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Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

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Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than a fraction of recent hires. I had long-tenured teammates (10+ years) who were let go, for no particular reason.

I bet either their comp was very high due to their tenure relative to their output, or they spent too much time at the same level and weren't showing upward trajectory. I know that you only need to be an L4 officially to get past the up or out stage, but that doesn't mean that they won't find people to lay off who have been an L5 for 12 years

Top grading is the MBAs dream. Replace someone who doesn’t stand out and get someone who on average will be average, so presumably better than the 10y vet you just exited. Don’t worry about what they know, because coders are monkeys.

Yes, some tenured people suck. But it’s their salary that drives this behavior.

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2021: Yay! Crazy hiring! 2023: What?!?! Laying off a fraction of recent hires? The world is ending!! Obviously this sucks for the laid-off, but…you don’t need a very long memory to put this in perspective.

It's was more like 2021: this is clearly a bubble 2023: execs do "shocked Pikachu", "we have hired for a different economical environment!"

Agree. But will many execs pay for that groupthink mistake? Nope, somebody else gets to pay…

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've never gotten in a car without having decided my destination first. Not yet... > If letting your rideshare company decide your destination was really a thing, why wouldn't Uber be doing it already be doing it with human drivers? Because Uber isn't an advertising company. They're still chasing fares like scrubs

Honestly I have no idea why you are attracting downvotes. This feature seems inevitable, and arguably desirable. I am sitting here trying to use Maps to figure out if there are any pizza places that are open in my city right now, and if I could summon a car with the destination vaguely set to "pizza" and be presented with options, that might be OK, even futuristic.

"Jimbo's Pizza will pay for your fare! Should I place the order now using your card on file?"

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than a fraction of recent hires. I had long-tenured teammates (10+ years) who were let go, for no particular reason.

I bet either their comp was very high due to their tenure relative to their output, or they spent too much time at the same level and weren't showing upward trajectory. I know that you only need to be an L4 officially to get past the up or out stage, but that doesn't mean that they won't find people to lay off who have been an L5 for 12 years

[deleted]

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my org at the Goog, we didn't have any layoffs, but we also aren't expecting any new headcount any time soon. Projects that need more staff are expected to cannibalize it from other projects under the same VP. I feel like this is actually a good way of doing things, and wish Google did this more broadly. Just think if everyone who would have been laid off was instead transferred to a project that needs their skill…

Google used to be exactly like that up to a decade ago. Talent was considered core for the org so you would be relocated rather than cut off. Values shifted with the focus on earnings and growth getting less impressive.

Rewarding managers by headcount is like rewarding software engineers per line of code, yes, but that is how basically every company rewards managers.

Imagine how obnoxious code reviews would be if everyone wanted to submit as many lines as possible for their salary to go up, that is how management headcount requests works today.

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most consistent thing I hear in the hallways is "I really hope they don't make TK the CEO." People in cloud are profoundly unhappy. It's scary.

I work in GCP, I don't get the sense that people are unhappy here. I think it's more likely that GCP, unlike the rest of google, is more of an amalgamation of many corporate cultures, (both good and bad). A little bit more Amazon/Oracle, a little less traditional 'Google'. I think most people work 45 hours a week. I don't see anyone slacking off. But it's not a death march, it pays well, there are tons of perks still…

> I think it's more likely that GCP, unlike the rest of google, is more of an amalgamation of many corporate cultures, (both good and bad).

You don't understand why people fear the culture changing to something else? Most people there like the Google work culture, of course they would fear the culture becoming more like Microsoft or Oracle.

When I worked at Google I had no deadlines, full control over what I do during my work days, full ability to prioritize different projects or help people get things done if they ask etc. If that suddenly changed it would feel horrible, as you can understand, if you are used to a typical work culture maybe you don't see it but if you are used to the typical Google one they at least had before then it is a massive owngrade.

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#167
post #47
post #2

Summary from the release for Q4: - Revenue increased from $76B to $86B (13% increase) - Operating income increased $18.1B to $23.7B - Net income increased $13.6B to $20.7B - Diluted EPS increased $1.05 to $1.64

I highly recommend reading the excellent book "Financial Intelligence" if anyone wants to actually interpret these numbers. Having read the book, the section "Change in Useful Lives of Our Server and Network Equipment" immediately caught my eye. It's a classic maneuver.

Who’s the author of “Financial Intelligence”?

Amazon has multiple books with that title.

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly, those 8000 employees were producing -$10,000,000,000 per year.

A Google SWE costs the company around $750k average, fully loaded cost. So if those were all SWEs, $6B/yr isn't an unreasonable estimate.

The median in 2021 was close to $300k as per this[0] source.

[0] https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights...

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#169
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waymo _might_ be the sole survivor here... they are ABSOLUTELY trying their damndest with it. It's remarkable to not go a single day without seeing a driverless Waymo doing its thing. (I live in Central Phoenix, they're _everywhere_.) The core concept is being proven pretty well, in markets with good weather and good roads at least... whether they can achieve some sort of critical mass that allows them to recoup any…

> I've heard each Jag costs ~$250k fully loaded They said it costs as much as a “moderately equipped S-Class” 3-4 years ago. At the time, that would be ~$140k. That includes the base car cost, sensor hardware, compute, redundant vehicle systems and their integration. So not quite $250k, but still steep. I think the Waymo-Geely robotaxis coming next year will be interesting cost-wise. > That being said, it's not gener…

> It’s definitely not individually trained for each mile in each market.

Oh, that's very interesting. Being in the test/training market, and having read that they were training on every mile while they were here, I thought that was a key differentiator, but if it _is_ generalizable, that's absolutely huge.

(And living here, during training, we'd see trains of 5-6 Waymos cruising down the streets of our neighborhood, so it kind of tracked with what I'd already heard from their videos and posts.)

Thanks for the correction. It's amazing what they've accomplished, and it's also a blast to show out-of-towners who have no idea this is _widely available_ here in Phoenix.

Re: Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Results [pdf]

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it so bad for you? I've had 500+ Lyft rides over 7+ years and never had an issue with a single driver...?

The jarringly bad nature of my recent experiences with Lyft/Uber compared to Waymo has likely inspired some hyberpole, but - I have been an Uber and Lyft rider for almost 10 years myself. Back then I was at town meetings in Syracuse, NY advocating for Uber to come to town. I know the experience can be good, but it seems like over the last couple years the experience has gotten considerably worse on average. Experienc…

Those do sound like terrible experiences. Maybe I've just been really lucky.
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