Kraken lays off 30% of staff • Hacker News Board

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#231

Post by eloff » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 3:04 PM UTC

jiveturkey wrote: post #131

eloff wrote: post #52

I'm so glad I turned down the job offer at Kraken. The reason I turned it down was because I felt that crypto was a bubble waiting to pop (back in March, but that's been my "wrong" opinion for the last 5 years or more.) The tech stack was nice, the pay was excellent, the product I would have been working on is comparable to Bloomberg Terminal, so it was pretty cool too. But I just thought the job might go away in the…

If you've held that opinion for so long, why did you even apply to Kraken at all? What would have swayed you to accept their offer?

Partly as leverage in other negotiations, but there was definitely a price where I would have accepted, and they came close to it. I was tempted.

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#232

Post by eloff » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 3:04 PM UTC

guessmyname wrote: post #212

mrweasel wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they didn't apply, but was approached with an offer?

In that case, user eloff is using the wrong terminology. An offer, in the context of a job interview, always refers to a (paper) contract describing the job title, salary, equity, benefits and other clauses, and implies that the company is ready to hire the candidate. However, if your assumption is correct, that the company approached eloff with an offer without an interview, that actually means an invitation to have…

It was an offer.

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#233

Post by throw_pm23 » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 3:20 PM UTC

hahaxdxd123 wrote: post #223

throw_pm23 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like "communism is good, it was just badly implemented". For a movement that prides itself on being evidence-based, there is a lot of evidence EA is willing to ignore.

Isn't effective altruism just max_a E[benefit to society | a]? I don't see how that can be discredited as a personal moral philosophy, even if you don't personally disagree with it. SBF and FTX fraud doesn't discredit that it's more cost effective to educate people in certain areas than others.

I discredit this philosophy because E[..] cannot be accurately estimated. So it should be P(no harm|a) > 1-eps before anything.

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#234

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 01, 2022, 3:52 PM UTC

rabuse wrote: post #41

CommitSyn wrote: post #4

> We’re reducing our global workforce by approximately 1,100 people, or 30 percent, in order to adapt to current market conditions. Why does a crypto exchange need 4,000 employees?

If it were up to HN, I swear, every company would just have 30 employees or it's a "waste".

[deleted]

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#235

Post by gaws » Fri, Dec 02, 2022, 12:02 AM UTC

pb7 wrote: post #15

throw8383833jj wrote: post #5

At least they're handling it responsibly and generously: From their blog: Separation pay: We will pay 16 weeks of base pay for all departing Krakenites inclusive of the paid leave period. Performance bonus: For those eligible, we will pay each departing Krakenite their bonus as determined by their manager. Benefits: We will offer eligible Krakenites 4 months of healthcare continuation coverage inclusive of the paid l…

Severance at most recent layoffs has been very generous. Getting laid off sucks but this is just about the best way to do it.

> Severance at most recent layoffs has been very generous.

They're following Meta's example in hopes of not getting flamed on social media. Otherwise, the packages would be half as generous.

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#236

Post by gaws » Fri, Dec 02, 2022, 12:04 AM UTC

eloff wrote: post #52

I'm so glad I turned down the job offer at Kraken. The reason I turned it down was because I felt that crypto was a bubble waiting to pop (back in March, but that's been my "wrong" opinion for the last 5 years or more.) The tech stack was nice, the pay was excellent, the product I would have been working on is comparable to Bloomberg Terminal, so it was pretty cool too. But I just thought the job might go away in the…

> I'm so glad I turned down the job offer at Kraken.

What job did you take instead?

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#237

Post by CommitSyn » Fri, Dec 02, 2022, 3:41 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #202

quonn wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why is kraken a large corporation already?

Already? Kraken was founded in 2011 and had 1.1 billion in revenue in 2020 (and I imagine this amount was much higher during the 2021 boom).

I'm curious what their 2016 boom numbers were. Is there any way to find that data?

Re: Kraken lays off 30% of staff

#238

Post by CommitSyn » Fri, Dec 02, 2022, 3:44 AM UTC

diehunde wrote: post #28

CommitSyn wrote: post #4

> We’re reducing our global workforce by approximately 1,100 people, or 30 percent, in order to adapt to current market conditions. Why does a crypto exchange need 4,000 employees?

I don't know if you are genuinely curious but this question is getting kind of old. Every time a company does layoffs, somebody asks, "why does an X company need X number of people?". Every opening has a purpose. No company hires people for fun, and unless you are a company employee you don't know all the different areas, projects, and support staff a company needs to run when they are actually a business trying to m…

It is a genuinely curious question. I haven't seen the abundance of "Why do they have so many employees" question as I'm new here, and that just seemed like a lot of employees to have if they can just lay off 1/3rd of their workforce overnight.