211–220 of 476 posts
Why not just retrain the python team to another language? I mean, software engineers are not really language specific, they can learn other languages if needed.
Outside of the ML groups, Google really doesn't like Python and there's very little of it in the codebase. This move isn't surprising in that light. Also, Google is IBM at this point, so I would expect a lot of IBM-like moves.
Python is mostly the Perl of the current day. And it attracts tons of beginners, that also means nearly equivalent amount of bad code(Just like in the Perl days). These days if you are doing serious work, you simply use Java. Especially if you want something running for years. Java is really the only option you have. A decade back I interviewed at a major telecommunications firm. Python was the new fashion then, they…
Python is an absolutely lovely language. It is not the 'perl of it's day'. In my experience, things get hairy when you start building bigger systems that require a lot of collaboration but you can probably do away with most of the pitfalls if you use type hints. Beyond that, it's main downside is performance but you would be shocked how little code you have to convert to C/C++ to remove bottlenecks.
You are right that most large orgs choose a language like java, but I'd also argue that C# and golang are good fits as well. They're fast, and they have a garbage collector. I suppose typescript / node could be in that same category but I steer away from that stack as a backend dev.
The post suggests their jobs were offshored. Is this a common practice versus just closing the roles? I feel like US legislators should do more to protect domestic jobs from domestic companies, or else they’ll face the same eventual collapse as in manufacturing.
Yes it’s common. At Google and across America. When Google did its massive 12k person layoff they moved a lot of those roles to places like India. They had another tranche of layoffs that were “delayed exit” to train those Indian employees.
But remember, everyone has to be 'in office' for collaboration! /s
Outside of the ML groups, Google really doesn't like Python and there's very little of it in the codebase. This move isn't surprising in that light. Also, Google is IBM at this point, so I would expect a lot of IBM-like moves.
Python is mostly the Perl of the current day. And it attracts tons of beginners, that also means nearly equivalent amount of bad code(Just like in the Perl days). These days if you are doing serious work, you simply use Java. Especially if you want something running for years. Java is really the only option you have. A decade back I interviewed at a major telecommunications firm. Python was the new fashion then, they…
i got caught up in this :( really sad about the whole thing; this was by far the best job i've had in my 20-year career (including other teams at google), and i do not know if i will ever have another one as good. we were a chronically understaffed team supporting a large part of the python ecosystem at google, and we did some amazing work over the years.
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_ is for Alphabet
then why not MAAANG?. Much better acronym, but then I just say big N.
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This might be my prejudice but when someone talks about offshoring a role, moving it to Munich isn't the first thing that comes to mind. It may be slightly cheaper than California but not by so much that if expect it to be the main reason for doing so.
You might think twice if you looked at the figures; the numbers in this article comparing US and UK wages are astounding: https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/britain-white-collar-j... (and this article goes into the rationale too. Basically the idea is you're paying more than you would in a developing economy, but you can trust the team with more autonomy and fewer cultural misunderstandings, so it's an option for…
Who knows maybe in 30 years Americans ultimately have a higher quality of life just due to our stronger economic position making it easier to sustainably fund M4A or whatever.
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Yes it’s common. At Google and across America. When Google did its massive 12k person layoff they moved a lot of those roles to places like India. They had another tranche of layoffs that were “delayed exit” to train those Indian employees.
You can call me bigoted or racist, I don't care. The fact is with moving technical roles to India quality plummets. But I can totally see how in some beancounter's narrow mind this makes perfect sense.