Live data from Hacker News

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

blog.interviewing.io

591–600 of 637 posts

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

#591
post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There are definitely issues with Google's comp system, but the fact that pay depends on location is IMO not unreasonable. Especially so given that there's often a lot of flexibility with regards to location. For example, I chose to relocate from London to Zürich (without changing teams/project). I did it for quality-of-life reasons but the comp also increased quite significantly, even adjusted for cost of living. And…

Pre-Brexit?

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

#592
post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In France (and Germany too apparently), if you are found out - usually by a random tax audit - they will ask you to back-pay employee and employer contributions on the money that you received (so about 60% total) the issue isn't really the company, as you pointed out, they are not in France, they're not subject to French law. The issue is that as a French tax resident, if you are meeting the criteria for employment (…

It sounds like if the single member company invoices the foreign company and then pays you as an employee, with all the payroll deductions, that's fine? That seems reasonable, the only thing is that you have to compare the foreign company invoice rate as a gross payment to salaries offered by domestic companies which are generally quoted as net payments? As I understand it, European salaries are usually quoted fully…

indeed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32320295

european salaries are usually quoted "semi-gross" (or semi-net, according to your optimism). there is an arbitrary distinction between employer contributions and employee contributions, the figure you will be given is after the former, before the latter. and always before income tax of course (because that isn't solely based on your salary)

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

#593
post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's that simple. Google needs devs, it's a competitive market. Controlling or limiting the dev supply is definitely a benefit for big tech, but it's a separate benefit. I think competitive pressure on salaries is the top forcing function.

Google & friends have a business where they can turn a $500k engineer into $2M+ in revenue I think that's really the bottom line here. They aren't overpaying to starve out the industry, although I'm sure they're perfectly happy to benefit from that indirectly

Yeah, I find it really weird that people are seriously entertaining this conspiracy theory, when the more mundane explanation is that, on average, tech workers generate insane profit.

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

#594
post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google knows you wont get an offer for months, and the hiring freeze will be long over by then.

That’s actually a fair theory but I doubt they really know when the hiring freeze will be over. On the other hand, when can any business really predict the future flawlessly? Never. But they could include a line addressing the risk.

Even if the recruiters are wrong about the freeze it’s the candidates (not the recruiters) who get negatively impacted, so the incentive is there to keep recruiting

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

#595
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what is going on with Amazon. They seem to be going strong with hiring.

They cut about 100k jobs. https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/07/29/amazon-shrinks-staff-...

These are mostly warehouse jobs because they had to ramp up drastically during the pandemic, but don't need as much capacity now. They are still hiring SWEs.

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

#596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go on angel.co and filter for jobs in the Bay Area and you'll find roles around 250k base salary. 250k including bonuses and stock is far more common. This isn't just Bay Area btw, take a look at the contract market in London and there are multiple > 200k GBP roles (roughly 250k USD).

What's a decent resource for London contract market gigs?

Most are big corporate companies so the traditional job boards and LinkedIn are your best bets!

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

#597
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At Google, upon entering the process, recruiters explain that an offer within engineering (including PM, T/PgM etc.) is valid for 12 months from the date of approval from the hiring committee. So while it can take a long time for someone to find a team match, that flexibility is also available for the candidate, so they get to keep declining teams that are not interesting until a real match for both sides is availabl…

> At Google, upon entering the process, recruiters explain that an offer within engineering (including PM, T/PgM etc.) is valid for 12 months from the date of approval from the hiring committee. So while it can take a long time for someone to find a team match, that flexibility is also available for the candidate, so they get to keep declining teams that are not interesting until a real match for both sides is availa…

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but yours is not the norm. The norm is what I described.

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

#598
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At Google, upon entering the process, recruiters explain that an offer within engineering (including PM, T/PgM etc.) is valid for 12 months from the date of approval from the hiring committee. So while it can take a long time for someone to find a team match, that flexibility is also available for the candidate, so they get to keep declining teams that are not interesting until a real match for both sides is availabl…

I've noticed that many of the most "prestigious" places to work do a wildly fake process aligned with academia to recruit employees. It creates the illusion that jobs are coveted... They present you with challenges and questions over a long period of time which are actually directly tied to their own internal problem solving if you are a senior level hire as well (free work), and they catalogue personal info and data…

> On the inverse, I have been hired by smaller and medium sized contracting companies for much better salaries

Care to share what the TC for these companies is these days?

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

#599
post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you can generate $50m of revenue by working 2 hours a day This is irrational. You're only able to generate $50m in revenue because a giant multi-billion dollar apparatus exists and is maintained around you and that is not free. In almost all circumstances you were not the sole driver of that revenue.

That doesn't matter. If your two hours are a key component in the work needed to make that $50m then nothing changes - you're still brilliant and asking you to work longer is still silly.

If you're only providing a component of the work you are not contributing the full $50m. Thats why the statement is still irrational. This argument waves "look at all this value I bring" is hyperinflated and thus dishonest to pull out every time this gets discussed.

I'm not saying good engineers can't bring disproportionate value and should work/be compensated commensurately. I'm saying stop gaming the numbers like a Goldman Sachs accountant.

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

#600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This most certainly is not true. There are plenty of free things that don’t result in 100% consumption. Demand is based on peoples needs and preferences, not on how much is out there already. Think about libraries as an example.

Agreed. That's why I wrote "pretty much". My go to example is oxygen. There is more than enough of it for everyone, so there is no possibility/need to charge money for it.

Oxygen is definitely still monetized. Think about the canisters or the tanks that people use to go into high altitude environments. Hell, even in Denver or Aspen or Telluride you can go to an 'oxygen bar' for absurd prices. Hospitals will put you on oxygen and then bill you thousands for the service.

Beyond that, I have no doubt that there are some people who would willingly charge everyone for oxygen, if there was only a way. This would be driven by the idea that even though there is plenty in the atmosphere, a person only needs to be deprived of it for a little while before the situation becomes dire.

Post reply on HN