from the six-figure life he once enjoyed.
As tech companies relentlessly race to infuse AI into their operations, Shawn fears he's merely a harbinger of the normative employment landscape in the near future. In an email to Gizmodo, Shawn offered further insights about his layoff and the AI-driven environment at Virbela.
Virbela, declaring it offers metaverse solutions for remote work via "engaging virtual spaces," approximating real-world dynamics and social interactions, saw an AI-centric shift in Shawn's work during the preceding months. Revealing more, Shawn stated that his team was proactively adopting AI, with average developers seeing a productivity surge of 3x-10x due to AI assistance when ChatGPT first surfaced. Soon, AI integration became inevitable, marking the commencement of a comprehensive shift within his team.
Sadly, the spectacular increase in AI enthusiasm culminated in a series of dismissals across all teams at Virbela, including Shawn's, with their financial difficulties following suit. The specific catalysts for Shawn's termination are unclear, but it's an increasingly common occurrence in the tech industry amid the AI-led job market transformation.
Amid these unfolding circumstances, Shawn has taken to his personal Substack, ShawnfromPortland, chronicling his struggles in the realm of AI-induced displacement. He discloses that his daily income managing food deliveries barely exceeds $200, and he's scrambled to sell personal items on eBay to make ends meet.
Adding more intricacy to his situation, Shawn is the owner of multiple properties, one of which houses his disabled mother, leaving him with no viable option to dispose of them. His financial situation deteriorates as he resides in a trailer on one of his properties in upstate New York.
"I'm now in the trailer because something has shifted in society in the last 2.5 years," Shawn pens on his Substack, lamenting the "great displacement" - an automation-driven economy gradually distancing itself from human labor.
Lamentably, AI seems to be magnifying his predicament as potential employers might be weeding out his resume using AI-driven vetting tools, dismissing his application due to the absence of specific, bleeding-edge AI buzzwords.
Shawn has resorted to self-study, dedicating 2 to 5 hours daily to AI news, research papers, podcasts, and reflecting on the latest AI trends. He has also developed numerous AI-generated codebases as learning exercises to improve his competitiveness in the job market, yet to no avail.
"I'm sharing my real-life story of how I went from a valued technologist to basically nothing in the course of a year or two with the rise of AI," he pens in a poignant article. The software engineer has submitted close to 900 applications thus far, with no promising job offers in sight.
From his insights, the job hunt in the software industry is vastly testing, unlike anything he's ever encountered before. Ominously, he predicts, "I don't think my story is unique, I think I am at the early side of the bell curve of the coming social and economic disaster tidal wave that is already underway and began with knowledge workers and creatives. It's coming for basically everyone in due time."
- Shawn, the former metaverse software engineer, fears that his unemployment is a sign of the impending normative employment landscape in the near future due to AI integration in tech companies.
- AI-assisted productivity surged exponentially in Shawn's team at Virbela, prompting a comprehensive shift towards AI adoption, eventually leading to layoffs across all departments.
- Shawn now struggles financially, relying on food deliveries and eBay sales, and has taken to his personal Substack, ShawnfromPortland, to document his AI-induced displacement.
- AI-driven vetting tools may be disadvantageous to job seekers like Shawn, automatically dismissing applications without specific AI buzzwords, worsening the job-search process.
- In an attempt to improve his competitiveness, Shawn dedicates several hours daily to AI news, research, and trend analysis, creating AI-generated codebases for learning purposes.
- Shawn predicts that the unfolding AI-led job market transition could result in a "social and economic disaster tidal wave" that will affect everyone, not just the tech industry and knowledge workers.
