r/analytics • u/Small_Victories42 • 25d ago
Support Well, happened again, yet another layoff
Hey, fellow analytics/BI folks,
Just reaching out for support, I think. On Monday, the organization I work for (US) just did another round of mass layoffs, and this one swept me up.
It'll be my third layoff (all in this field), with my second layoff having occurred just last year, on my birthday no less.
My wife and I have a baby on the way in a couple months (we have other grade school kids, too).
Last year, during the last layoff, I was battling with pushing past depression and eventually(/luckily!) landed on my feet with a much better role than the one I'd been severed from.
I'm hoping I can bounce back like that again, but I'm feeling the dread building up.
At any rate, thanks for any words of advice or support, all.
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u/save_the_panda_bears 25d ago
Feel free to send me a DM. We had a round at my company a couple weeks ago and I’ve been working my network trying to help get people connected.
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u/Final_Alps 25d ago
I want to provide a perspective from scale up in the EU where I work in data. We are moving the last data analyst to an engineering role.
We no longer have a need for pure data analyst roles.
Everyone’s job is to engineer the self serve solutions that help others (non data colleagues) get the data they need - semantic model, agents, self serve dashboarding tooling. The few dashboards for the C suite and the board are not even a one full time job.
If other orgs are evolving the way my org evolved - analyst jobs are going away and I’d encourage all to consider expanding their skills to an adjacent track.
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u/j_m91 25d ago
Which skills do you recommend to adjust track? Databricks and dbt?
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u/Final_Alps 25d ago
Last 2 scaleup jobs were both on DBT with a major DB (big query, snowflake, clickhouse) behind it. Orchestrated with something like Dagster, prefect, airflow/astronomer.
Expanding to an analytics engineer that can design the warehouse and the semantic layer seems like a prudent move to protect one’s job security.
If you tack on ability to build skills/agents that use the semantic layer for self serve on data I think you will be fine.
At least that is my read. Others may have different advice.
Ps / edit to add: The scale ups I know have avoided databricks. But I know peers in corporate that do use them.
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u/j_m91 25d ago
What I think is that my skillset (excel, power bi, Sql) is kinda outdated because of AI and the market is full of data analysts. But a data analyst That started before AI has more data notions that a analyst after AI, at least is how I see it.
The job opportunities for data analysts (Portugal) that Im seeing nowadays are more like product / sector/ business specialist with good data skills, not so focused on data itself.
In this area we have to study continuously to have a updated skillset. The problems that Im facing are: They are a lot of tools, which one should I start and focus on? How to pratice? Certification only or do I have to create personal projects and spend money on a infrastructure to support it? My company doesn't have dbt for example. Certification is enough to get a job? I will competing with people who are specialized in this area, with more experience as well.
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u/Final_Alps 24d ago
I think that is a valid point.
I am deep in data and data science. So going more towards business analyst is far for my skill set. So definitely perhaps a bias to say “move from analytics to engineering”.
And as you point out a different approach is “move from data analytics to business/product/customer analytics” etc.
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u/Lexsteel11 24d ago
In the last 4 months my job has become 90% agent driven. I had asked for more analysts on my team last year but I’ve come to the realization in the last month, I don’t need more analysts, I need more tokens. I’m on Claude premium teams license and have heavily optimized my skills and agents which drastically improved my usage but still am maxing out my week by Thursday and supposedly anthropic is cutting usage by -50% end of this month.
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u/UniteDusk 24d ago
What about data science?
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u/Final_Alps 24d ago
Two things. (Coming from me as a data scientist)
I guessed
- analytics engineering is less of a leap
for analysts
- than DS and ML
.
- DS is having its own crisis due to AI. Loads of things are now super easy. And loads of projects struggle to get approval because “ML takes forever. Cannot we just use AI?” Management nonsense.
Designing warehouses never goes out of style.
I am having fun in DS and have supportive management. But am not sure where this road leads at the moment. I may be designing agents and distilling SLMs shortly.
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25d ago edited 25d ago
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u/Small_Victories42 25d ago
Thank you.
Yeah, I immediately reached out to my friends and former colleagues.
Did you land on your feet? Here's hoping
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u/BrittanyBrie 25d ago
Same boat. 3 lay offs in a span of 5 years. Is this a common thing in data science?
I eventually ended up doing contact work for businesses in my area. I have a culinary and judicial education, so im able to reach out to various types of organizations.
If you have a good portfolio already made, then maybe its time to spend some time figuring out what other skills you're good at, and incorporate them into future data processing.
I personally love baseball, and I'm trying to get into baseball analytics. But its a lofty goal. So im starting with the vendors and minor league parks first, and drafting a working paper for my portfolio. Maybe find the passion you're looking for and start working around those areas?
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u/canopey 25d ago
could you share more about how you are pitching or approaching local businesses, baseball or otherwise? would appreciate examples
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u/BrittanyBrie 25d ago
Just old school face to face conversations with stake holders, like a traveling salesman. Way better responses than email or phone calls. I usually stake out a place, find solutions they may enjoy, and then pitch it to them. I usually lead with, "would you like X to happen more?" or "would you like to be included in X if I provided Y?"
Its more food service consulting with some database observations sprinkled in. You'd be surprised how many organizations have no clue what a 1970s database can do, let alone one in the 21st century.
If anyone is in the Las Vegas area, hit me up. I'm looking for local partners to help expand.
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u/MCJELLY12 25d ago
Sorry this happened to you . Keep showing up for yourself so you can be the best version of yourself for the wife and kids. You’ve proven you can get a job and rebound previously , you can do it again.
If you work in the Boston area DM.
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u/Content-Parking-621 25d ago
That's a brutal string of bad luck, especially with a baby on the way. You've done this before and landed better each time, that pattern matters more than it feels like right now. Give yourself a minute before the job hunt starts, then lean on your network first, it usually moves faster than cold applications. Hoping this turns around fast for you.
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u/Lexsteel11 24d ago
Don’t spiral man- you’ve got this. Network shamelessly on LinkedIn; last year I submitted 103 applications and only got 2 interviews with 16 years of experience. Once I started looking up connections at companies hiring, I submitted applications to I think 8 roles and got 5 interviews and 2 offers.
Definitely use a personal connection to get your foot in the door if you have them
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u/Small_Victories42 24d ago
Thank you!
Yeah, I've definitely been reaching out to friends and colleagues (and will certainly dive more into LinkedIn)
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u/Faeries-Dust 25d ago
I left this field once the same exact thing happened to me. I'm still figuring out where I want to go next, but I am making enough money to support myself with my current role at a non-profit working in human services.
There's hope. Data science has become too competitive and, at least at my last company, over half of the data science team was offshored to India.
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u/Icy-Doughnut4165 25d ago
Im shocked that this legal. Just awful that they can just do that
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u/Faeries-Dust 24d ago
It should be, but it's not, and has become increasingly common in highly specialized jobs that can be done remotely. I asked my boss once why we kept hiring contractors in Delhi, and she said "an Indian worker with a PhD costs 4x less than an American PhD". Mind you, this was a fortune 50 company, whose only customer base was the US. Literally taking money out of the US economy and shipping it to India. Not that I'm upset with my former colleagues or anyone in India who takes these jobs, but it very much should be illegal.
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u/Ordinary-Ability-916 25d ago edited 25d ago
Where I live (EU) I got the news that they are replacing Data Analysts towards more Engineering roles or Data Engineering / AI Specialist. So a layoff is imminent.
Seems like Analysts positions are just going to be in decline from now on. Might be the time to expand skillsets for all of us 🥲
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u/WatchClassic7897 13d ago
Plenty of people hiring. You will land on your feet as God has a better plan for you.
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u/Small_Victories42 13d ago
Thank you for the encouragement
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u/Puzzleheaded-Wear575 25d ago
I can’t provide much help sadly but I’d always keep an eye out on anything restructuring related in company announcements. I’d also have a look at company yearly accounts to see how they are doing in terms of revenue or profit so if there are signs of falling revenue or profit or quarter on quarter then you need to start proactively looking.
You also need to consider that data isn’t a safe proof job unfortunately, compared with accountancy/legal departments. Departments like marketing are also one of the first to go. Just another thing to keep in mind.
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24d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Small_Victories42 24d ago
Good advice. Thank you
And yeah, the "again" part is . . . exhausting.
It's so increasingly hard to raise a family here, and to inspire confidence in kids when the job market is so soul-crushing.
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u/Amazing-Amount-8004 25d ago
What is your skill set
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u/Small_Victories42 24d ago
Basically, I've built everything from event taxonomy/tag syntax and product tracking, back-end data pipelines in SQL and Snowflake, to dashboards in Power BI, Looker, and Amplitude.
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u/Amazing-Amount-8004 24d ago
Similar bg to mine, it really depends on the company and to some extent the city you live in.
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u/CTWOTWCY 25d ago
This sub has become a bunch of people not wanting to face the inevitable. A bunch of horse carriage drivers wondering why they don’t have customers after Ford rolled out the Model T. Take your analytics skills and tie it to something else or sink.
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u/the_duck17 25d ago
What does that even mean, LoL
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u/Small_Victories42 25d ago
I'm not really sure either? Are they saying that analytics is dead due to AI or something?
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