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Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

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Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#371

Post by mabbo »

csense wrote: post #368

What in the world did Uber ever need that many people for?

When I was an intern at Google maaaany years ago, a mentor of mine described what it is Google does with all these engineers:

"Well see, we discovered a hose that money pours out of. It's called 'online advertising'. Now what we do is spend half our effort trying to make the hose pour faster, and the other half trying to find another hose."

Uber figured out the 'Uber for X' pattern. Now they're trying to optimize it, and figure out something else that makes money.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#372

Post by mooreds »

kumarski wrote: post #366

Even in this market whereby consumers must order food via apps, none of the food delivery companies are profitable from my understanding. Can anyone explain how this works/how this came to be?

Food is a business with skinny skinny margins (source, worked on a startup which provided services to food businesses, family members own food businesses).

Delivery companies are fighting for a piece of that market which isn't full of margin, so they're having to fight for it. Plus they're in a landgrab, so choosing growth over profits.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#373

Post by N1H1L »

gbronner wrote: post #265
whymauri wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why the firings are waves. Is this a logistics thing, or a morale thing somehow? Because it seems like it would negatively impact morale, more than anything. In either case, don't feel obligated to answer given the current circumstances. I'm sorry this is happening to you and your company. I'm sending you and the other workers good wishes.

At Lehman Brothers, the waves came every few weeks. On Tuesdays, HR fired business people, and engineering people cleaned up the mess. On Wednesdays, HR fired engineering people. On Thursdays, HR fired each other. It allows you to ramp down without pandemonium.

I don't know whether it's an urban legend or not, some HR people were asked to write their own emails firing themselves at Lehman.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#374

Post by hintymad »

simias wrote: post #267
bdcravens wrote: post #205

Developers at unicorns: even in the best of times, do you feel more expendable than you've felt at other jobs? We always are amazed at the number of developers at companies like this. (the numbers I've seen are old, but I guess out of 22,000 employees, it was something like 5000 engineers?) While that allows you to build in a more robust way than a smaller company, it seems like there's no shortage of developers work…

I've never worked for a true unicorn but I've been in companies that got a sudden success and grew way too big way too fast. I think you can tell from the inside when a company loses its way. As you mention, suddenly you have tons of teams working on what seems to be fairly niche aspects of the company's product. You have man-years worth of work going nowhere as projects get scrapped mid-development. You start having…

Well said. That's exactly what happened to many unicorns, including Uber.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#375

Post by dmaskasky »

anticsapp wrote: post #299
dmaskasky wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great suggestion. Unfortunately, my portfolio is entirely comprised of Uber contributions that I cannot share publicly. I believe many folks are like me, eyes-forward and focused on the company mission. I was going through the process of open sourcing a library, but that's no longer going to happen. I suppose I should get started on making something that I can own.

Are you allowed to talk around what you did there? Or even write "Top secret, I can't talk about it". I think you need some line items of some sort, because those are three great companies. You'll probably be out of work for 17 minutes.

I developed tooling for real time data through graphql subscriptions and grpc streaming. I built a protobuf to graphql schema generator tool. I have extensive experience with React hooks and making Redux-less applications. I was on the Uber Elevate team and brought several applications from 0-1.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#376

Post by matt_morgan »

sandworm101 wrote: post #343
simias wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never worked for a true unicorn but I've been in companies that got a sudden success and grew way too big way too fast. I think you can tell from the inside when a company loses its way. As you mention, suddenly you have tons of teams working on what seems to be fairly niche aspects of the company's product. You have man-years worth of work going nowhere as projects get scrapped mid-development. You start having…

>> You have man-years worth of work going nowhere as projects get scrapped mid-development. That's better than seeing man-years go into features that get deployed. I witnessed one successful control system company spin up a team of new hotshot UI engineers, all right out of the best schools. After months of work the team "updated" the product. Withing hours the call center was hit with hundreds of "You changed the g-…

[flagged]

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#377

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

ErikAugust wrote: post #334
trhway wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Urgent" ,"Critically Important", etc. is the most recent whatever caught the attention of a typical S/E/VP with the attention span of a ferret long enough for him/her to be able to utter it in the words. If you're able to highly visibly jump and demonstrate activity during exact that moment - a great talent leading to advancements/promotions - there is no point to react as the next new "critical" directive/change o…

I wonder if there is a way to convert Harvard Business Review articles into top-of-the-backlog items automatically...

There's your Startup Idea!

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#379

Post by wrkronmiller »

specialist wrote: post #360
simias wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never worked for a true unicorn but I've been in companies that got a sudden success and grew way too big way too fast. I think you can tell from the inside when a company loses its way. As you mention, suddenly you have tons of teams working on what seems to be fairly niche aspects of the company's product. You have man-years worth of work going nowhere as projects get scrapped mid-development. You start having…

"...you can tell from the inside when a company loses its way." Those example pathologies you listed are SOP at all the mature orgs I've worked at.

Do you think the degree to which a company succumbs to one of these "pathologies" matters? Is it a matter of timing (i.e. becoming successful faster than they become moribund)?

What do you think differentiates a company that becomes "mature" vs one that flames out?

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#380

Post by lumberingjack »

simias wrote: post #267
bdcravens wrote: post #205

Developers at unicorns: even in the best of times, do you feel more expendable than you've felt at other jobs? We always are amazed at the number of developers at companies like this. (the numbers I've seen are old, but I guess out of 22,000 employees, it was something like 5000 engineers?) While that allows you to build in a more robust way than a smaller company, it seems like there's no shortage of developers work…

I've never worked for a true unicorn but I've been in companies that got a sudden success and grew way too big way too fast. I think you can tell from the inside when a company loses its way. As you mention, suddenly you have tons of teams working on what seems to be fairly niche aspects of the company's product. You have man-years worth of work going nowhere as projects get scrapped mid-development. You start having…

Sound like what happened at Intel
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