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Exxon’s Exodus

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Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#31

Post by giantg2 »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #17
giantg2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.

Because those people will leave and take their knowledge with them to big tech?

The positions at big tech are limited. The vast majority of engineers work for "regular" companies who can't compete with the massive profits and easy money. The risk of losing people to big tech is relatively low.

We've had about 35ish% turnover during the last two years. This is multiple times higher than normal. We still managed to retain the other 65ish%. I worked on a team that had over 100% turnover during that time (half lost externally and half moved in the company). You know what, that manager didn't care. She told me they expected to burn people out in 1-2 years and weren't going to compete with companies offering 50-100% raises. So it wasn't a big deal because they expect to lose people, won't compete, and they still retain the majority of people because the availability of better places to go are pretty low.

Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#32

Post by x86x87 »

Victerius wrote: post #2

> Keillor started by thanking everyone for their hard work over the past year, presented awards to three top-performing teams, and then opened the floor to questions. It was at this point things started to unravel, according to four people present who spoke on condition of anonymity. The software developers, data analysts, and technicians who run Exxon’s vast computing network, which helps the company manage everythi…

> If you want to be a “hotshot” and triple your pay working for Amazon, then go right ahead, the people recall him saying. “Good luck to you.”

Yeah! Shame on you for not believing in the company VALUES and wanting to make more money. Greedy drones!!!1

Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#33

Post by giantg2 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #19
giantg2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.

I guess if employees are satisfied with peanuts, great, that leaves more money for the top.

That's not how it works. The number of high paying jobs is low compared to all the "normal" jobs out there. Keep in mind that average US dev makes about $110k. We can't all be in the top of a distribution.

Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#34

Post by giantg2 »

rblatz wrote: post #20
giantg2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.

Then why don’t you leave for a job that pays better in big tech?

For the same reason most don't - lack of skill or barriers to entry like LeetCode (plus family stuff). The vast majority of devs work for "normal" companies. Hence normal companies don't need to compete with big tech. That's why HR benchmarks comp within the industry/location/etc that matches the company.

Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#35

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

xhkkffbf wrote: post #22
UIUC_06 wrote: post #13

A dinosaur media company cheers on a dinosaur energy company's demise. > a culture that’s increasingly out of step with the world around it. Those interviewed describe an organization trapped in amber, whose insular and fear-based culture—once a beacon of corporate America—has become a drag on innovation, risk taking, and career satisfaction. It's a giant, old company, with 1000s of employees who were not at that tow…

The article does read like a political hack job. I'm not denying the individual stories. Just that it is logical to make conclusions about the greater company from a few people with a grievance. Indeed, the high profitability suggests that the people working there can function pretty well and work together efficiently. The company didn't win the lotto. Every few pennies the company earned must come from a very comple…

Thank you for saying this. I worked in various places and while some were noticeably worse than others, most were in the acceptable range. It is possible that I have been taught to accept the current norm, but it is difficult to take articles with more emotion manipulating words in the forefront ( 'toxic', ) and then matter-of-fact assertions 'authoritarian culture' ( like most corporations aren't by default just that ).

Still, talk about Keilor not getting the memo on Zeitgeist. The recession in place is sufficiently odd, partly because while most indicator suggest that it is either here or incoming ( with self-fulfilling prophecy of most company leaders saying it will ), the employment rate remains low despite the fact that employment induced inflation has been conveniently selected as THE factor tackle by business and government officials.

And he says to his employees: Go somewhere else. It is bold to say it charitably.

Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#36

Post by adolph »

ewhanley wrote: post #18
taw28 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oil and gas are big users of HPC. They have been doing scale for longer than SV.

Not to mention they have been using ai/ml in practice regularly and at massive scale since at least the late 1970s. And IOT before it was a buzzword.

Here are talks from a recent Energy AI conference if anyone is interested:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcsG4X8Zn_UDTy6BqKzhq...

Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#37

Post by giantg2 »

ianbutler wrote: post #25
giantg2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.

I think that a lot of people in this thread are expecting too much. Spinning up REST services and some kube clusters and maintaining them isn't why FAANG/MAANGA whatever make 300k+ a year and like 450k+ at the staff level. They make that because they're architecting and scaling services to literally something like 50% of the global population, and theoretically with deep knowledge of the distributed systems algos and…

"Your (the general your, not you in particular) labor is valuable but not that valuable :P"

My labor in particular is even less so.

Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#39

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway5752 wrote: post #28

It should be clear that working at a fundamentally harmful company, like Exxon, Marlboro, or Peabody is going to self-select for certain types of people [late clarification: in leadership roles] and those people are simply not care about the wellbeing of others as much. I feel for the people highlighted in the article, and everybody wants to feed there family so I don't begrudge people working hard on land rigs in th…

[deleted]

Re: Exxon’s Exodus

#40

Post by foobarian »

ianbutler wrote: post #25
giantg2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.

I think that a lot of people in this thread are expecting too much. Spinning up REST services and some kube clusters and maintaining them isn't why FAANG/MAANGA whatever make 300k+ a year and like 450k+ at the staff level. They make that because they're architecting and scaling services to literally something like 50% of the global population, and theoretically with deep knowledge of the distributed systems algos and…

> Spinning up REST services and some kube clusters

Furthermore: pray tell who do you think built Kubernetes and web services?

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