Live data from Hacker News

Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

bloomberg.com

61–70 of 923 posts

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#61
I have been told by a startup founder that he wants his strongest player to replace and automate the weakest using AI!

That may be what Meta is already doing. I’m afraid we are going to see something like that at play in tech for the coming few years until we get to an equilibrium. Sad and it might work.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#62
post #53
post #7

[flagged]

Elections for executive leadership doesn't sound all that crazy to me. With 30+ years in the business I have witnessed my fair share of executive whackos that wouldn't have passed a basic sniff test if they had convince workers that they should be the one leading them.

We already have votes for leadership. It's called employment and market share.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#63

I find the scale of some companies hard to understand, they're laying off multiples of the total number of employees of the largest company I've worked at.

Internally they operate like a government or military and less like a normal company.

As someone who has only worked for a company with maybe a thousand people, can you elaborate on this a bit?

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#64
post #11

if you've ever been through a Meta loop (and their method is to cast an extremely wide net, so chances are you have), you've seen how inefficient their loop can be for long term success 6-7 38* minute interviews, while the interviewee is trying to squeeze in showcasing their skills and experience, the interviewer is obsessed with figuring out a rigid set of pre-determined "signals" Once these candidates actually star…

That wasn't my experience at all. I had a recruiter screen where she asked me some technical questions. I then had a longer discussion, then a code screen, then an arch-deep-dive. The entire process was very professional and EVERY person came off like they really wanted me to succeed. (Sure it's an act but it's a very helpful act when you're in the hot seat) My intervews were in 20202/2021. Perhaps things have change…

2020/2021 might as well be ancient history in tech terms. Your experience does not reflect the current status quo at all.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#65
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's well known since ancient times that money doesn't buy happiness.

And it only takes an ounce more wisdom to recall this phrase: "Money can't buy happiness, but it helps."

These comment sections are getting more and more useless by the day.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#66
post #33

I'd guess AI has made the average SWE around twice as productive at this point. This is a sort of efficiency shock, where companies suddenly need to find twice as much productive work to do or start firing employees. FB probably had a bunch of slack to absorb this but ultimately it's just hard to find that much work all at once. I predict that tech companies will hire back a lot of this lost headcount over time. Alth…

I guess Meta still needs some people to run the core business (ads/social media rageslop) but your point about 2021 staffing levels would suggest they haven't been able to innovate or bring anything new to market in the past 5 years. Llama has certainly been impressive but doesn't really add more money to the pile or more eyeballs to the ad inventory.

It would be nice if someone with another big pile of money could put some of these ex-employees to work so us mid-level schlubs don't have to compete with former FOAMers (new initialism for the hyperscalers of layoffs) for 'regular' tech jobs, but it appears there are no new ideas or markets to capture.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#67

Re: > If America’s so rich how’d it get so sad > https://www.derekthompson.org/p/if-americas-so-rich-howd-it-...

It's well known since ancient times that money doesn't buy happiness.

Money doesn’t buy happiness but it does buy groceries, day care, car insurance, etc.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#69
post #11

if you've ever been through a Meta loop (and their method is to cast an extremely wide net, so chances are you have), you've seen how inefficient their loop can be for long term success 6-7 38* minute interviews, while the interviewee is trying to squeeze in showcasing their skills and experience, the interviewer is obsessed with figuring out a rigid set of pre-determined "signals" Once these candidates actually star…

[flagged]

Would you mind deleting your account? Everything you’ve said this thread has been total garbage.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#70
Everyone at Meta should know the score.

Meta pays top dollar. They also pay enormous sums for what management identifies as performance.

Conversely, Meta is ruthless about cutting those management identifies as low performers.

This is the deal going in. It’s not a crime.

Post reply on HN