Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds • Hacker News Board

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#71

Post by boredtofears » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:37 AM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #57

boredtofears wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how bleak it must be to be an average SWE at facebook. Sure, you get paid a ton of money, but now they are going to "turn up the heat" on you to pump glorified CRUD message board features faster. (yes, I know there are probably lots of intellectually interesting jobs at Meta, but the overall purpose and mission just isn't exactly inspiring)

> glorified CRUD message board features faster I think this comment says more about you than anything. If you look into Meta's tech stack they have challenges no company on the planet has and clearly a lot of talent. Having just played with CacheLib it's an impressive project and yet to see an equivalent anywhere else. And I imagine much of what they do is like this when you're operating at their extremes.

Like I said in my original comment: I'm sure there are a ton of interesting jobs at meta, no doubt - but they are the "meta" jobs of meta. In terms of driving their primary objective it's nothing that innovative from a technical perspective. Their innovation is solely rooted in behavioral psychology. Not self-driving cars, not better medical devices, not VR technology (well, OK, they bought their way into that). The prime directive at facebook is to keep people on facebook.

They've definitely been responsible for pushing web technologies forward -- but all in the name of increased engagement. Let's not pretend there is an altruistic angle to this.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#72

Post by cycomanic » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:39 AM UTC

charcircuit wrote: post #53

frankincense wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a company the size of Facebook, the CEO should not be involved at that level.

Why not? It's his company. He can do what he wants.

I'm surprised that nobody is questioning this. Zuckerberg owns ~17% of Meta shares, so it quite clearly not "his" company where he can do whatever he pleases. Primarily he is an employee and has a responsibility to the owners (which does include him) to do his job, arguably looking at button padding is not part of his job description.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#73

Post by wly_cdgr » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:39 AM UTC

I think this is a pretty good way to do layoffs because it gives people more agency over whether they get laid off and more runway to make contingency plans

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#74

Post by jstx1 » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:44 AM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #52

On the bright side, the Facebook recruiters have stopped bugging me.

Which makes me think - what are FB recruiters doing right now if the company isn't hiring and has no plans to start? Are many of them laid off too? If not, are they just... chilling?

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#75

Post by DogLover_ » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:45 AM UTC

It is hard for me to understand that big successful companies can hire so aggressively and then in time of a little economic downturn they need to cut people. From the outside, it looks like FOMO on a bigger scale and that just seems unprofessional.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#76

Post by colinmhayes » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:46 AM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #57

boredtofears wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how bleak it must be to be an average SWE at facebook. Sure, you get paid a ton of money, but now they are going to "turn up the heat" on you to pump glorified CRUD message board features faster. (yes, I know there are probably lots of intellectually interesting jobs at Meta, but the overall purpose and mission just isn't exactly inspiring)

> glorified CRUD message board features faster I think this comment says more about you than anything. If you look into Meta's tech stack they have challenges no company on the planet has and clearly a lot of talent. Having just played with CacheLib it's an impressive project and yet to see an equivalent anywhere else. And I imagine much of what they do is like this when you're operating at their extremes.

Issa joke

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#77

Post by AtlasBarfed » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:47 AM UTC

intodameta wrote: post #30

This is going to get super ugly over there. Sheryl Sandberg leaving was a part of this, the entire “oh, we have this pending investigation into you…no big deal” is the corporate equivalent of the claws coming out just a little bit to tell you that if you don’t quit, the claws will come out all the way. She was expensive and probably not fully engaged and bought in with this random direction change into Metaverse, a b…

Facebook the brand isn't just poison, it's an pandemic killer virus on any other markets.

Instagram will be a bad joke soon, worse than facebook. Will anyone want their most superficial and narcissitic period of their lives remembered? Nope, it'll get chucked out when their audience grows up. Which is right about..... now.

Metaverse? Who would want Zuckerberg and his sociopathy associated with a virtual world? Other companies will do it better and with more trust.

Facebook is old news. It's the FoxNews of FAANG.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#78

Post by colinmhayes » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:49 AM UTC

cycomanic wrote: post #72

charcircuit wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? It's his company. He can do what he wants.

I'm surprised that nobody is questioning this. Zuckerberg owns ~17% of Meta shares, so it quite clearly not "his" company where he can do whatever he pleases. Primarily he is an employee and has a responsibility to the owners (which does include him) to do his job, arguably looking at button padding is not part of his job description.

Zuckerberg has a voting majority. As long as he believes he is acting in the companies best interests he can do whatever he likes.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#79

Post by ggambetta » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:57 AM UTC

achow wrote: post #2

Interesting quote from CEO in an all hands directly to employees. I don't want to be at Meta right now.. .."turning up the heat" on performance management to weed out staffers unable to meet more aggressive goals. "Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be here," Zuckerberg said. "Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turni…

Should have finished that email with "may the odds be ever in your favor".

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#80

Post by bmitc » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 7:57 AM UTC

eru wrote: post #34

d--b wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this read “Let’s ditch those ethical people who get in the way of profit.”? Yes FB is not for me. Not as a worker, not as a customer.

> Does this read “Let’s ditch those ethical people who get in the way of profit.”? Not to me. Just reads like they want to ditch low performers. (They might or might not still want to ditch 'ethical people', no clue. It just doesn't read that way here.)

It's a framing issue, just like what Tesla recently did. Now they have the agency to clean house as they see fit with the excuse of "turning up the heat on performance" to hide behind.