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Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

bloomberg.com

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Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#391

Post by pclmulqdq »

rsanek wrote: post #255
hintymad wrote: post #205

Let's be honest, Meta over hired. Big time. If anyone ever interviewed a few Meta engineers, he would easily see that a large percentage of them had really small, and sometimes bullshit scopes. As a result, such engineers couldn't articulate what they do in Meta, couldn't deep dive into their own tech stacks, nor could solve common-sense design questions when they just deviated a bit from those popular interview ques…

Meta has about 10% more employees now than they did at the end of 2021. They currently have less than half the employees of Google or Apple; only a third of Microsoft. If you're right, the rest of big tech is in a much worse position.

Most of these companies kicked off the over-hiring in 2020 during the COVID boom they experienced. It was done by end of 2021.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#392

Post by achierius »

mpweiher wrote: post #270
pembrook wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has worked at big tech (and interviewed fellow big tech workers), I can confirm this is pretty typical. People from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, etc...it's all the same. Given the size of these organizations (anywhere from 100K-300K employees if you include contractors), there's a vanishingly small chance the individual you're interviewing had influence or responsibility over any important thing spe…

> People from Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, etc...it's all the same. Hmm...it's been a while, but when I was at Apple one of the reasons given internally for why products were so much better than the competition (and they were) was that Apple typically had 1/10th the number of people working on a particular product or feature. I wonder if that's still the case.

Maybe not 1/10, but definitely on-the-order-of 1/4th or 1/6th as many.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#393

Post by matchbok3 »

gnabgib wrote: post #386
matchbok3 wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is forcing anything to happen. People chose to work there. They get paid a HUGE amount of money. Now their projects ended or whatever. What world do you live in? Suicide? Crazy talk.

I'm not sure the 3 version of your account is going to fare better than the last[0] if you don't find a better way to contribute to the community. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=matchbok

Solid contribution!

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#395

Post by nrb »

matchbok3 wrote: post #388
nrb wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The strategic mistake is that they don’t have any other good ideas to deploy these folks toward. A company of this size and financial condition in technology with exceptional leadership should not be out of good ideas.

I mean, no company ever has solved that problem soooo

Well Apple seems to be able to largely avoid these staffing whiplash problems…

I mainly call them problems because hugely scaling your org up and down on a whim is extremely inefficient when your recruiting and onboarding costs are high. Surely it’s more wise to repurpose the people you already have unless you have no time horizon on appropriate new areas of R&D.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#396

Post by VoidWarranty »

singpolyma3 wrote: post #305
abosley wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. What happens when every company lays off 10, 20, 40% of their staff? AI Agents don't pay taxes and dont participate in a meaningful amount of the consumer economy.

AI isn't contributing to the layoffs though

It absolutely is. The funding for it, not the product itself.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#397

Post by achierius »

Sol- wrote: post #287
lamasery wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Layoffs are a very normal thing for businesses to do. Didn't used to be, except in extreme circumstances. Was seen as a really bad sign. To the extent there's "science" on this, it's a lot less clear than you might think that a policy of reaching eagerly for the layoff-button is long-term beneficial to companies, i.e. there's a good chance it's a cultural fad, you do it because "that's what's expected" and perhaps…

People generally complain about the interview process being bloated while also not giving a good signal - is it then not better to hire people for a while, see if they perform and then letting them go again? Though perhaps in Meta's case they hire a lot while also having cumbersome interviews, I don't know. I just feel like there are perhaps some benefit in being quick to hire and fire.

What people dislike is the boom-bust cycle inherent to all levels of a market economy. During some years, these companies suck people up like a vacuum -- that can be bad if you're on the inside and all of a sudden the culture goes out the window, or if you're expected to onboard 3-4 people at the same time, or you end up with a reorg every quarter. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, companies shut down (non-backfill) hiring entirely and layoff huge percentages of the company, with no guarantee that you'll be safe just because you're doing a good job.

Human lives do not work like this. If you're getting married, if you have an unexpected hospital expense, if you want to buy a house -- these are not things that "market cycles" will plan around, but you have to.

Being quick to hire or fire is not the problem. Massive overhiring and massive layoffs are.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#398

Post by renewiltord »

pipes wrote: post #230
hintymad wrote: post #205

Let's be honest, Meta over hired. Big time. If anyone ever interviewed a few Meta engineers, he would easily see that a large percentage of them had really small, and sometimes bullshit scopes. As a result, such engineers couldn't articulate what they do in Meta, couldn't deep dive into their own tech stacks, nor could solve common-sense design questions when they just deviated a bit from those popular interview ques…

Are you saying you interviewed meta engineers and found this? Or is this speculation?

I interviewed a Meta Senior SWE in 2023. Guy couldn't write the most basic Python loop. Attempts were made. I didn't expect a list comprehension. This was just a warmup exercise fizz-buzz level so everyone can feel confident and talk. Everyone just smashes it. I could have done it as a teenager. Had to call it off after 15 min of trying. It was too much. But he took it on the chin. "Yep, thanks, sorry I didn't get too far. Bad day, maybe" or something like that. Most confident guy I've ever talked to. I was impressed by that - to totally bomb and be cool about it. Good for him.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#399

Post by Jensson »

marcosdumay wrote: post #185
teaearlgraycold wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internally they operate like a government or military and less like a normal company.

There are very few government organizations here in Brazil with more than 8k people under the same management.

All of those government organizations are under the same management: the government. Subsidiaries are still under the management of the parent firm.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#400

Post by lotsofpulp »

flir wrote: post #378
akdev1l wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am convinced Mark Zuckerberg does more harm than good for Facebook like literally they lucked out on the landing the business model early but it feels it has been in an ongoing decline and everything else they have tried has failed spectacularly (and particularly things Mark has put his whole weight behind) They never became anything more than the ad company

The transition to mobile-first was a good call. Probably the last good call though. Oh, and buying Instagram.

And whatsapp.
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