New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects • Hacker News Board

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#81

Post by UncleOxidant » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:07 PM UTC

lmilcin wrote: post #54

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

This is an encouraging move. My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. I've been part of a similar downhill slide at a smaller company in the billion dollar revenue range. To be blunt, once the [mediocre] MBAs start realizing that the engineers are getting paid more…

I left Intel years ago to get almost 3x the salary as a software developer at... a bank. At Intel engineers are paid supposedly similar rates at similar levels and similar locations. And given my level (two levels above Senior Developer) I estimate I was paid better than at least 90% engineers. Where I worked in R&D the doors were constantly revolving and many people admitted they wait to register enough of prestigio…

I've been approached by headhunters for contract work at Intel. They want all kinds of machine learning knowledge & experience and the pay is.... $45/hr. I kid you not. I just sort of laugh and tell them that that's about 1/3 of market rate for that kind of thing.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#82

Post by SCHiM » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:07 PM UTC

yaboy wrote: post #53

langitbiru wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading all comments grilling MBAs in HN is one of my guilty pleasures. I think I need to collect them all and put them in one place.

I worked at a startup that was acquired by an unsexy behemoth. It was not covered in TechCrunch. We had a sales guy who easily cleared over $1MM in salary and bonuses, several times the CEO and founders, because he went above and beyond, closing $15MM of new business a year. When the MBA consultants and salespeople from the acquirer found out, they couldn’t believe he made that much — all while they personally manage…

I know how that goes I guess. Slowly "rules" and "procedures" from the behemoth come into play. Before he knows it, his successful methods are "against the rules", and doors slowly close.

I love that dynamic /s

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#83

Post by klelatti » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

sradman wrote: post #78

In my estimation, Intel has four categories in which it is being outperformed by key competitors: 1. TSMC/Samsung - fabrication 2. AMD/Amazon-Graviton - Cloud Server 3. Apple-M1/AMD - Laptop 4. Nvidia/Amazon - Cloud ML/DL Accelerator Intel has made giant blunders in the past (e.g. Itanium [1], Atom [2], WiMAX [3]) but I'm not sure that any of these past challenges were equivalent to the current four-front war. I woul…

5. AMD/TSMC - desktop x86

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#84

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

This is an encouraging move. My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. I've been part of a similar downhill slide at a smaller company in the billion dollar revenue range. To be blunt, once the [mediocre] MBAs start realizing that the engineers are getting paid more…

Intel was the top H1B sponsor a few years back. Presumably they hollowed out their talent base by hiring less experienced engineers for less pay. Some of whom have returned home or are now working for a competitor closer to home.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#85

Post by ryandrake » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:09 PM UTC

langitbiru wrote: post #25

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

This is an encouraging move. My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. I've been part of a similar downhill slide at a smaller company in the billion dollar revenue range. To be blunt, once the [mediocre] MBAs start realizing that the engineers are getting paid more…

Reading all comments grilling MBAs in HN is one of my guilty pleasures. I think I need to collect them all and put them in one place.

Unashamed MBA checking in here! MBAs are the classic punching bags for HN. It seems we’re willing to bend the “civility” rules a bit here in order to have a nice hearty MBA-bash. I’ve seen all sorts of awful generalizations posted here about MBAs that would get you flagkilled if made about other professions or degrees. Some of us actually have tech/coding backgrounds and aren’t the stereotypical pointy-headed-bosses, and it sucks to get lumped in with them but it’s ok—we don’t take it personally. Try to keep in mind though that we aren’t all bad!

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#86

Post by atmosx » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:09 PM UTC

corpMaverick wrote: post #73

langitbiru wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading all comments grilling MBAs in HN is one of my guilty pleasures. I think I need to collect them all and put them in one place.

:) Why is it that MBA types always end up on top ? My pet theory is that they just have more time to spent scheming, and influencing others. While engineers are busy trying to get shit done.

I don't think they do. Not in small-to-medium size tech companies. Usually, one way or another it is the engineering department running the show. I am not sure about large orgs/behemoths.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#87

Post by hinkley » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:09 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #9

This is an encouraging move. My secondhand understanding was that Intel was losing top talent due to pressure to pay closer to median industry compensation. Top engineers recognized they were underpaid and left the company. I've been part of a similar downhill slide at a smaller company in the billion dollar revenue range. To be blunt, once the [mediocre] MBAs start realizing that the engineers are getting paid more…

When I heard how much Apple was offering versus Intel, I just had the picture in my head of a classroom where the teacher is demonstrating some showy physics or chemistry principle based on pressure.

Maybe they reasoned that they're located in a lower cost of living market and so those big paychecks aren't necessary. Or maybe the policy people just get sticker shock because of that.

Either way, making rational decisions 24 hours a day is very different than being able to consistently make them 8 hours a day 5 days a week. I've known plenty of trustworthy coworkers who make irrational personal decisions. You can't use 'econ brain' to price employee salaries and benefits.

SV is so familiar with the cheaper, irrational solutions that they're a cliche that occasionally rises to the level of self parody.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#88

Post by phkahler » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:11 PM UTC

xorx wrote: post #28

RocketSyntax wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err. shouldn't the real competitors be viewed as ARM and M1?

Exactly. It would be a bit of a gamble, as it may undercut their x86 lines, but as a hedge against the success of ARM/M[1,2,...], they may do themselves a favor to attempt a project to implement RISC-V. They don't have much to lose, as AMD is already killing their x86 lines anyway.

I've been hoping Intel or AMD would try RISC-V. If the ISA is inherently more efficient (not saying it is) they should be able to prove it by having already optimized so much core and cache hardware.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#89

Post by Goosee » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

A bit off topic but I remember when Intel set up a special career fair presentation for my major.

I forget the specific role the manager was hiring for, but it sounded like a quality/reliability engineer. Basically run a bunch of tests, identify and analyze errors on newly manufactured equipment.

I immediately lost interest when the manager said the role would either work until 9 PM or start the next day at 4 AM due to an important (daily?) 7 AM meeting where the results would be presented. Ontop of that, it was required that you be on call during every weekend and most holidays. You would be required to do this for your first two years as an entry bachelor degree worker. Entering masters level students wouldn't need to be on call.

After that, he mentioned this role would pay ~$65,000 USD. Bonus The manager presented in a room with fully qualified people to work at any FANG/Graphics/Aerospace company.

I sold all my intel stock the next day [late 2019], it made up most of my portfolio at the time. I just did not see how intel would attract talent if it over-worked and under-compensated entry level employees like that. Compared to the FANG employee getting free meals, game rooms, huge salary, etc.

Re: New Intel CEO rehiring retired CPU architects

#90

Post by mc32 » Thu, Jan 21, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

UncleOxidant wrote: post #81

lmilcin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left Intel years ago to get almost 3x the salary as a software developer at... a bank. At Intel engineers are paid supposedly similar rates at similar levels and similar locations. And given my level (two levels above Senior Developer) I estimate I was paid better than at least 90% engineers. Where I worked in R&D the doors were constantly revolving and many people admitted they wait to register enough of prestigio…

I've been approached by headhunters for contract work at Intel. They want all kinds of machine learning knowledge & experience and the pay is.... $45/hr. I kid you not. I just sort of laugh and tell them that that's about 1/3 of market rate for that kind of thing.

Sometimes recruiters get things wrong, mix things up. That might have been for a different position that got redefined without commensurate pay adjustment.

That said, 45 is really low for any position in an engineering company, unless it’s ancillary support services that get farmed out. Something like ‘Lab Admin’ type of thing.