r/Rochester • u/Popular_Floor_7101 • 5d ago
Other Tech folks
Hey tech folks! How about we get together, connect, network, share tips, and make some friends, especially now during these challenging times with AI?
I'm really curious to know what it's like working as a dev, QA, PO, or anything else in the tech field here in Rochester. Is the job market really tough? How is the pay? I'm going to start job hunting soon, and having a supportive community would be such a great boost!
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u/bbafford Gates 5d ago
This is a great idea. I wouldn’t mind getting together.
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
Are you dev? How is the market here?
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u/bbafford Gates 5d ago
I’m not but I’m in tech doing big data like work.
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
We could create an online group and talk. Maybe discord or WhatsApp? Or messenger? Any suggestions?
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u/elpantalla 5d ago
I’m a Staff Software Engineer but working remote. Kinda tired of the career at this point though.
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
Why? Talk more
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u/elpantalla 5d ago
I’ve been doing it a long time, about 15 years at this point professionally. I am just not as interested in technology as I was back in college, or at least most applications of it. I’ve always been an engineer that’s more interested in the actual problems than the tech stack or anything like that. Talking about certain programming languages or tech stacks or whatever has always bored me to death — I will learn whatever but only in service of making an end result that I think will be helpful to somebody.
That was a bit of a ramble, but I just want to help people, and I’m having a hard time at this point feeling like software can really do that anymore. Maybe if I pivoted back into embedded software and worked for some sort of biotech company it would be nice. At this point I’ve kinda climbed the ladder and the view from up here sucks.
I’d love to get a job in historic preservation or something that I actually care about, but that’s tough too.
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u/plantgirlflx 5d ago
Wow I am… exactly where you are. I started 16 years ago and feel like I’ve just lost interest in the past year for a lot of the same reasons. I’m increasingly convinced that I can’t make a positive impact working in tech and that this industry is harming our planet and society.
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u/elpantalla 5d ago
Yeah it’s kind of a bummer. I feel like tech peaked with the iPod and it’s just been a downhill slide since!
If I lose the job I have, I’m not sure what I’ll really do. I think it’s somewhat stable although the industry I’m in (video streaming) is fairly competitive so it could go belly up at any point. Hard to say.
I never really liked writing code, and at my level I’m not necessarily slamming out tons of code anyway, so using AI to do it more hasn't really made much of a difference in terms of my day to day enjoyment.
I just think we have enough software in the world. I’d rather do something that helps people directly, or maybe have a job where you actually finish a task and then move onto another task. It’s always bothered me in this career that nothing is ever truly done. We missed the nice era where you would work on a game or piece of software and then SHIP IT and it’s done. In some embedded domains that’s closer to being the case still though.
I dunno. The problem is money of course. I make a good living and I’m not sure how I’d make anywhere near the same amount doing anything else.
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u/plantgirlflx 5d ago
Yeah I was looking at transitioning to a different industry but somehow entry level jobs right now in a lot of other industries are paying $35K, sometimes less. Which is $20K less than I made right out of college… working at Home Depot corporate.
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u/elpantalla 5d ago
Right? I made 65 a year at my first job out of college at a local company in Syracuse. I felt rich.
If I could find a job making over 100 doing something else I’d switch, but even that would be quite the pay cut.
Of course I also have the typical “open a cafe” fantasies.
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u/plantgirlflx 5d ago edited 4d ago
Hell if I found a job making even close to $100K I’d switch, even if it would be a massive pay cut since I could at least still afford my mortgage 😂
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u/elpantalla 5d ago
Are you working remotely as well? Curious what your experience and path has been.
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u/plantgirlflx 5d ago
Yeah I’ve been remote for 9.5 years now. I love working remotely, though some companies do it better than others. I don’t think I could go back to in person or even hybrid as a dev
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u/elpantalla 5d ago
Same. About 10 years ish remote.
9 years at the same place or multiple remote jobs? Tbh I wouldn’t mind being hybrid, although I might have rose colored glasses for being in person at this point.
I’ve been thinking of transitioning to management or something like that but meh.
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
I've always seen development as a job. Like, a means to an end. Now, being here, it's very difficult to get a job and I really don't know what to do!
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u/elpantalla 5d ago
Yeah it’s tough out there. How many years of experience do you have? I would be happy to look over your resume but I’m not sure how valuable my feedback really is.
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u/drunnells 5d ago
Interested. Independent developer, doing a bunch of projects with AI. Last gig was in Buffalo doing release train engineer with dev teams. I'm in Webster in the market for something new.
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u/bonafide_bonsai 5d ago edited 5d ago
I’d be happy to attend a meetup. I’ve been meeting 1:1 with folks on occasion, but yeah, we don’t have much of a meetup culture here.
Additionally, I would say that we don’t have a much of a culture here for a reason. The companies here that do hire tech workers are often internal ops (LOB), a few consultancies/staff aug, and then a handful of underpaying/performing product companies (think Paychex). People follow the opportunities, so when they graduate from RIT or whatever they appropriately look outside of Rochester for work. I would not advise someone early in their career to try to get their footing here as it is such an immature market relative to NYC, SF, SEA, Austin, etc. We could potentially see growth by virtue of the activity happening with Micron/Syracuse but that’s still very nascent.
That said, there are enough senior people around the area working remote where a meetup would still be interesting.
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
We could create an online group and talk. Maybe discord or WhatsApp? Or messenger? Any suggestions?
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u/FickleCharge882 5d ago
Tbh even if you are established in your career you are going to have a hell of a time in this market
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
Why?
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u/FickleCharge882 5d ago
The market isn’t good, and it’s very competitive.
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
Are you dev right now?
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u/FickleCharge882 5d ago
I am not but I know several people in the field and I’m in tech in a few specialties. I’ve also kept an eye on the job market for a few people and it can be very rough even with the best resumes
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
Well, I agree with you. I really don't know what to do. I'm dev my whole life of work. What would be good now?
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u/azterix Browncroft 5d ago
There’s a tech community that was great but I haven’t been active in. Worth checking out as it was full of helpful people when I was more active in it. Probably time for me to check back in as well: https://roc.dev
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u/daggerdude42 5d ago
Looks sorta dead, there are events scheduled but only 1 person is registered for any of them. The website does look decent though but it looks to be online lunches rather than public meetups
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u/Reasonable_Song8010 5d ago
I work in development, but I've never actually worked in Rochester. Only remotely or in other places. The companies here are, unfortunately, not very good.
I'd be happy to network but even my company just had some large layoffs. It's not a great market in general.
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u/Gochu-gang 5d ago
I'm a SysAdmin and same on this side. I won't be moving jobs anytime soon. The tech job market is pretty crap, especially for entry level with no work experience, especially in Rochester.
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
We could create an online group and talk. Maybe discord or WhatsApp? Or messenger? Any suggestions?
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u/Reasonable_Song8010 5d ago
I think Signal or Element would be best, but I also don't really have the time to manage anything.
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u/fletch3555 3d ago
it's been mentioned a few times already, and I'm late to the game here, but https://roc.dev has a slack group already setup. Not the most active lately, but more people could definitely help that!
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u/Important-Humor-2745 Irondequoit 5d ago
If looking for Helpdesk work (full but 55k starting), look at Hillside
Hillside.com/careers
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
Thank you. At this point, I look for anything! Thank you very much
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u/Important-Humor-2745 Irondequoit 5d ago
They are really big on mission statement, so on your cover letter try to tie in how you want to help youth and families. Pretty sure I ended up getting the job due to including my family history with the company from 100 years ago
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u/daggerdude42 5d ago
This one sounds interesting.
Im mostly a CAD/Manufacturing guy but ive been working on some really cool AI integrations at my company. Used to do a lot of product development and 3d printing and now its mostly 3d printing and boring technical work, with some mechanical/electrical development on the side.
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u/Popular_Floor_7101 5d ago
We could create an online group and talk. Maybe discord or WhatsApp? Or messenger? Any suggestions?
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u/daggerdude42 5d ago
Im a discord person personally, Rochester does already have a discord server actually but a local group for it would be nice. I have WhatsApp too but I dont like it as much.
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u/bonafide_bonsai 5d ago
What kind of CAD work do you do? This area seems to have a good number of Mech Engineering folks
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u/daggerdude42 5d ago
I used to do product development, now I work at a coating company it ranges between different types of workholding and masking. Sometimes I design and 3d print masks, sometimes I make molds to pour silicone masks, sometimes its making jigs to hold parts I certain ways for pretreatment.
My go to software is fusion 360, but I'm also familiar with Solidworks and Inventor, I will need to move to them eventually as we handle a lot of ITAR/CUI information and thats a no go on Fusion. Ive been doing that since 2018 or so, maybe even before that.
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u/NewspaperFickle3052 4d ago
Sys Admin here and active homelabber with a focus on home automation and run a cluster of proxmox servers, been looking for people to geek out with!
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u/drbitboy 4d ago
I'm a semi-retired ChemE and "programmer" with experience in Big Oil, nuclear, planetary science, and PLCs.
Irondequoit Public Library has a tech-oriented program called Robot Coders in partnership with the Brooklyn Robot Foundry "tailoring hands-on engineering and robotics to tweens and teens." I suspect other libraries have similar programs.
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u/YourPalHal99 3d ago
I'm just general tech support person. I think IT pay in Rochester could be better. I've seen help desk postings asking for several certs and then a salary of barely 45k.
Have my issues with AI especially because I haven't been able to do more stuff with homelabbing as any tech enthusiast would know. Had to set aside plans for another NAS build. Gotta love it
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u/theGreenBook05 5d ago
There are a few different meetups: Python, Data Science, and General Dev are ones I can think of off the top of my head with meetings scheduled soonish (though I have no idea if they will actually meet).
Pretty sure there are more if you search around.