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Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

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Re: Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

#161
post #2

Microsoft was made significantly flatter today, so hearing there is indeed going to be layoffs isn't surprising, though I admittedly hoped they'd figure out how to do it without incurring so many layoffs.

What do you mean by flatter? Middle managers think it means all grunt level jobs are going to have the same job title. They are oblivious that their org is stacked 3 VPs and 3 directors deep.

Re: Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

#164

Any company that has been around for as long as Microsoft, has a huge amount of dead weight in its mid-level management. I mean people whose main skill is mastery of the internal political process. Lest people think I'm singling out Microsoft specifically, this same problem is present at Google as well, but is less of a problem because Google has not been around long enough to pick up the same amount of dead weight p…

"The deepest cuts are expected to come from the businesses the company bought from Nokia several months ago"

Re: Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

#165
post #119
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its good in theory, but in practice it doesn't work. Those guys who mastered the political process. They don't get fired. Not getting fired is what they do. Thats the thing they're really good at.

Exactly. And it's not just tech. Most large companies have mid-level workers whose sole job is to not to get laid off (fired). I pity anyone under them cause they are usually the hardest working and first to go. Companies should be looking top-down instead of the usual bottom-up. And man, it gets cut-throat. You know, when I traded, I used to think that was the most cut-throat work environment. Then the firm I was tr…

CERN 2

Re: Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the #1 reason why I won't stay in the US after my phd. I have no interest in being a random CEO whim away from either having to uproot my life and move back home or frantically try to land a new job all in the short period of 15 days. For those curious the #2 reason is that H1Bs make it hard to do even simple extracurricular activities like writing books or do consulting on the side related to an open source…

Well, what if you are in another country working for a company (say Microsoft) on a visa, even though you are American. > The H1B is fundamentally broken and I'm amazed that so many people put up with it. Credit to the US for being such a desirable destination, I guess. There are plenty of countries with more broken visa policies (I've lived here for almost 8 years and still don't qualify for permanent residency).

I know people who have lived in the US easily that long and are still stuck on H1B.

Countries with worse policies are no excuse for the embarrassment that is the state of US immigration.

Re: Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

#167
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At Google, if you don't make it to level 5 sweng within a certain amount of time(2 years from being hired at level 4), you will most likely get fired. Don't know where you get that idea from. I have a lot of anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

I saw it first hand. My manager was pushing everyone to get promoted to level 5, of the few who didn't, one was put on a pip then fired, the others worked like madmen after seeing that, still didn't get promoted and somehow moved into another group. They still haven't gotten promoted but they work insanely hard/ aren't the same people. I guess it depends on the group, but I was told that timelines for promotion to le…

there's no 'unwritten rule' for promotion timelines

Re: Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

#168
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To quote, perhaps inaccurately, Louis CK: "Divorce is always good news. It would be terrible if there was a couple who as happy and in love, and they had this perfect life, and then they got divorced? Oh that would be horrible! But that has happened exactly zero times."

As someone who's parents are going through this I cannot disagree more. There are circumstances where it does happen.

That's very sad. Why are they getting divorced if they are happy?

Re: Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the goal is 600MM / year in savings, your denominator is off by quite a bit. Fully loaded cost of an employee is significantly higher than 60-75K. Try 3-4x that amount.

you should assume ~200k for an engineer in a market like seattle

In what languages? Obviously location is important but I am writing C++ on multiple platforms in the UK and $200k is far away.

Re: Large Round of Layoffs Expected at Microsoft

#170

Any company that has been around for as long as Microsoft, has a huge amount of dead weight in its mid-level management. I mean people whose main skill is mastery of the internal political process. Lest people think I'm singling out Microsoft specifically, this same problem is present at Google as well, but is less of a problem because Google has not been around long enough to pick up the same amount of dead weight p…

At Google, if you don't make it to level 5 sweng within a certain amount of time(2 years from being hired at level 4), you will most likely get fired. After that you can relax more. So the fluff in software engineering(including managers) is minimal. Facebook though... Ask their employees how that build system is working out for them. There's a lot of doing, agreed, but sometimes you need to just take a chill pill, s…

Can you elaborate on the build system?
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