While parts of the tech sector continue to struggle with layoffs and hiring freezes in 2023, we’re also seeing growth in areas such as Life Sciences and Healthcare. In this guest post, Bonnie Dilber, Recruiting Leader at Zapier, shares her thoughts on the year ahead, tips for job seekers and information on the innovative path Zapier has taken to avoid layoffs.
On the challenges hitting the tech sector:
I think tech will continue to be tough, at least in the first half of the year. Well over 100,000 people have been impacted by layoffs so far in 2023. I do think that in the second half of 2023, we’re likely to see things normalise, but my guess is that we won’t see the kind of aggressive hiring we saw in 2021 again any time soon.
Tips for people impacted by layoffs:
For those of you affected by the tech layoffs, I’d remind you that there’s a big world out there beyond tech! Coming from a non-profit background myself, I had a great career and did well working in that space. Remember that many industries could benefit from your experience and expertise. While compensation may not be quite as strong, you can still find great opportunities, and may find even more flexibility and balance in other industries compared to what you’re used to in tech roles.
Growth areas to look out for:
Education, healthcare and construction are a few areas where there are lots of staffing shortages so I think we’ll see a lot of hiring happening as well as new solutions to address challenges in these sectors. Getting some experience within these industries could give you a leading edge in working with new tech companies that may emerge in this space.
Zapier’s strategies to navigate the uncertainty:
Our 2023 hiring pace is more conservative after growing rapidly in 2022—our number one focus for our people is on ensuring the people we’ve hired are thriving and contributing to Zapier’s success. As a recruiting team, we have surplus capacity at the moment, and so launched a secondment program – a temporary assignment program designed to leverage the skills of our Talent Acquisition team across other parts of the business, through short-term projects expected to last for one to two quarters. This has helped us redirect the capacity of talented teammates to advance major initiatives, cover parental leaves, and solve other problems. Our Talent Acquisition team values this program because they get to power Zapier’s success in new ways, build new skills, and broaden their career options.
Zapier plans for 2023:
At Zapier, we’ve projected hiring for the first half of the year, and will monitor progress and needs as we look ahead to the second half of the year and beyond. In the meantime, our Talent Acquisition team is working on process improvements and proactively pipeline building so that we’re even better positioned when hiring picks up in the future.
Bonnie Dilber is a Recruiting Leader at Zapier, which empowers you to automate your work across 5,000+ apps—so you can move forward, faster. To learn more visit www.zapier.com.
Connect with Bonnie on LinkedIn.
