Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

Post by htrp » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 12:28 PM UTC

SilverBirch wrote: post #164

tinyhouse wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. They didn't lose focus. Their new focus is VR. They anticipate it's going to be much bigger growth engine for them in the next decades, while the current core business is slowing down. Maybe their mistake is that they are too aggressive with the VR spending. There are many examples of companies that had a great core business that was gradually slowing down and new companies came and ate their lunch. Meta…

VR isn't like digital cameras destroying film, it's a completely different business. It'd be like Netflix deciding their video streaming business has peaked so they're going to hire 10,000 new engineers to work on a new wind turbine business. I agree with you they are focused on VR, but where I disagree is that they are a social media company. They're not focused on what their company actually does. It's kind of an o…

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 12:53 PM UTC

cs137 wrote: post #125

npteljes wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Part of my hope by raising expectations and having more aggressive goals, and just kind of turning up the heat a little bit, is that I think some of you might decide that this place isn't for you, and that self-selection is OK with me," he said. This, to me, sounds like he's pressuring people to leave, so that they don't have to fire them, which would involve severance.

Generally, people who get PIP'd don't get severance, even if fired. The real purpose of the PIP process is to grind people down so they make mistakes, costing them what could otherwise be beautiful lawsuits [1], or just stop showing up (which I guess would fall under quitting, since they end up firing themselves, at least bureaucratically speaking). ---- [1] This is surprisingly easy to do in the US. If you post abou…

Post by Applejinx » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

wiz21c wrote: post #35

padolsey wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Performance Summary Cycle. From experience, the psc culture within fb/meta is intense, internally competitive (even within teams) and heavily focuses on quantifiable gains (e.g. often tech-debt or ethical-minded features are forgone for engagement metric increases ... via any means). It's not nice unless you're a very specific type of person.

If Zuckerberg finds it OK to talk like that to its employees, then it means the general culture there must be able to hear him. So you're right, very specific type of person. But I wonder : how would you describe that type ? the type "if I'm in Meta it's because I'm the best of the best and I want to continue to prove I'm the best of the best, at any cost" ?

Post by papito » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:14 PM UTC

cokeandpepsi wrote: post #33

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…

The 'metaverse' play just feels weird to me, kudos to them if it works out though

Post by Cerium » Fri, Jul 01, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

eru wrote: post #68

georgeburdell wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meta has done a lot of interesting work in the hardware space. In hardware, you just kind of accept, regardless of your company or its vision, that your work is ultimately used to facilitate the watching of cat videos.

Alternatively, your work is being used to process financial information and trades a few nanoseconds faster, or your work is being used by the military, ...