Western Digital to axe 507 California staffers Western Digital is planning to lay off 507 workers, according to paperwork submitted to California's department of employment. Under the US state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) system, employers must give a 60-day heads-up to affected staff plus state and local representatives prior to a plant closing …
Just a note - Irvine and Santa Ana are in SoCal, about 400 miles south of San Jose "Silicon Valley".
And they're probably the only place on earth with traffic jams worse that highways 237, 680, 280 and 580.
Hope things get better for everyone over there.
Seems like they get hit pretty hard every time technology takes a turn, at least going back to the Aerospace industry problems of the 1960s...
Lest we forget the venerable 101! 237, 680, 280, and 580 almost intersect each other and each have their own special little slowdown areas. 580 is quite nice, once you make it past Livermore to the newly expanded section before I-5.
Yes, HP, Cisco, Intel, and now WD. Lots of new job seekers are out this summer. Luckily I got picked up before Intel let loose thousands of highly trained workers into the market. Still, there's always another tech job out here. That's what I've found through 25+ years in the Silicon Valley area; there's hardly ever a major slowdown that does not end up landing you another interesting job. Just wait around a bit and another job will come at you through dice, indeed, or wherever you search. Plenty of quality people, and most not needing an H1B. With extra people to fend off, there will be many applicants to the available jobs, and most of very high quality. I'm pretty sure the market will absorb these newly laid off folks and most will be at new gigs in very short order.
The 280/680 4-level intersection down by King Road in San Jose was left incomplete for a long time (three or four years, IIRC). Every Christmas there'd be a tree, lit, on the top chunk, waiting for the day, I suppose, that it would actually have traffic flowing by it (albeit slowly, anymore).
Don't forget 880 (aka 17), 85, and the host of other freeways masquerading as "expressways"
(San Tomas, Montague, etc.). The only thing missing is the express bit :)
"Seems like they get hit pretty hard every time technology takes a turn, at least going back to the Aerospace industry problems of the 1960s..."
@Mpeler
Interesting: are the locals used to a boom-bust economy or is it different floating populations each time?
Just wondering. I have an interest in the resilience of local populations (I grew up in Liverpool - it is in the dna)
It's different depending on what part of the industry you inhabit; i.e. manager types vs. seasoned coders or other individual contributors. Coders will get picked up quickly, managers not so much, but if properly skilled it does not take long for them either. As a local, the thing about Booms and Busts is that they make for interesting reading, and to some extent they are an unfortunate side-effect of having too much attention, for whatever reason, on a market segment. Everyone jumps in and tries to navigate the boom, the market or other forces corrects this, and then everyone exits before the bust slams your arse to the floor. It's not something you get used to, as they are not a regular event per se, but you become mindful of the fact that where you are can change overnight, and you should be ready for anything. For me, they are a boon; you get your paycheck and a nice layoff package, and you can float around for a bit, or get right back in. Like I mentioned above, there's always more tech work in Silicon Valley. It never ends, if you stay sharp and valuable. If you learn one thing really good, then depend on that one thing to get you through your entire career, you'll be gone before your time is up. It's all down to being flexible, current, and valuable. With those things no boom or bust can touch you, more or less.
Many, many, many moons ago HP bought Apollo, then decided to shut the Chelmsford facility, because it was almost a complete duplicate of another lab (neither of them in CA). The Apollo folks (who could) took the very generous package, and walked across the parking lot, to a sign-on bonus and a better-paid job at a competitor to HP and Apollo.
Word came from on high that that would NEVER happen again...
As far as my comment about the aerospace industry, that was in the LA area. I knew people that got whacked by that one. Seems the other Apollo cutbacks hurt them pretty badly. But, as folks have said,
they got picked up eventually, if not exactly in the same line of work.
Back in the late 80s I hired a guy as a software development manager whose previous experience was as a rocket nozzle designer. Laid off in 1971 as part of the Apollo wind-down (Orange County/Long Beach designed and built a lot of the Saturn series rockets). But he recognized software was where it was at (back in those days, anyway) and moved on. Had some good stories relating to hypergolic fuel accidents. (Do not put ear to engine when you hear an unexpected hissing if the fuel is unsymmetric-dimethylhydrazine.)
Great guy, successful hire.
All this talk about the 580, 680, 880, 237, 101, 85, 87, to which I add 84, 92, 238, Sunol Grade, Niles Canyon, and my favorite special place in the morning, where Calaveras Blvd merges onto WB 237 with its laughable traffic metering light... I thought this was Silly-con Valley where folks would teleport, or at least telecommute to work. What the heck? Hey Musk! Where's my jetpack?????
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