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Uber lays off 435 people

techcrunch.com

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Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#151

Post by Petrova »

jdsully wrote: post #89
Zenst wrote: post #76

I wonder about Uber, they have spent lots of money branding and getting everything in place, that they overshot the whole making money aspect and now playing catchup. Problem is, will they reach that balance before they bleed beyond the point that they become vulture targets for another large company to step in, cherry pick what they want and discard the rest. With all that said, I wonder if maybe Amazon or some self…

Uber was very profitable when they just had Uber Black. The problem is they were disrupted themselves by Lyft and had to launch UberX (give Travis credit for launching this before Lyft even though it was their idea).

Are you sure? In the recent book about Uber written by Mike Isaac,the author stated that Lyft was the first to launch a low cost ride service with non professional drivers and Uber rushed to copy them.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#153

Post by [deleted] »

edw wrote: post #108
jobu wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was absolutely instrumental to the early success. In some places they were actively breaking the law just to operate there, and Kalanick was able disrupt the system and make Uber important enough to change the laws. However, that doesn't mean he should still be CEO. Kalanick also created a company culture that became more and more toxic as it grew larger. Lyft was arguably on the ropes and might've failed without…

You've reminded me of an observation I made recently about Star Wars: the behavior of Han Solo (pre-Greedo-shoots-first-bs) and Darth Vader aren't that different. It's the context that matters. If you're small and scrappy, antisocial behavior makes you a charming scoundrel. If you're big, the same behavior makes you evil.

[deleted]

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#154

Post by muzz »

ssully wrote: post #2

Related, but Uber is said to be hiring 2,00 for it's new Chicago office next year [1]. A mix of engineering and operations. My understanding this would be under their freight team, which according to this Techcrunch article, was unaffected by this layoff. [1]: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-uber-hiring-o...

Uber said the same thing about bringing 3,000 jobs to Oakland, but that didn't materialze because of... drumroll... the need for profitablity. In 2017. https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ditched-massive-headqua...

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#155

Post by eanzenberg »

muzz wrote: post #152
thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that would make sense for a business with low margins. i'm surprised more companies aren't doing it.

They have been expanding in Palo Alto

PA will probably command even higher salaries than SF though.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#156

Post by sjg007 »

choppaface wrote: post #29

Google is pretty well-known for maintaining a very deep bench-- if an engineer isn't effective in some role, they'll just move them to some other team. Heck, a lot of hires (especially 3rd/last attempt) go directly to the bench. This strategy pays off well when a new competitor (like Facebook or Uber) comes along and snatches up people in the lead roles, or if the company feels the need to pivot to something really f…

I mean Google and Facebook want the option to prevent their engineers from building something that may compete with it n the ad space. Rest and vest right? Uber competitors would need to do something in the delivery, leasing, transportation and ride sharing space to be specific threats. Maybe ride share could be disrupted with a peer to peer model. I always thought that the carpools across the bay bridge where interesting. That's basically self organized and very effective.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#157

Post by mateo411 »

epistasis wrote: post #117
txcwpalpha wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also recently announced plans to hire 3,000+ in Dallas [1] at a brand new massive office. I'm sure the hiring and layoffs are from different business units, but it does seem strange that there's been multiple several-hundred-people-layoff stories form Uber recently at the same time they're announcing otherwise massive hiring expansion. I would at least figure that they would prefer to transfer engineers between…

Does Uber have different pay scales depending on location?

All companies that are Uber's size will have pay scales depending on location.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#158

Post by mari13 »

Terrible, it's never a great experience to be laid off.

I went ahead and quickly created a site that will allow people to add their contact/background information to a global list. I know when Uber did their 1st round of layoffs in the marketing department a Google Spreadsheet was created, but this might be more easy to use. Created it in a few minutes, but please share and give me any feedback/comments you might have

Job Collaboration Website: https://jobcolab.com/

Trying to help any way I can.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#159

Post by jacquesm »

theincredulousk wrote: post #71

Probably some reality shaking out. Uber's engineering team puts out some impressive stuff, often as OSS. Their engineering blogs are regularly on HN. I've been genuinely surprised that they churn out some of these things and release them for free given their relatively extreme financial situation. In contrast to companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon etc. that have mountains of their own money to burn (rathe…

> Saying they're ~ "culling the low performers" can be entirely true

Even if it isn't they have just branded everybody with 'Uber' on their CV that is on the market a low performer. Think before you speak.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#160

Post by heliodor »

xxxtentachyon wrote: post #120
heliodor wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be that the company is that disfunctional. Between the news articles and the horrendous software quality, it seems to me the company is a mess.

What horrendous software quality? Uber consistently puts out some of the cleanest mobile experiences for a mass market app, and their research teams put out great OSS work.

Have you tried to use the Android app? I have programmed Android for five years and I can confidently say that the Uber Android app is a disaster. Both usability and bugs.

On the database side, there's a place in my city that has some permanent bad data in the db so that it won't allow anyone to get picked up or taken there. I go there frequently by Uber and have to set the pin a few blocks away from the corrupted area then explain to the driver where I am or where I am going. It's like there's a ghost car attached to that place because every time I try to get a ride from there, it says it's finding me a ride, followed by an error message that the driver is unavailable. Had a painful back-and-forth with support about this and of course nothing every got done.

While the Android app is of poor quality and no one is rushing to fix it, Uber engineers are busy putting out open source software and plenty of it. Talk about resource mismanagement!

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