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Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

teamblind.com

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Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#61

Post by lmm »

smeagull wrote: post #37
RajT88 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lying is not a solution Agreed. You should not lie in interviews. A common way of avoiding having to lie is registering your own consulting company after getting laid off. No resume gap! As far as if it fools recruiters, no idea. It's got to sometimes, right? I see it too often on LinkedIn for it to be useless.

That's just another way of lying. If it makes you feel better about it, then fine I guess.

I've had plenty of employers tell me something in the interview that was technically true but very misleading. They seem to think that's quite different from lying.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#62

Post by password11 »

ageek123 wrote: post #50

This seems like a lot of discussion for a single report from a possibly-disgruntled (but definitely rejected) candidate, about a policy that was denied by multiple Databricks employees in the thread, who clearly said that Databricks has hired a number of people who were laid off recently.

What I find strange in OP's story is that HC and recruiter actually gave a reason for the rejection. Most companies after they reject you are tight-lipped.

> denied by multiple Databricks employees in the [Blind] thread, who clearly said...

That proves nothing. HR departments shill on Blind.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#63

Post by placatedmayhem »

dv_dt wrote: post #57
bojo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's nice to know these laws exist, what would you really do with it? The company proved it has a terrible culture. Doesn't seem worth it to fight for a job with them.

I like to think that it’s not always a direct individual outcome that helps. With enough soft complaints the regulator might write a reminder letter to the given HR dept which could go over relevant law and warn about repercussions of breaking it. And that might be enough to straighten out some practices.

This feels much too light to me. I'm not sure I can think of a worse thing to do to someone while interviewing them than discriminate against them based on a protected status, outside of proper criminal things.

Discrimination (including "unemployment discrimination") during interviewing should be an automatic, hefty fine, with a significant portion going to the target of the discrimination (assuming the claim is found to be valid). Just riffing, maybe set the fine to something like the equivalent of total yearly compensation package for the average employee in the position being sought. That would be penalty enough to encourage putting it right in the front of any training for anyone making offers, particularly HR.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#65

Post by dilyevsky »

ramesh31 wrote: post #11
RajT88 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lying is not a solution Agreed. You should not lie in interviews. A common way of avoiding having to lie is registering your own consulting company after getting laid off. No resume gap! As far as if it fools recruiters, no idea. It's got to sometimes, right? I see it too often on LinkedIn for it to be useless.

>A common way of avoiding having to lie is registering your own consulting company after getting laid off. No resume gap! As far as if it fools recruiters, no idea. It's got to sometimes, right? I see it too often on LinkedIn for it to be useless. "Consulting" is the programmer equivalent of claiming "Entrepreneur" as a job title. Sure it exists, but it generally translates to "Unemployed".

I’m consulting on a part-time contract while working on my own thing the rest of the week, am I doing it wrong?

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#66

Post by stbtrax »

discordance wrote: post #39
frellus wrote: post #15

This is asinine, discriminatory and unfair. I'd even say it's borderline malicious. Glad they named and shamed. I would't do any business with this company, nor attempt to work for them. A RIF has nothing to do with a person's performance .. at least officially. One has to assume it was a business decision only, not performance based, although with a large reduction it seems improbable that the people left would be,…

Totally. Getting RIF’d is indiscriminate. Their loss! On the flip side, we too can ‘red flag’ Databricks and other companies that operate that way and not work there or buy their products.

I agree with you in that you can’t infer whether it was random or performance related but RIFs first start with underperformers from the last review cycle at a lot of companies.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#67

Post by dilyevsky »

rqtwteye wrote: post #5

Instead of laying off maybe companies should make a press release like they do with top execs that get fired “15% of our staff has decided to spend more time with their family”.

Lol like that time a VP at google sent a resignation letter saying that he wants to spend more time with his son who just went to college (wat) but it turned out it was sexual misconduct.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#68

Post by frugalmail »

cochne wrote: post #6

I think their HR culture may be a little toxic. When I told them their offer was not enough, they got very irate. They said if I only care about money I’m not a good fit for their culture of builders, and that I should watch out because there are lots of lay offs happening. It all left me with a very poor impression of them.

With all the money they raised, they're treating people like a sinking startup playing these games? Definitely a warning sign.

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#69

Post by polynox »

What a disgusting but revealing story. By saying "being laid off is a red flag" they are loudly signaling that actually they have no way of measuring interview performance and are just trusting the former employer's judgement? So why even bother with the interview then?

It would be like if someone is selling me their car and I run the car history report and see it was in a minor collision but was repaired. I look over the car and see the repairs were done fine. In fact I bring out a mechanic I trust and they tell me that yes the repairs were completed with high quality and everything is great with the car, am I really justified in calling myself rational if I reject the car anyway because of some metaphysical spookiness I think inhabits cars that were in collisions before?

Re: Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

#70

Post by dilyevsky »

I gave a ref check for someone trying to join databricks and honestly their level of probing gave me the creeps. Like they were trying to find some dirt. Never seen anything like it. It seems like they’re either not confident in their interview process or trying to lowball people, either way wouldn’t recommend interviewing there
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