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Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
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Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#552Earlier quoted context omitted.
> during layoffs, unions may force the company to lay off people based on seniority instead of competency. Interesting. That's the default by law here in Sweden, but can be negotiated with the union -- usually in exchange for better severance compensation.
I actually had Sweden in mind when writing it.
Maybe I was unclear (or I'm not getting your point): forcing the company to go only by seniority is what happens without the union.
Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#553Seriously, why people in tech are opposed to unions? In Europe, unions and Betriebsrat (works committee) are the norm. Why not in the US?
> Why not in the US? How many large tech. companies has Europe produced ? Why would (or even: could) anyone start/build a cutting-edge tech. company in Europe given the hell that labor laws are over there ? Labor laws in Europe are a giant hindrance to economic growth. People in most European countries have made a political choice: safety and stagnation over wealth and growth. That's their choice, fine, they're free…
Wow, that's a very opinionated take, to say the least. Especially when by Europe we mean three dozen countries or so, all of them with their own history, policies and laws. A little bit more nuance would help.
Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#554My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…
Who else here feels that humans have an innate need to be emotionally invested in their daily lives ?
- goal of your company / values - need to grow - need to perform and be seen as such - need to belong
so often we can read warnings about not falling for this, but it's so common .. it's wired in us it seems
Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#555My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…
Who else here feels that humans have an innate need to be emotionally invested in their daily lives ? - goal of your company / values - need to grow - need to perform and be seen as such - need to belong so often we can read warnings about not falling for this, but it's so common .. it's wired in us it seems
The desire for meaning through their work is used against a worker.
https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/duke-fuqua-insights/kay-passion-e...
> The researchers found that people consider it more legitimate to make passionate employees leave family to work on a weekend, work unpaid, and handle unrelated tasks that were not in the job description.
> The team found passion exploitation consistently across eight studies with more than 2,400 total participants. The studies varied in design, in the participants (students, managers, random online samples) and in the kinds of jobs they considered.
> In one study, participants who read that an artist was strongly passionate about his job said it was more legitimate for the boss to exploit the artist than those who read the artist wasn’t as passionate. This finding extended to asking for work far beyond the job description, including leaving a day at the park with family and cleaning the office bathroom.
Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#556@dang: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38947580
Can we get a merge? There is a lot of discussion in this other topic.
Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#557My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…
Who else here feels that humans have an innate need to be emotionally invested in their daily lives ? - goal of your company / values - need to grow - need to perform and be seen as such - need to belong so often we can read warnings about not falling for this, but it's so common .. it's wired in us it seems
Well most humans do, but psychopaths (and I speak from personal experience) probably do not, and the smarter among them tend to do really well in the American corporate context.
Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#558Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see what you are saying. I am an engineer-turned-EM and you don't know me, so please take everything I say with a grain of salt: > Your job is NOT safe. Nothing will make execs happier than having this line of thought popularized amongst engineers. It will allow them to hire cheaper, and exploit existing engineers more. I think a better way to put it is: "A job is not your family, and a job is not your identity. Yo…
For anyone reading this, please don’t subscribe to this level of cynicism. For SWEs at Google and almost anywhere else, the wind has blown very favorably for you and that’s something to be celebrated. The direction of the wind has shifted, but we can never expect it to stay blowing in one direction forever, even if others get lucky and catch one like that. You will no doubt set your sail and take it to new and wonder…
This is well-stated and appreciated positivity. It is disheartening to see the detractor/logic-leaping replies that followed. Thank you for writing it.
Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#559Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's been obvious for over a decade after they built an interview process that is heavily biased towards those who recently took an algorithms class. What would you do instead? Threads about tech interviews are always the same: we all complain about the process with no real alternative when you want to hire at that scale. In particular about: > Just about every other skill that is needed to be a good software engin…
I've been interviewing people for Software Eng jobs for more than 10 years an I haven't used leetcode style problems for like 8 of those years. Leetcode interviewing is lazy interviewing. It's for when you don't want to put an effort in your interviewing process to check if the candidates have the skills you need for the position you are filling. For example. My interview process nowadays is one web API interaction c…
How many people have you interviewed with this technique? After how many applications will you need to change your exercise, such that it becomes expensive to put that much structure into it? How do you deal with applicants knowing each other and giving each other the challenge and tips on how to solve it / what your reactions and probes were?
The pair programming part is not that different to how algorithm interviews are conducted at least in some places. You can definitely be silent for 1h and expect the best solution, or you can collaborate with the applicant and see whether their communication is good, their thinking is structured, etc.
> In that untimed challenge the candidate submits their code and email.
I expect you can't do that in companies which are highly sought after because it's too easy to cheat, and the stakes are high enough that people will do it. Yes the pair programming part lowers the chances, but people already cheat on live coding through various means, it'd be even easier if parts of the challenge are untimed.
Overall I think the difference here is that of scale: if you hire a few people in specific positions, then fine. If you hire thousands (and you can rightly question whether that makes sense in the first place but that's the assumption for many of these companies), you can't have a specific interview for each and every position, you can't reuse the same interview question after having used it for 500 times, such that you can't invest that much into it in the first place.
Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions
#560Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Denmark we rarely perform tech interviews the way you Americans do. Part of this is because of how available education is, so virtually everyone who’s applying for a tech job comes with some sort of academic education, meaning that they’ve proven their worth to get it. I’ve worked a side gig as an external examiner for a decade now, I’ve got good confidence in anyone I haven’t failed. Another part is that tech int…
What are some noteworthy Danish companies that have created innovative products?
This has nothing to do with hiring processes.