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Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

news.shopify.com

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Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#511

Post by amrocha »

darth_avocado wrote: post #505
amrocha wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly didn't perform as well as you thought if they passed on you

Not quite. In this market, you can crush it and still not get the job. One thing I can say for sure, I performed way better than was required for the position. Anyway, ended up somewhere way better, so worked out in the end.

Sounds like you didn't meet their bar. I'm happy you're somewhere you like, and interviews are somewhat arbitrary so you're not gonna pass them all. It still doesn't reflect well on you to take that stance though.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#512

Post by jesterson »

mabbo wrote: post #436

I'm impacted. And it sucks. It sucks because I really liked the company. I liked the culture. I liked the leadership style. I liked the mission. I genuinely think that company is doing good for the world, and making money in the process. The challenge now is that the leadership have burned a lot of trust with the employees. They repeatedly said no more layoffs were coming, but with this move they all benefitted finan…

> I genuinely think that company is doing good for the world

You can't be serious... What good those bunch of [censored] could possibly do?

As a merchant - worst decision ever was made to work with them. Wasted tens of thousands of dollars for nothing. Everything is bad - tech, support, "dedicated manager", API, plainly everything is horrible.

good for the world... Seriously?

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#513

Post by sangnoir »

annexrichmond wrote: post #472
s1artibartfast wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry if my comment came off at an personal attack, that wasn't the intent. With that said, there are lots of reasons why a company might want to vet candidate attitude besides discriminating based on protected characteristics. Out of curiosity, what kind of questions did you find invasive or discriminatory?

So it wasn't the questions themselves, but when you start asking about why you moved from this city to that, or why did you choose this school, etc. Maybe it's because your SO got a job there, or some other personal reason. I get that it's totally an innocent intent, but there are much better ways to assess a candidate's soft skills, that is strictly related to their professional experience.

You can say the wonderfully vague "my partner" if you don't want to reveal your marital status and sexual orientation

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#514

Post by tsak »

xtracto wrote: post #234
thegginthesky wrote: post #68

I'll tell you a personal anecdote about Shopify and why I dislike the company. Back in 2019, I was contacted by Shopify for a job opportunity. After acing multiple remote interviews, their recruiter couldn't contain their excitement. They promised me an onsite interview to simply meet the team and potentially secure an offer. Imagine my surprise when, after enduring a 15-hour economy class flight with barely any time…

People interviewing have to stand for themselves more. Several years ago, I was living in Germany looking to go back home later that year. I got into the interview process for a nice Silicon Valley startup (called Ooyala). After 3 phone interviews (2 technical) the recruiter was super excited and told me they would fly me from Germany to their offices.. A 10 hour flight. I respectfully declined, telling her that beca…

Fully agree with that. I had a similar experience when I was asked to complete yet another take home exercise and I simply told them to look at the last two I had done (for other companies). After a first bit of reluctance by the company's recruiter, they budged and accepted.

When hiring people, I ended up making similar concessions for the right candidate.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#515

Post by ant_li0n »

I was hired in Aug 2022, laid off yesterday.

Looking at it from their perspective, I would have made the choice to lay me off (or fire me). The reality is that I just did not get enough meaningful project work. I talked to my manager frequently and it was always something "just around the corner". My manager went on parental leave 3 months after I started. Pretty much everybody took most of December off. Our division did a re-org which shook everything up, wasted more time. I didn't get any meaningful projects until the start of February, my 6th month of employment at Shopify. I was doing really well there, felt good about my work and my contribution, whereas I'd been floundering for 6 months with impostor syndrome and existential crisis.

But it was just too late. I got the axe. I don't feel too personally bad about it, although I hate interviewing and have performance anxiety when it comes to technical interviewing stuff. I want to take time off to rest but I'm afraid I'll use all my savings up and still not have a job.

I wasn't there long enough to really know for certain, but I feel like part of the problem is the monolithic nature of the codebase. Getting projects greenlit required a bunch of political wrangling and convincing of the senior leadership team by the product folks. Things just moved really slowly. The "Get Shit Done" (I kid you not, that's what they call it) process of shipping projects seemed interesting but nobody really followed the documented process. I got the feeling it was a lot of back channel conversations, gate keeping by higher up folks, with people every step of the chain asking themselves, "Will this decision make me look more impactful in my upcoming review?". Kinda feels like the way I imagine the bureaucracy of the Soviet Union operated.

I don't know. I have a lot of feelings about all of it, I'm personally really sad because I feel like I really had something to offer, something to contribute, but I spent most of my time just fucking around. Scale that up to a company the size of Shopify and it's just a tragic waste of human potential. But they will just pat themselves on the back, congratulating themselves on "making difficult decisions".

The 16 weeks severance is nice though. Takes the edge off.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#516

Post by FredPret »

the_overseer wrote: post #415
FredPret wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s actually hilarious people still believe more political bureaucracy is the answer. Fortunately, US culture is taking over. Companies are formed by shareholders to make money in some venture for the shareholders. People can pursue their social objectives through other types of organizations. Perhaps governments that impose regulations and taxes. I myself support moderate taxes and light regulations. To the extent…

You know what would make even more money for the owners? People having less rights. Say, working people for 12 hours a day and throw them out when they are no longer as productive as some arbitrary set goal. So you would have no issue with owners lobbying to change the law so they make even more money, right? As you said, more money is the only goal. What would you say if it's you who is worked to death? See, everybo…

Your first paragraph is a non-sequitur. Only in a coal mine with pickaxes do more hours equal more profit for me, the investor.

The richest countries all have strong rights, legally and also informally expected rights. The richest companies have confident people who have lots of options, not 12-hour-a-day slaves.

Because nowadays almost all money is made using the mind, so there’s a natural relationship between a higher human development index and my net worth. (I mean I’m a normal human with empathy who also enjoys other people doing well, but even a sociopath could see they’ll make more money in the US than in either a totalitarian state or a government-less state - North Korea vs Haiti).

But all that is besides the point. Companies are single-purpose entities. Like Unix programs - do one thing well. This is very hard, and goals should not be mixed. The one thing is making money for the shareholders by doing X.

For the type of worker protection you would argue for, you need other types of organizations like unions, governments, political parties, etc.

This is why you need capitalism and democracy to make a thriving society.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#517

Post by kalleboo »

FredPret wrote: post #105
kalleboo wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why did the CEO hire all these useless people in the first place if they are so competent? Why did it take until now to fire them?

Who says they’re competent?

So layoff the CEO if he made such an egregious judgement call as to hire 1 in 5 too many staff

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#518

Post by kalleboo »

xur17 wrote: post #468
kalleboo wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why did the CEO hire all these useless people in the first place if they are so competent? Why did it take until now to fire them?

The CEO isn't an all knowing entity. It's possible they made a judgement call and were wrong. Would you prefer that companies be absolutely sure before they hire anyone to ensure layoffs never happen? It seems like the end result would be less hiring / more people without work.

So layoff the CEO if he made such an egregious judgement call as to hire 1 in 5 too many staff

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#519

Post by xur17 »

kalleboo wrote: post #518
xur17 wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO isn't an all knowing entity. It's possible they made a judgement call and were wrong. Would you prefer that companies be absolutely sure before they hire anyone to ensure layoffs never happen? It seems like the end result would be less hiring / more people without work.

So layoff the CEO if he made such an egregious judgement call as to hire 1 in 5 too many staff

OK, so now we're going to fire any CEO that lays off more than X% of the staff? The likely effect will be slower hiring, and less jobs in our economy. Is that desirable?

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#520

Post by jonny_eh »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #390
jonny_eh wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CEO's are neither prophets nor oracles Then why are they compensated like they're gods?

It's one big club, and you're not in it.

I don't want to be in any club that would have me.
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