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Apollo Layoffs

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Re: Apollo Layoffs

#171

Post by null_object »

sergiotapia wrote: post #79
trollerator23 wrote: post #39

I have no idea what Apollo Graph QL is, but it was interesting to search by URL and see the progression of related HN titles and their engagement. 2018 July. Apollo server 2 released woo! (mostly ignored) 2019 Feb. We switched away from Slack woo! . . . (Some PRs everybody ignored) 2019 June. We got a $22M investment woo! . . . (Many PRs everybody ignored) 2022 Dec. Oops, we are laying of lots of people...

Apollo is synonymous with Graphql at this point. If you need you consume a Graphql API you most certainly reach out for Apollo on the clientside to query data.

> If you need you consume a Graphql API you most certainly reach out for Apollo on the clientside to query data.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been assessing whether to use Apollo in a Swift iOS application. If your backend is using GraphQL then it’s almost impossible to find even a StackOverflow answer from anyone not using Apollo.

But when I tried it out, I found the package was cumbersome to use, and the generated code was over-dimensioned and inelegant, and the dependency itself pulled in other dependencies.

With bitter experience of using other packages in the past, which start out as helpful, but which end up a burden to the codebase, I decided to write some queries and mutations by hand. And it was super-simple.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#172

Post by justaregulardev »

no_wizard wrote: post #145
andrewingram wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It spun out of Meteor, which was then sold to another org.

I'm interested in this history, any where I can read about all this?

Here’s an article from TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/02/tiny-acquires-meteor/) on the acquisition of Meteor by Tiny Capital

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#173

Post by jpgvm »

no_wizard wrote: post #145
andrewingram wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It spun out of Meteor, which was then sold to another org.

I'm interested in this history, any where I can read about all this?

Read maybe not, but I was there if you are curious about anything.

I was there during the transition period. Originally joined to work on the Meteor hosting platform that was called Galaxy. Handled integration of Meteor APM (which was an acquisition) both of which got sold off when the old Meteor business was sold.

I then worked on what was called Apollo Optics, the GraphQL APM product. Rewrote the time series backend to port it to Apache Druid (which remains in use today!). Was somewhat unceremoniously let go of during a bad personal period. Don't think I would have stayed anyway though, main reason I stayed as long as I did was I had a really good mentor there that taught me a lot.

Worth mentioning the company had already raised an absolute crap ton when on the original Meteor path, then the following pivot raised even more money. No idea how many rounds of financing the company has been through at this point but to say it exemplified the excesses of cheap money would be an understatement.

Developer tools is a tough business, no-one really wants to pay for that stuff at the low end which means catering to enterprise. Long sales cycles, annoying requirements etc.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#174

Post by btrfsck »

treelanko wrote: post #169

As someone affected by layoffs earlier last month, I can say this market is not looking great. With hiring frozen everywhere I'm afraid there probably won't be hope until Q2 2023

I was also laid off earlier last month. Comments like yours would scare me.

So I hope I don't come across as rude or anything, but I want to provide a counter-anecdote.

I was laid off in very early November. I took about 2 weeks just to get over about 80% of my saltiness at what I considered to be a betrayal. (I won't go into detail, forgive me, I'm still not able to talk about it without being salty yet.)

I then asked my two best tech friends (1 from college, 1 from my first job) for referrals to the companies they worked at. I did 2 interview loops, got 2 offers, and picked one. I got a ~10k raise over my last position in the process, though mostly out of region arbitrage (last job was geo-adjusting me down ~10% whereas my new job was not, but it's a smaller company and an earlier stage company, so less cash to sling around, but more equity).

(for the record, I have 9 years of experience and the position is "senior software engineer" which was the same as the job I got laid off from).

So - to all you fellow laid off peoples - don't rely on anecdotes from strangers on the internet. I wouldn't have ever made this post as a top-level post, but I hope my 2c calms folks a bit.

(And for the record... I was intending/expecting to apply to more than 2 companies, but I was a bit sick of applying to companies where I didn't have an inside opinion on the culture bc I felt like I got burned by tha tlast time, so I gave these 2 companies (where I did have that inside opinion) the benefit of being the only 2 companies in my first salvo of interviewing, so I could give them extra attention. And I happened to get an offer I really liked at a company I feel good about, so I took it, even if I guess I probably could've optimized a few more k of base pay if I'd grabbed more/bigger companies in my first round.)

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#175

Post by lynx23 »

nbar1 wrote: post #93
lfittl wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "$300 mental health" seems odd - for any kind of counseling/therapy/etc sessions this is a drop in the bucket in terms of cost. It will easily cost 10x to work with a mental health professional (and insurance companies sadly pay a very small amount of it). So why add this to an otherwise reasonable package?

$300 is incredibly reasonable since it's more than $0.

You nailed it!

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#176

Post by dymk »

voidfunc wrote: post #168
dymk wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously they’re going to wipe the laptops

Hopefully their IT department does that, because if not, I wouldn't expect less technology savvy former employees to go through the trouble.

It’s all done remotely, by the aforementioned corpware.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#177

Post by satvikpendem »

mardifoufs wrote: post #162
satvikpendem wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But...he's doing the opposite, he laid everyone off. If anything I think that should be encouraged, I remember Whatsapp had less than a hundred employees when they were bought for billions, same as Instagram. I feel like we should encourage embracing the maximum productivity per person rather than throwing more people, since as they said, it doesn't necessarily work.

Why should layoffs be encouraged though? Even if a corporation is bloated, I don't see why we should care if we aren't investors. It can even lead to cool stuff for everyone else, such as more open source tools and software that can usually be contributed by those "bloat" teams

I just like efficient systems, both programming and organizational. Having bloat so to speak just annoys me.

Making open source tools is not something I'd consider bloat, I'm talking more about those in the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber.

Having fewer people also leads to people achieving more, ie one company with 1000 employees versus n companies that are 1/n the size, I'd say the smaller companies are much more likely to produce innovations that are useful for society as a whole.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#178

Post by brundolf »

lfittl wrote: post #72
jackson1442 wrote: post #8

Layoffs are going to suck regardless, but this is one of the best severance packages I've seen in this wave: * 15 weeks base pay + 1 week per year of employment * 6 months COBRA + $300 mental health * no 1-yr cliff, options can be exercised thru next year * you can keep all your equipment

The "$300 mental health" seems odd - for any kind of counseling/therapy/etc sessions this is a drop in the bucket in terms of cost. It will easily cost 10x to work with a mental health professional (and insurance companies sadly pay a very small amount of it). So why add this to an otherwise reasonable package?

In my experience that covers 2-4 visits outside of insurance. That's enough to help you process eg. the stress of suddenly losing your job

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#179

Post by satvikpendem »

jpgvm wrote: post #173
no_wizard wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested in this history, any where I can read about all this?

Read maybe not, but I was there if you are curious about anything. I was there during the transition period. Originally joined to work on the Meteor hosting platform that was called Galaxy. Handled integration of Meteor APM (which was an acquisition) both of which got sold off when the old Meteor business was sold. I then worked on what was called Apollo Optics, the GraphQL APM product. Rewrote the time series backen…

Sorry to hear about their letting you go.

To be honest I don't understand Apollo's business model, not once did I feel like I needed to pay for it, its free version solves all my needs.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#180

Post by satvikpendem »

reducesuffering wrote: post #135
sergiotapia wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apollo is synonymous with Graphql at this point. If you need you consume a Graphql API you most certainly reach out for Apollo on the clientside to query data.

Eh, https://github.com/urql-graphql/urql is considered the improved re-architected project that doesn't contain the legacy baggage from the beginning of GraphQL like Apollo does.

Urql client is great, however for the backend, Apollo Server really can't be beat, at least for a NodeJS backend.
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