Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 1001 posts

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#181

Post by trashtester »

kypro wrote: post #136
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IT salaries are high mostly because the people who can do the job well can also do other jobs well, so if salaries go down then people change careers. For example, most people who can do IT could also become an electrician, for which the demand is currently high. > Also ChatGPT and other AIs increasing developers, artists, etc. productivity - so fewer people can do as much work. This is the sort of thing that increas…

> IT salaries are high mostly because the people who can do the job well can also do other jobs well True to some extent, but IT salaries are high in my opinion because until recently there was a very limited tech talent pool but huge demand for IT talent. I mean IT was only really seen as a good career around 15-20 years ago. We just got lucky. We had the right skills at the right time. We rode the wave of big tech…

Actually, IT was seen as a good career from around 80-87 and from around 95-01. It comes in waves. Then there is a bust, and those who went into IT just because it was seen as a "good career", not because they love coding, are weeded out.

And with only the passionate developers left, the cycle starts again.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#182

Post by zztop44 »

justanotherjoe wrote: post #125
nly wrote: post #35

My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…

"Those that I respected the most." I always say this, but if you appreciate someone at work, dont say it to them. Say it to management. Managements face an impossible task of appreciating every single employees' worth. You can help.

Say it to both :)

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#183

Post by lgkk »

It’s just business. And it’s not like swe aren’t making 400k or more at least in bay area.

People need to understand that just because you have a little bit of RSUs and a 200k base doesn’t mean you’re God.

You’re an asset like a machine. And you’re expensive to the bottom line.

This is literally explicitly laid out now with section 174.

If you’re taking this personally ask yourself why you’re even working for arguably some of the best most efficient capitalists on the planet. Maybe you should work for a government agency or smaller company. But you want that 400k plus right?

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#184

Post by pmlnr »

andsoitis wrote: post #59
nly wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TINA when CPI inflation (in the UK) is has been 18% in just 2 years.

> TINA when CPI inflation (in the UK) is has been 18% in just 2 years. The UK inflation rate was 3.9 percent in November 2023, down from 4.6 percent in the previous month. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the UK experienced seven months of double-digit inflation which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/306648/inflation-rate-co...

1L Arla Lactofree milk was £1 around 2013 in Tesco. Today, it's £1.85.

Bank of England inflation calculator at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/in... says it should be £1.34

So much for the inflation numbers.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#185

Post by jokethrowaway »

whiplash451 wrote: post #159
Galanwe wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should add more nuance I think. While this is a respectable way to see employer / employee relationships, it does not apply to every company / employee out there. In particular, I think this is very true for BigCo, where most people are seen as fungible cogs. The smaller the company, the better.

> The smaller the company, the better. I disagree. There is a lot of variance in small companies. There is a lot of variance in large companies as well (the famous "it will really depend on which team you belong to"). I really think there is little correlation between company size and your experience at such company. The predictive variables (if they ever exist) are elsewhere.

True, the difference is you are more likely to get the experience you've heard from reviews in a small company vs complete unknown in a big company (may be great, may be crap depending on your line of management)

In my network we keep joining the same (relative small) companies because we roughly know the culture we can shape and create an environment

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#186

Post by alangibson »

DrBazza wrote: post #149
qaq wrote: post #107

Someone should start an massive incubator that takes in top laid off employees and gives them resources to build a competing product. They will be motivated as hell and have a ton of domain knowledge and generally have a good idea on how to do things in way more efficient way than what their former employer did. For kicks and to save money replace most of mngmnt roles with AI model.

There are often non-compete clauses in employment contracts. Depending on the country, they're not worth the paper they're written on sometimes. In others, legally binding.

Are there any examples of companies successfully enforcing non-competes against rank and file employees? (I'm excluding high value targets like Jeff Dean here where it might actually make sense to put millions in lawyers behind a suit).

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#187

Post by cbg0 »

billy99k wrote: post #148
taopai wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? You think they'll outsource work to foreign countries?

They have already started outsourcing to Canada at 60% of the cost. One of my clients outsources all large projects to a company in Ukraine (The HQ is there, but the developers are in other parts of Europe). The time zone isn't too bad, their English/communication is nearly perfect, and it's at a fraction of the cost here in the US. A large year-long project that I was the tech lead on that involved moving our legacy…

> A large year-long project that I was the tech lead on that involved moving our legacy systems to a brand-new system (this includes all of the coding, etc) cost the company around $90,000. There were 10 devs on staff.

Sounds like complete BS. Even just taking in salaries, that's $9K/year/dev - even living in Ukraine you would make more than that. If you've moved out of the country and are in Poland for example, that's not a livable wage.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#188

Post by alecco »

mindwok wrote: post #98

I'm surprised to see so many comments here taking layoffs personally, or talking about how layoffs are stupid. Layoffs are not personal, and the corollary to that is that you should never treat your company as a friend. It's a company trying to maximize value. Also, layoffs do work. Almost every large, successful company has done them at some stage. They are an expected, and necessary, part of operating a company and…

Mass layoffs work when there was over-hiring (management's fault) or there was a big revenue downturn (market forces). This time it was because of over-hiring at the COVID mania. People left safer jobs to join FAANGs tempted with higher salaries and a prospect of improving their CV. And now they are dumped back into the toughest tech jobs market in 20 years.

This is totally a fault of management and none of them are losing their jobs! People have a good reason to be pissed off.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#189

Post by theshackleford »

nly wrote: post #35

My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…

> You can't trust anything anyone above you in the management chain tells you. Not one thing. Not ever. Even if they're being truthful they were probably lied to themselves or told a half truth.

I've been an executive and every position along the chain in the lead up to that within my industry. If I took anything away from my time in it (I have since moved back to practical hands on roles) it is that your above statement is sadly, quite accurate.

My time as an executive has left me soured on the industry full stop long term now i've realised its shit all the way up. I just kept thinking i'd get high enough to find people who like me, had morals or beliefs which they may apply to their decision making. But no, morals have no belonging it would appear in the executive class, which to be fair, I should have known about in advance, but my continued promotions were really quite accidental over the years and I am obviously niave.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#190

Post by alangibson »

madeofpalk wrote: post #57
NorwegianDude wrote: post #6

> laid off employees who worked on ... the Pixel phone. That sounds weird to me. Pixel phones has grown very fast in the last years and I don't se how it can be seen as anything but a great success.

Google sells approximately zero Pixel phones. Every year they'll say "we're serious this time" and promise to dump money into marketing, but it really goes nowhere and carriers continue to push other phones.

They sold one to me since OnePlus fell off.
Post reply on HN