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Databricks counts being laid off as “red flag”

teamblind.com

161–170 of 201 posts

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

#161

I mean if you’ve been laid off it literally means you’re the person they like the least from the company. Otherwise steve would have been laid off instead. So it makes sense to not want someone who is the worst in a company.

This is way too simplified.

May as well be shutdown of a department or project, where everyone gets off-boarded. Believe a lot of the recent GOOG reductions included very senior people who just happened to be on low-priority projects.

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

#162
post #16

Fun fact: in some jurisdictions such as New York and DC, this is illegal. It's called "discrimination against the unemployed". Check the laws of your state, the state you would work in, and the state the company is headquartered in to see if this may apply to you.

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.

"While it's nice to know these laws exist, what would you really do with it?"

This is exactly how I feel about tenant laws in the US. It's great they exist, but who's going to get a lawyer to stay somewhere they aren't wanted. All these laws that protect the vulnerable still require a lawyer to enforce them. Lawyers aren't accessible to most.

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

#163

Damn, the top comment on the article is about how you need to lie in tech interviews. How far have we fallen if we don't even have enough dignity to walk away from garbage tier companies who can't even put any real effort into hiring. Lying is not a solution, letting companies like Databricks die a slow painful death because they create toxic environments and all their programmers keep quitting is the solution.

> Damn, the top comment on the article is about how you need to lie in tech interviews.

My favorite piece of advice from interview.io's interview coaching was an emphatic "There is no place for honesty in a behavioral interview."

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

#164
post #13

There's a missing bit of context here about what "laid off" actually means in this person's case. We are assuming it means a non-performance related reduction in force, but it may be something different. If I had to guess, I'd suspect the hiring committee found reason to suspect this person was laid off for performance / behavior. For example, perhaps their company has not conducted a large layoff, or is known for la…

> There's a missing bit of context here about what "laid off" actually means in this person's case. We are assuming it means a non-performance related reduction in force, but it may be something different. But that's basically the definition of a layoff; the elimination of roles from a company due to reasons unrelated to the performance of the laid off people (e.g. lack of work, economic conditions). If somebody lose…

Not necessarily true. I have seen in the past employees be “laid off” solely due to their performance. Rather than fire the employee for performance reasons they opt to eliminate the role altogether, and not rehire for it. The team had a lot of flexibility and mobility in roles, so they could reallocate people to pick up any slack. I think they do this partially for the benefit of the person being let go, and partially because it’s more “paperwork” otherwise.

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

#166
post #21

Damn, the top comment on the article is about how you need to lie in tech interviews. How far have we fallen if we don't even have enough dignity to walk away from garbage tier companies who can't even put any real effort into hiring. Lying is not a solution, letting companies like Databricks die a slow painful death because they create toxic environments and all their programmers keep quitting is the solution.

Is there any drawback to just leaving your last company active on LinkedIn, etc? I did that one time when I quit for a 4 month break, no one seemed to ask if I had quit yet and interviews went fine?

I've been led to believe that there are brokers who have information on your employment history and that it will likely show up in a background check. Famously, employment dates are the only thing a typical HR department will give out when cold called by a potential new employer. Basically, it's not something I'd fluff beyond a month or two. I'd find something else to fill a big gap on a resume if needed (sabbatical, volunteering, consulting, whatever) just in case it's something that an automated filter is tossing out.

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

#167

I mean if you’ve been laid off it literally means you’re the person they like the least from the company. Otherwise steve would have been laid off instead. So it makes sense to not want someone who is the worst in a company.

Nah. Goog just laid off some really spectacular people (in both talent and personality). Examples: Chris diBona and cat Allman. (I don't know cat personally but I do know Chris and he's an incredibly likeable person.)

Both involved in activities that generated Google a boatload of community goodwill but likely not a lot of direct revenue.

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

#168
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.

I’d personally see that as lying.

I mean as long as you have done some degree of contracting or consulting with the corp you made or at least can reasonably say that you planned to, it's not really lying.

When pressed it can be as simple as "maintaining a corporation for any work I do (when not working as a FTE/salaried employee) is preferable for accounting purposes". Of course if they press further you should probably have your accounting in order/understand the topic so you can explain this without looking like an idiot but it's unlikely they'd press you much further than that.

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

#169
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,…

For anyone like you (and me) who says being laid off doesn't mean bad performance you have someone else saying it's good that Meta, Twitter, etc. are cleaning house, getting rid of all the slackers. Those are the folks calling it a red flag later. The thing, is we want to believe that a company makes careful decisions about whom to lay off. We know it doesn't quite work like that but as you said yourself there can be…

I got laid off along with 30% of the company and 1 month later was contacted by my manager to let me know that he had put me on a “single point of failure, do not fire” list, and someone in HR managed to get some spreadsheets mixed up and I instead made it onto the list of people to be laid off. At this point I already had accepted another offer for more money, and obviously had less than stellar feelings towards the company, so I told them I wasn’t coming back.

Everyone wants to believe that the people and organizations holding their careers in their hands are competent, rational, and trustworthy. Unfortunately that is often not the case.

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

#170

I mean if you’ve been laid off it literally means you’re the person they like the least from the company. Otherwise steve would have been laid off instead. So it makes sense to not want someone who is the worst in a company.

This is way too simplified. May as well be shutdown of a department or project, where everyone gets off-boarded. Believe a lot of the recent GOOG reductions included very senior people who just happened to be on low-priority projects.

A possible counterassumption:

You are on low-priority projects because you aren't trusted on high-priority projects or have been out-maneuvered for them by other senior team members, or don't have enough political capital to convince others of the importance of your project to make it high-priority.

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