Live data from Hacker News

Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

bloomberg.com

71–80 of 540 posts

Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

#71

Our startup spends a little bit on Facebook Ads (across FB, Instagram, etc). It's very clear over the past few months that there's trouble in the ads engine. Attribution is a mess, ad efficiency fluctuates randomly, the UI and API are flaky. I don't know whether this is a result of the ios privacy changes, the broader economy affecting ad spend, or internal issues... Maybe a mix. But it's clear that Meta's main reven…

They've gotten so damn greedy.

On the mobile app literally over half my feed is ads.

Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

#72
post #9

Of all FAANGs I expect FB to be the first to sink. I see the writing on the wall..

Why?

Not the OP, and this is just speculation on my part so take it with a grain of salt.

Meta gets the overwhelming majority (97.7%) of their revenue from advertising[1]. Their business model is completely reliant on using user data to sell highly targeted ads to sellers. While most consumers don't actually care what corporations do with their data, governments have been starting to crack down on the types of data that can be collected, and what it can be used for, especially with GDPR in the EU. The less data Meta can collect, the worse their targeted advertising will be, and fewer sellers will be willing to pay - or pay as much - for ads on their platforms. As it is, many companies are moving more towards influencer sponsorship for advertising, cutting platforms like Instagram out of the cost entirely.

The problem is that all of Meta's eggs are in one basket, and that basket's bound to drop. Most other big tech companies have more diverse revenue sources, and so are more robust.

That being said, I disagree with the premise - Netflix is probably going to the first FAANG company to fold.

[1] https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/...

Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever interviewed with Facebook/Meta? They don't do leetcode problems. Say what you want about them as a company, but I've done quite a few interviews in my career and their process was one of my favorites.

I just joined Meta this year and had to solve leetcode-style problems, not sure what you mean? Maybe that they aren't literally taken from leetcode or taken on leetcode.com?

No post body was provided.

Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

#75
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it probably depends on the role and team. to say they don’t have leetcode style interviews at any stage for any candidate is “simply not true”

I mean, they do ask algorithmic problems, but first, they're not "leetcode hard" (leetcode hards can get just insane, it's impractical to ask those in an interview setting), more like mediums, and second - out of 6 or 7 interviews maybe 2-3 will be those. Domain-specific / system design ones are more important. Though that depends on the level they're hiring for, I imagine fresh grads get more "write code on whiteboa…

the claim was that they don’t do leetcode questions, not that they do easy and medium ones but not hard ones.

Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

#76

Our startup spends a little bit on Facebook Ads (across FB, Instagram, etc). It's very clear over the past few months that there's trouble in the ads engine. Attribution is a mess, ad efficiency fluctuates randomly, the UI and API are flaky. I don't know whether this is a result of the ios privacy changes, the broader economy affecting ad spend, or internal issues... Maybe a mix. But it's clear that Meta's main reven…

What does it mean when attribution is a mess? Or efficiency fluctuating?

Does this imply that Facebook is showing ads in places they should not be, because they have inventory they cannot sell?

Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

#78
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever interviewed with Facebook/Meta? They don't do leetcode problems. Say what you want about them as a company, but I've done quite a few interviews in my career and their process was one of my favorites.

I had a radically different experience. The worst interview I've ever had was with FB about 9 years ago. I got an offer and it was significantly (like more than 2x) what I was being paid at the time and I turned it down because the interview experience was so awful I couldn't imagine working with the people who had conducted my interview. Even setting aside other ethical concerns, I've added FB to my permanent blackl…

Their interview process improved significantly and they had it arguably better than any other FAANG in recent years.

Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

#79
post #51
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it. My guess is Google/Alphabet will do the same, as they have too high a proportion of people doing things that are neither basic research or contributing to revenue in any way. You can see how that can happen when you have an unconstrained gusher of money. There's effectively zero feedback. However given the weakness of their management (see: gusher of money + lack of focus) it's unlikely that the cuts will…

Please use "MANAMANA" instead. (doot doo do doo doot)

Netflix never deserved to be in FAANG anyway -- seems like it was just there to make the acronym work.

Therefore your suggestion sounds great!

How about: Microsoft Alphabet Netflix Apple Meta Amazon Nvidia Alibaba

Re: Meta announces hiring freeze, warns employees of restructuring

#80
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is notorious for using leetcode problems verbatim. Your singular experience does not invalidate that fact.

you're forgetting that it's leetcode pulling their problems from the companies' question pool, not the other way around.

It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, all leetcode "style" questions fall into a particular bucket. Two pointers, graphs, etc. It's not like the company is innovating new types of problems. It's just the same problem reworded.
Post reply on HN