Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

blog.interviewing.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 637 posts

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#191

Post by barry-cotter »

anonymoushn wrote: post #117
vitus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are indeed still conducting interviews (I had one just on Friday). Whether that transfers to actual offers extended during this time, I have no idea. What I can say we are absolutely not doing at this time is rescinding offers, even for new grads. There certainly have been some shifts over the past year or two to prioritize growth in cheaper markets (for lack of a better term) -- one manager I talked to mentioned…

Are Googlers in general okay with the idea that their contributions are worth 1/4 as much if they live in Warsaw?

If they’re not they can apply for a transfer after 2 years to Mountain View and they’ll get it, unless US Immigration vetoes it. I hear the Zürich office pays pretty well too and if you’re Polish I believe immigration is very easy as they’re EU citizens.

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#192

Post by smaryjerry »

_gabe_ wrote: post #166
lotsofpulp wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong labor numbers means wages would be increasing. Perhaps not for all income deciles, but at least the bottom ones (which is a good thing in my opinion since it helps close the income/wealth gap). What would be an issue is the labor participation rate decreasing, which it is, but it may be unavoidable due to things like aging demographics. That means fewer workers supporting non workers, and hence less supply of…

> Strong labor numbers means wages would be increasing How can you equate these two? Couldn't strong labor numbers also be indicative of an economy in turmoil, forcing many people who no longer had to work back into a job to get by? I guess what I'm trying to say is, shouldn't we be taking a look at the data holistically instead of nabbing one good data point and using that to promote a narrative? Inflation, COL, rea…

That’s exactly right. Real wages are not keeping up with inflation. Inflation is confusing everyone who isn’t used to seeing it. It’s ludicrous to think we are not in a recession just because more people retired in the last few years due to COVID and exited the workforce to artificially keep the unemployment rate low. Participation in the workforce declined something like 10% - I don’t have the time find the exact number. But we still have a lower overall workforce than pre-COVID. The 100K per year jobs are declining in availability but there’s millions of jobs at fast food and retail available. It’s obvious that it is purely political as to what makes a “recession.” Meanwhile lots of tech companies have lost 70-80% of their value. But the largest companies, apple, google, and Microsoft are holding up, we all know the small businesses go first.

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#193

Post by lumost »

Ads market may be peaking as would inevitably happen. I’m increasingly seeing google and Facebook make idiotic decisions that clearly improve ad revenue at the cost of user retention.

I recently started searching cpp documentation and the only thing that comes up is copy pasta sites. I need a new search engine, and I just deleted instagram last week. YouTube now runs multiple back to back video ads.

Maybe this is just a pause, or a momentary restructuring- but all markets peak eventually.

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#194

Post by bonestamp2 »

I literally saw a new job posting from Google yesterday.

Either way, hiring freezes usually happen before layoffs. The freeze allows the numbers to naturally reduce as people leave and they aren't replaced. Then they can move on to laying off the remaining number of people they need to reduce by.

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#195

Post by WillPostForFood »

ajross wrote: post #162
lotsofpulp wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong labor numbers means wages would be increasing. Perhaps not for all income deciles, but at least the bottom ones (which is a good thing in my opinion since it helps close the income/wealth gap). What would be an issue is the labor participation rate decreasing, which it is, but it may be unavoidable due to things like aging demographics. That means fewer workers supporting non workers, and hence less supply of…

> Strong labor numbers means wages would be increasing. Wages are increasing, that's one of the inflation drivers people are complaining about. > What would be an issue is the labor participation rate decreasing, which it is Not per FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART It's quite clearly still rebounding from the covid shock. I think you're trying to say that the long term trend is clearly downward. But t…

If you zoom in on the FRED graph, you can see the recent rebound participation rate peaked in March, and has started a (slight) decline in the last quarter.

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#196

Post by lotsofpulp »

_gabe_ wrote: post #166
lotsofpulp wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong labor numbers means wages would be increasing. Perhaps not for all income deciles, but at least the bottom ones (which is a good thing in my opinion since it helps close the income/wealth gap). What would be an issue is the labor participation rate decreasing, which it is, but it may be unavoidable due to things like aging demographics. That means fewer workers supporting non workers, and hence less supply of…

> Strong labor numbers means wages would be increasing How can you equate these two? Couldn't strong labor numbers also be indicative of an economy in turmoil, forcing many people who no longer had to work back into a job to get by? I guess what I'm trying to say is, shouldn't we be taking a look at the data holistically instead of nabbing one good data point and using that to promote a narrative? Inflation, COL, rea…

> How can you equate these two? Couldn't strong labor numbers also be indicative of an economy in turmoil, forcing many people who no longer had to work back into a job to get by?

Because the other side of that is that there exists sufficient and growing demand for labor to accept the people wanting to sell their labor.

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#197

Post by sitkack »

datavirtue wrote: post #70
drawkbox wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other side to this is that businesses tend to follow the leaders of the industry. So if engineer salaries were getting too high, they start a "freeze" which then cascades down to medium then small companies. However, the goal wasn't actually a freeze, it was to lower salaries, increase the pool of candidates and they can then find talent better. In a sense it is manipulation of the labor market and businesses tha…

"the goal wasn't actually a freeze, it was to lower salaries, increase the pool of candidates" This.

Two gas stations on either side of the intersection with prices within a penny of each other. Always.

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#198

Post by smaryjerry »

ajross wrote: post #162
lotsofpulp wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong labor numbers means wages would be increasing. Perhaps not for all income deciles, but at least the bottom ones (which is a good thing in my opinion since it helps close the income/wealth gap). What would be an issue is the labor participation rate decreasing, which it is, but it may be unavoidable due to things like aging demographics. That means fewer workers supporting non workers, and hence less supply of…

> Strong labor numbers means wages would be increasing. Wages are increasing, that's one of the inflation drivers people are complaining about. > What would be an issue is the labor participation rate decreasing, which it is Not per FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART It's quite clearly still rebounding from the covid shock. I think you're trying to say that the long term trend is clearly downward. But t…

Real wages are not increasing. The ‘Real’ part of real wages means after adjustment for inflation. See link, we’ve been going straight down in real wages. We are already back below pre-COVID wages. That means we are back to wage levels around 3 years ago. In any job if you got no raise in 3 years then you should not look at that as a good thing - and that’s what has happened to everyone, on average after accounting for inflation. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#199

Post by cmrdporcupine »

PheonixPharts wrote: post #189
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #104

The people I know who are still inside (Google) seem optimistic that maybe the company is taking a pause to deal with some of its bureaucracy and internal politics issues and with people's complaints about perf. I suppose that's good. From my perspective: They've got way too many people doing a lot of meh work and feeling really ... important about it. And it's on the whole asphyxiating the industry.

> And it's on the whole asphyxiating the industry. My understanding was that asphyxiating the industry was always the plan. For those who worked in industry pre-2008, one of the major drivers that allowed new startups to be so disruptive was that startups could very often compete with the then major tech companies on compensation. If there was a difference in pay, it was usually minor and could easily be made up for…

Yes, I mean, I came to Google through an acquisition (of an adtech company) and it was pretty clear to me that the goal of the whole process was a) make your company go away and stop your customers from using you instead of us and b) get as much of your talent out of the job market as possible.

They totally didn't care about our product or the productivity of the employees they brought in. They let us sit and twiddle our thumbs and "rest and vest" for at least a year, after making a big show for the DOJ about how this aquisition wasn't an anti-competitive move ([1])

And I hung around there moving protobufs around and fixing the odd bug for 10 years but getting paid stupid money to not go and do anything for anybody else or keep on top of industry trends etc. (Not claiming I'm some shit hot engineer, just speaking for my personal situation)

I don't think most people who are 'organically' hired into Google see it this way because for them it's a thing they seek out, a life goal they pursued. For me it was always in the back of my mind.

Which is one of the reasons I eventually had to leave despite it putting my family in a more precarious financial situation. It wasn't a place I was ever going to find meaning in my work or feel like I fit in.

Re: startups and compensation one major thing that has changed since 20 years ago is that it is simply not possible to become wealthy (like "I can afford going to retire wealthy" or "I can now afford to seed my own startup wealthy") out of the equity package that a startup will offer unless you're the cofounders or a founding employee. The packages they'll offer will be a fraction of a % of equity, which if you're really really lucky will turn into a few hundred thousand in an exit after busting your ass for a few years. From a strictly financial POV there's no reason to choose working at a startup over a FAANG. Most will simply not offer anything to make it worth the risk. You should only choose to do it for lifestyle or enjoyment reasons, really. (That said, I'm working for a startup again right now.)

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/source-justi...

Re: What’s going on with Google and Facebook hiring freezes?

#200

Post by daniel_reetz »

kleinsch wrote: post #75

Google has always recruited and interviewed independently of whether they actually have roles open that make sense for you. Earlier this year, I passed the interview and spent six weeks in "team match" before I gave up and took a role with another company. Had a friend who did the same for months for a PM role. Just bc you're getting contacted by Google recruiters this week or interviewing doesn't mean you'll ever fi…

True. And people can submit your resume internally. I've been rejected by Google three times (I have the letters) and I've never applied for a job there. Thanks, geniuses.
Post reply on HN