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Waymo’s Hiring Binge

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Re: Waymo’s Hiring Binge

#151
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turnover in professional jobs is quite high, sometimes around 20% per annum. There may not be many people out of work, but there are always people looking for the next job.

20% per annum is 1 transfer every 5 years. I just had a job change after 6 years and was constantly asked why I stayed so long.

The distribution is not symmetric. The mode is less than the average and there’s a long tail of survivors.

Re: Waymo’s Hiring Binge

#152
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that Western Europe has big IT salaries compared to the US. It never seemed to me that IT is viewed in EU as this big growth engine compared to the USA and salaries and prestige seem to reflect it.

That is changing as well. US tech companies are hiring more and more across Europe, and the local startup ecosystem is growing also. Some local founders who have made money in the US are coming back and seeding local startups, which has an accelerating effect. Another factor is remote work, with some developers getting nearly US-level salaries while living in Europe. The result is a new class of ultra-well-paid softw…

Do you have any examples of cities or companies that pay well in Europe relative to the CoL?

Re: Waymo’s Hiring Binge

#153
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that Western Europe has big IT salaries compared to the US. It never seemed to me that IT is viewed in EU as this big growth engine compared to the USA and salaries and prestige seem to reflect it.

That is changing as well. US tech companies are hiring more and more across Europe, and the local startup ecosystem is growing also. Some local founders who have made money in the US are coming back and seeding local startups, which has an accelerating effect. Another factor is remote work, with some developers getting nearly US-level salaries while living in Europe. The result is a new class of ultra-well-paid softw…

Maybe I'm not in a good niche anymore, but seems to me many US companies are setting up local shops which means they won't hire you remotely as an independent contractor but as a local employee / contractor which has much lower rates.

There are some lucky few that still manage this or some that even manage to get US-level rates doing open source but that's like winning the lottery; outliers.

Re: Waymo’s Hiring Binge

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like your key metric is “hours spent at desk”. By that measure, you are probably correct.

No, my metric is output per engineer which losely correlates with hours spent at desk. The output quality and quantity was the lowest at Google

And yet if there is one thing these tech giants are famous for it's output per employee, measured in dollars.

This is something common in all really profitable companies and tech is merely the best example. Oil "tech" is another. Financial tech is yet another.

Europe, where engineers don't seem to be paid well is very much lacking in the sort of very profitable companies we see elsewhere. And even Baidu is known for paying very well (relatively for China, but even in absolute terms they're paying ... certainly Amazon level).

I see a few indications this may not be a coincidence. Big, huge, very profitable companies ... pay their employees well. Europe, clearly, would rather fade into non-importance. Currently Germany is a bit of an exception but if Tesla does take off, how long will that last?

Re: Waymo’s Hiring Binge

#155
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is changing as well. US tech companies are hiring more and more across Europe, and the local startup ecosystem is growing also. Some local founders who have made money in the US are coming back and seeding local startups, which has an accelerating effect. Another factor is remote work, with some developers getting nearly US-level salaries while living in Europe. The result is a new class of ultra-well-paid softw…

Maybe I'm not in a good niche anymore, but seems to me many US companies are setting up local shops which means they won't hire you remotely as an independent contractor but as a local employee / contractor which has much lower rates. There are some lucky few that still manage this or some that even manage to get US-level rates doing open source but that's like winning the lottery; outliers.

Yes, most of those new bigtech/startup employees are getting compensation in the local band. But they are in the very top of that band, and gradually shifting it up as US companies compete for talent, and VC-funded local companies start competing more seriously as well.

It’s a gradual process but in my experience it’s very real.

Re: Waymo’s Hiring Binge

#156
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm not in a good niche anymore, but seems to me many US companies are setting up local shops which means they won't hire you remotely as an independent contractor but as a local employee / contractor which has much lower rates. There are some lucky few that still manage this or some that even manage to get US-level rates doing open source but that's like winning the lottery; outliers.

Yes, most of those new bigtech/startup employees are getting compensation in the local band. But they are in the very top of that band, and gradually shifting it up as US companies compete for talent, and VC-funded local companies start competing more seriously as well. It’s a gradual process but in my experience it’s very real.

This gradual process might also happen because compensation has to cover the costs. While some things have kept their prices seems to me some services have gone way up. I was just discussing that a hotel we went to long ago basically tripled their prices. Real estate is also up.

Re: Waymo’s Hiring Binge

#157
post #15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also, noogler and n00b are some fun ones

Noogler is supposed to be silly/goofy, it's not cringe at all if it's self aware Disclaimer: used to be a noogler. I'm not mad at all!!1!

Just because it's silly or goofy doesn't make it not be haha cringe
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