Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers • Hacker News Board

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#181

Post by idopmstuff » Thu, May 11, 2023, 4:59 PM UTC

gretch wrote: post #133

kbos87 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m skeptical that the same patterns we saw in the early 2000s are going to play out again. Last time, tech was in its infancy. There was a small universe of people who understood baseline concepts like getting to product market fit, how to measure and implement growth patterns, etc etc. Today these are practically household concepts, and they have been for years. There aren’t a few hundred other people in SV you are…

> There was a small universe of people who understood baseline concepts like getting to product market fit, how to measure and implement growth patterns, etc etc. I'm a PM and I think veeerrrryyy few people understand this, including many of my fellow PMs. I think it's like reading a book about how to pitch a baseball. Knowledge and application are entirely different. Someone might be able to regurgitate the theory o…

> I'm a PM and I think veeerrrryyy few people understand this, including many of my fellow PMs.

Preach. And the universe of people who can actually do the work to start something and get it to PMF is a pretty small subset of those who understand the concepts in theory.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#182

Post by erulabs » Thu, May 11, 2023, 4:59 PM UTC

_vbnz wrote: post #29

American engineers are lucky to earn enough to be able to save up and do stuff like this, like on $200k you can save enough to really try a start-up for a year or two. Whereas in Europe we're lucky to get $80k in the same jobs, and then the state steals half of that :/

Just to add a non-snarky reply: I agree, we are lucky, but I fear (especially based on the replies to your statement), the majority of American engineers would prefer things to be more like they are in Europe.

"There are dozens of us!" that are aware of how lucky we are!

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#183

Post by zer0tonin » Thu, May 11, 2023, 5:05 PM UTC

nicenewtemp84 wrote: post #166

ReflectedImage wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nicenewtemp84 believes that large companies layoff engineers based on skill. The truth: Eenie meenie miny moe

ReflectedImage thinks large companies layoff engineers based on a random number picker. The truth: everyone knows who the underperformers are.

Everyone in a team might know who the underperformers are. But team members and EM are kept out of layoff-related decisions, which are generally done by upper management with the help of external consultants. Those external consultants are about as good as a random number generator.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#184

Post by tcmart14 » Thu, May 11, 2023, 5:06 PM UTC

boc wrote: post #135

iancmceachern wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also have to pay a lot more out of pocket for basic services like healthcare,, transportation, childcare, etc.

You’re paying for healthcare at a tech company? Usually your company provides this as a benefit. Same for commuter subsidies.

It depends. I work at a tech company as an engineer and insurance eats about $1K/month. My employer contributes only about $400 to the plan.The total plan cost is $1.4K. Keep in mind, while I pay this just for insurance, I am waiting to get a $3,000 dollar bill from the hospital (still!) for when my daughter had to go to the ER in December.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#185

Post by mkr-hn » Thu, May 11, 2023, 5:06 PM UTC

aledalgrande wrote: post #179

fmajid wrote: post #21

Many are going to start their own startups and the seeds for the next Cambrian explosion are being cast today, just as they were in 2001–2003 or 2008. That said not all Big Tech employees can deal with the hustle required at a startup.

Most big tech employees are not startup people. That's why they work at big tech.

Losing a job, like any major life event, can cause a rethink on this sort of thing. The average age of a successful startup founder is 45 for a reason. Most of them spent some time employed in the industry of the startup. Before that, they probably bounce between a job and trying to make it on their own.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#186

Post by vkou » Thu, May 11, 2023, 5:07 PM UTC

M3L0NM4N wrote: post #35

choeger wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany, it's not the social system per se but it's aoparent utter ineffectiveness. We're paying more and more every year but the state/public system seems to fail everywhere and worse so than the year before. It's like the money is completely sucked up by some unproductive black hole. And no, it's not because of reduced taxation from rich to working class, or missing taxes on property or some other policy. These…

That is, in my opinion, by far the strongest argument for lower taxes. The money we (the US) do spend in education/healthcare/infrastructure is already poorly utilized, why would we want to spend more and end up like that? To simplify it dramatically with an example, I'd rather pay $3 on the toll road and $50k for a surgery myself than pay $10 in taxes towards the road and $100k in taxes towards the healthcare system…

> The money we (the US) do spend in education/healthcare/infrastructure is already poorly utilized, why would we want to spend more and end up like that?

The whole point of a single-payer system is that you will spend less, by virtue of the government using its single-buyer negotiating power to push down prices.

And also by virtue of firing all the useless parasites and middlemen that create, consume, and shuffle the mountains of paperwork that surround US health insurance, advertising, billing, etc. Unsurprisingly, these middle-men don't look kindly upon being eliminated, and have somehow convinced half the country that if it weren't for their heroic efforts, grandma would never get a cardiac shunt, and that the world would literally end if Medicare was actually allowed to negotiate drug prices.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#187

Post by aledalgrande » Thu, May 11, 2023, 5:09 PM UTC

mkr-hn wrote: post #185

aledalgrande wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most big tech employees are not startup people. That's why they work at big tech.

Losing a job, like any major life event, can cause a rethink on this sort of thing. The average age of a successful startup founder is 45 for a reason. Most of them spent some time employed in the industry of the startup. Before that, they probably bounce between a job and trying to make it on their own.

Our statements don't exclude each other.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#188

Post by Salgat » Thu, May 11, 2023, 5:10 PM UTC

boc wrote: post #135

iancmceachern wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also have to pay a lot more out of pocket for basic services like healthcare,, transportation, childcare, etc.

You’re paying for healthcare at a tech company? Usually your company provides this as a benefit. Same for commuter subsidies.

I wish. My wife and I both work at different big tech companies as developers and the only thing health insurance does is guarantee we won't go bankrupt in the event of an emergency. Last month on top of spending several hundred on the monthly insurance cost, I spent $300 on rather mundane pediatrician appointments for my two kids who had ear infections. Ironically I had much better healthcare coverage when I worked at a steel mill.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#189

Post by twalla » Thu, May 11, 2023, 5:11 PM UTC

slap_shot wrote: post #141

bilsbie wrote: post #125

I don’t understand what the opportunities for startups are these days. Anyone know? I feel like the world doesn’t need more saas companies or otherwise you’re doing a chatgpt api company.

This sounds like the modern version of the apocryphal 1902 quote of Charles Holland Duell (Patent Office Commissioner): "Everything that can be invented has been invented" The economic climate has changed, but there are more problems to be solved today than ever before.

I'll do you one better.

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

(Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#190

Post by pfannkuchen » Thu, May 11, 2023, 5:19 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #158

pfannkuchen wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they do that for long enough though they go out of business. There is not really an equivalent to going out of business in government, or at least the bar is much higher for it to happen (I.e. violent revolution).

> There is not really an equivalent to going out of business in government, or at least the bar is much higher for it to happen (I.e. violent revolution) There's absolutely an equivalent, publicly elected officials lose re-election campaigns all the time.

Is a failed government policy generally stopped and corrected by an electoral change in practice? In my experience this almost never happens. Whereas if a company goes under, whatever failed action it was taking just stops happening. Not equivalent IMO.