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Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

cnbc.com

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Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#31

Post by MisterBastahrd »

addicted wrote: post #29
toomuchtodo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bit of shake up going on. Their billionaire founder is coming back into a CEO role, cleaned house at the top (of folks that came in from Amazon), and after rescinding job offers a month ago and 20% layoffs 9 months ago, they're now trimming another 20%. Internet rando analysis: Flexport most likely surfed the COVID wave of shipping, but the new macro makes the go forward much more challenging with aggregate demand de…

The major red flag to me appears to be the fact that they couldn’t beat Amazon to a logistics contract with Shopify. It seems a lot of these actions followed that failure.

Amazon and Walmart should both be able to dominate Flexport in logistics with ease. It's the foundation of what they do.

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#32

Post by [deleted] »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #31
addicted wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major red flag to me appears to be the fact that they couldn’t beat Amazon to a logistics contract with Shopify. It seems a lot of these actions followed that failure.

Amazon and Walmart should both be able to dominate Flexport in logistics with ease. It's the foundation of what they do.

[deleted]

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#33

Post by p1esk »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #16
p1esk wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why would anyone want to work there? Because they can’t get offers elsewhere?

A colleague who had an engineering manager offer from Flexport rescinded was able to find an alternative offer in less than ~2 weeks. n=1. Regardless of reason why someone wants to work at an org, it's likely they can find gainful employment elsewhere.

There are what seems to be weekly Ask HN posts about how someone can’t get an interview in months of trying and a bunch of people reply confirming that “things are bad right now”.

If I was laid off and been sending my resume out for the last six months without any success I’d not be picky.

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#35

Post by TuringNYC »

p1esk wrote: post #13
throwaway5959 wrote: post #9

This isn’t great optics: https://archive.ph/pxy91 Serious question: with how much instability there is with this company, why would anyone want to work there? Are they the best in their business and just have hit a rough spot? Why is Flexport so commonly discussed here?

why would anyone want to work there? Because they can’t get offers elsewhere?

I would consider working there. There is something very real and tangible about a supply chain and shipping company. It is like computers meeting one of the oldest technologies (ships) in the world, on a global scale.

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#36

Post by gumby »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #31
addicted wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major red flag to me appears to be the fact that they couldn’t beat Amazon to a logistics contract with Shopify. It seems a lot of these actions followed that failure.

Amazon and Walmart should both be able to dominate Flexport in logistics with ease. It's the foundation of what they do.

But is it worth it to them? Its interesting to think if or if not the margin might be so low on that part of the business that it’s worth doing in house (because failure would cost them more) but not worth doing for the competition.

Clearly the opposite was the case with AWS, but was that clear at the time? I can’t remember, if I even knew at the time.

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#38

Post by vuln »

p1esk wrote: post #33
toomuchtodo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A colleague who had an engineering manager offer from Flexport rescinded was able to find an alternative offer in less than ~2 weeks. n=1. Regardless of reason why someone wants to work at an org, it's likely they can find gainful employment elsewhere.

There are what seems to be weekly Ask HN posts about how someone can’t get an interview in months of trying and a bunch of people reply confirming that “things are bad right now”. If I was laid off and been sending my resume out for the last six months without any success I’d not be picky.

There’s also monthly “who is hiring” and “who wants to be hired” these post typically have hundreds of comments. I don’t sit on the site all day but I haven’t seen the regularity of posts you’re speaking of.

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#39

Post by toomuchtodo »

p1esk wrote: post #33
toomuchtodo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A colleague who had an engineering manager offer from Flexport rescinded was able to find an alternative offer in less than ~2 weeks. n=1. Regardless of reason why someone wants to work at an org, it's likely they can find gainful employment elsewhere.

There are what seems to be weekly Ask HN posts about how someone can’t get an interview in months of trying and a bunch of people reply confirming that “things are bad right now”. If I was laid off and been sending my resume out for the last six months without any success I’d not be picky.

Indeed, and you shouldn't be picky when you can't afford to be. But! You should also be networking and looking for your next job on day 1 at your current job. Reputation and network gets you hired, and throwing resumes into the abyss is suboptimal. If you do not have a list of former and current colleagues you could reach out to today and be confident that they could either refer you into a role or connect you to someone who can, I highly recommend fixing that over the long term. This also enables you to consistently negotiate from a position of power (another gig is your BATNA).

This is not to say you won't get hired by applying through a website career page, LinkedIn, an ATS, whatever, but having a strong network will always win vs pipeline luck. Some people are just not good at interviewing, and some are simply not a fit for the role.

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