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Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

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451–460 of 509 posts

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#451
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is blaming the economy and employees, when in fact the product itself is dying. Lots of CEOs with bad businesses will play this card to avoid responsibility...

I keep asking people if they know anybody excited about the metaverse. I have not found any even among people who are total Facebook products.

I thought you'd missed a word but no, "total Facebook products" is good.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#452

Yeah, "we hired people we shouldn't have so now we're going to make it increasingly unpleasant to work here" doesn't work. First-hand, what I've seen happen is that your most talented people, who are the most in demand, leave the organization quite quickly because they correctly realize they don't have to put up with this bullshit. It's the coasters who fear they'll never land an equally cushy job who attempt to ride…

Thanks for this insight. I wouldn't have thought of it this way.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#453
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is blaming the economy and employees, when in fact the product itself is dying. Lots of CEOs with bad businesses will play this card to avoid responsibility...

I keep asking people if they know anybody excited about the metaverse. I have not found any even among people who are total Facebook products.

I don’t think the future of the metaverse will have anything to do with 3D actually. The 3D/VR stuff is more of a fad than a long term plan.

The real vision behind the metaverse is thinking that many of the things we currently do in person (i.e., concerts, going to bars, school, work, etc.) will eventually move online. Meta wants to position themselves as the “platform” for this.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#454
post #232
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure I’d blame management for not having a crystal ball and seeing the market downturn in advance. I can see them getting fired for not hitting their hiring and spending targets when the company has aggressive expansion goals. And the idea you can hire thousands of people and exclude all potential deadwood is just fantasy.

But you could, you know, actually measure performance and manage according to it. I'm not saying self-selection shouldn't be a part of it. Some employees should absolutely be thinking, "eh, I might be managed-out eventually for underperformance because I am not a great fit here... and I don't know that I can fix it or that it's worth fixing it" and depart on their own. But it should absolutely be because management q…

Agree with you there. Crappy performance management is a massive red light and all your good people will bail ASAP.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll force more people into the lower buckets of the stack rank. It’s very dystopian in its simplicity.

there isn't really a stack rank, and they're pretty careful about not fitting performance into predetermined quota buckets. honestly i think attrition will get the numbers down fairly quickly, although unfortunately probably pretty evenly distributed among good and bad engineers.

If you have differentiated rewards, you have a stack rank. They might not call it that or leave some flexibility in evaluating it but rest assured it is there.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about, you know... _zero_ "PSC"? Sounds like the type of shit a company does when it builds a culture of mistrusting its own employees.

No performance reviews, ever?

Have you really never had a job where your boss simply evaluated your performance as needed rather than on some schedule like it's a mundane march towards death for the rest of your career?

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#457
post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, yes. I get paid a bit better than I would expect at Microsoft and a bit worse than if I went to Apple.

Is this in Silicon Valley? In my area (a southeast tech hub) I’ve seen these type of companies offering jobs in the $100k-$120k range, which is far below Microsoft or any FAANG.

Yes, Silicon Valley.

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#458

The best part is, if you quit now it's an implicit admission you were one of the ones who "shouldn't be here". It's a really wonderful set of incentives. Great job, Mark.

Hardly. Top talent is first to leave as a firm's fortunes turn. (FB's fortunes turned a while ago.)

(Obviously it doesn't actually imply that, but it'll feel like that if you're there and hear that, especially if you already had non-zero imposter syndrome. Point is, it's an exceptionally shitty way to treat employees.)

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#459
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a time where I wanted to work at Meta/Facebook someday - it was actually "next" on my list. I didn't care about the negative press that Facebook got, I felt like they were unfairly targeted because of the 2016 election. And a lot of the engineering work that has come out of Facebook has been excellent, like React/React Native have changed the world. But it's just really hard to see Zuckerberg as a good busi…

Generally, people seem to enjoy working at Facebook. I knew a director that worked there and he constantly raved about it. Almost cult-like at times. I don't think I've read a single good story about working at Amazon, though. They may have the better business, but they are horrible for employees at all levels. If we're talking ethics and it has to be FAANG... I guess that just leaves Netflix really. And maybe I just…

the aws folks seem pretty happy!

Re: Meta slashes hiring plans, girds for 'fierce' headwinds

#460

Now we are entering what I like to call the "pauper CEO" phase of the economic cycle. When leadership turns out their pockets and "socializes the losses" as it were. Generally even if you work for a company that is unaffected by the current economic climate, it will be used as a justification for low raises and higher expectations at work. With high inflation happening at the same time, we are entering a bad time to…

gains for me

losses for thee

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