I'm an engineer at a large tech company

> is struggling to find a job It's always a struggle to land leadership or niche top-seniority gigs. It doesn't matter how awesome you are. They're not commodified swap-in staff roles, and there are not a lot of them, and your friend is probably looking for a quality organization too (or leaders in shabby ones won't touch this resume). Your friend is just encountering the reality that there will be a search phase after the end of any high-seniority professional job, plan for it.

Honestly , I think people will misjudge me when I say this , but these reasons are the reason why I am frugal. My economic condition can change drastically , it just depends on the market , how is your "friend" entitled to 150-200K ? Because of our "expectations" (Amazon , google are the best companies so "best" + phd , phd means you are in academia so more "smarter") But our "expectations" are now changing , mine certainly changed , but instead of panicking (because lets be honest? whats the point of panicking?) We can try to be frugal. We can try to live in a way where my salary doesn't really matter that much , I can live off of any salary but the only difference b/w big salary and low salary might be the fact that your savings increase which you invest in things like index funds (boglehead investing) and the only difference it makes is on what age you can retire (thus , being a point…

I understand that going to 200k after your whole standard of living has been built around 500k is pretty difficult, but objectively speaking: half of America is living in metro areas right? Most of them are managing without making nearly three times the median income. Also: is America just vastly more expensive than Europe? Here in the Netherlands (one of the wealthiest nations in the world) even just 100k is aspirational for most higher paid jobs.

> Obviously 150-200k is still decent money, but it really doesnt go far in major metro areas, and for someone with such a premium resume, is a bellwether of whats to come The problem here is that the dollar has devalued so far to the point where it is close to worthless, especially with rising house prices across the country. This is why $200k - $500k seems to be "not enough" in the US due to its cost of living and at the same time it isn't sustainable for Amazon or Google to pay at that rate. Really, this the hallmarks of a crash that is waiting to happen and it was never going to last.

> A friend of mine, with a STEM PhD, and 8+ years of experience between Amazon and Google was laid off, is struggling to find a job paying over 200k, they were making 500k previously. That's insane.

My negative opinion based on experience working with the stereotype that fits your friend is they are only valuable in a massive company. 8/10 phd holders I have worked with couldn’t actually do hands on work. So where do people who just want to think, talk and write about work without being able to actually ship provide value on the order of $250/hr?

>for someone with such a premium resume, is a bellwether of whats to come That is true in US. In Europe having a PhD and working for Google and Amazon never meant being payed huge sums.

This is why I have 10-12 years outgoings sitting in the bank. I make way above market rates for my area currently, but I don't have to be worried about getting laid off. And as my salary went up i made sure my life style didn't.