Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it different than Amazon Seattle? I mean, is there a reasonable balance between work and life?
At least on my floor most people leave at around 6.
arriving at?
Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
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Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#62As an engineering student at UWaterloo it's pretty depressing to watch most of the best upper year engineers finish their studies and then abandon Canada for SV. There's logic in it for them: American companies are offering huge sums of money by Canadian standards, the weather is nicer, and the opportunities seem better. If I didn't have serious reservations about living in the US, I would probably do the same. Howev…
Clearpath isn't going anywhere. ;)
Thankfully so, I've been eyeing a co-op with them.
Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#63If anyone whose been let go by Joist is reading this: I'm a developer with Amazon in Toronto. There's a lot going on here- 300 developers in 4 or 5 major divisions doing all kinds of interesting stuff. The pay's good (for Toronto), we're well located (beside Union station), and of course we're hiring. My username, but at my company's name, dot-com. Happy to chat by email, but I'll link you to our jobs site: https://w…
Is it different than Amazon Seattle? I mean, is there a reasonable balance between work and life?
I worked at Amazon for four years and absolutely loved it.
I never understood the work/life balance problem people had.
Usually those that struggled were just weak engineers to begin with and felt like they had to put in 10-12 hours a day just to avoid being put on a performance improvement plan / laid off (i.e. wrong fit to begin with)
Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#64> we need the best talent in the world So why didn't they allow people to remote from Toronto?
Because that statement has absolutely no basis in reality.
Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#65[deleted]
Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#66> Kathan told BetaKit that the “incredible difficulty” of acquiring senior-level talent in Toronto As some companies are (finally) starting to realize, there are incredibly talented people all over the world, who are not within 1.5 hours of your office. Allowing them to work remotely opens your company up to a much higher caliber of talent for the same, if not lower, cost. The tools are out there now and they work we…
Another option: offer SF "senior-level talent" salaries in Toronto. They'll be spending more than this by relocating and then hiring down there anyway. I expect they'd find that there's plenty of talent already in Toronto, or willing to move. To me, it seems pretty obvious that the move to SF is more about image than about whom they can hire.
I'm not sure. If you're in San Francisco you can hire from any major metropolitan area in North America, and probably the world. Relocation tends not to be that big of an issue - it's Silicon Valley, there's tremendous opportunity. It's not just that the "talent" is already in SF, it's that the talent from all over the world is drawn to the Valley by brand recognition alone.
Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#67As an engineering student at UWaterloo it's pretty depressing to watch most of the best upper year engineers finish their studies and then abandon Canada for SV. There's logic in it for them: American companies are offering huge sums of money by Canadian standards, the weather is nicer, and the opportunities seem better. If I didn't have serious reservations about living in the US, I would probably do the same. Howev…
Out of curiosity, how does the process of job hunting work in the Ontario area if they get a job in SV? Does the SV company offer a visa permit or does the student apply for work permit in advance?
Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#68I came to the valley in a forced relocation some time ago. In that case, we also lost >50% of the team, including engineering. (I stayed until my green card came through then jumped ship.) It was clear, though, that the VPs and up didn't care, because they had their heart set on being Silicon Valley Executives, and damned if they were going to let the rank-and-file get in their way. They were so caught up in the glor…
Yeah, it doesn't feel like things really ever work out, retention-wise, for companies that move from elsewhere to SV. Invariably they make "cost of living adjustments" to comp, but never enough to actually be competitive with the infamous SF/SV market, and so their talent drains as soon as they set foot in the Bay Area.
This particular news about Joist is just confusing - it looks like they've laid off a huge portion of their staff, with no replacements on the immediate horizon. Doesn't this mean that the business has effectively ground to a halt while they re-hire in SV?
It sounds less like a move and more like a reboot.
Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#69The comment thread on /r/toronto was not particularly friendly towards Joist. https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/4pa6fp/joist_lays_...
Re: Joist lays off 60 employees in Toronto as company relocates to SF
#70> to achieve our vision for Joist, we need the best talent in the world This is a standard mantra of startup lore, but if I put on my nitpicking hat, is it strictly true? I mean we're not talking about the Manhattan Project here. Plus it's not as though there isn't intensely fierce competition for talent in the valley. Just because a lot of talented people are there, doesn't mean you'll get to hire them. The "best ta…
The question to ask anyone who claims they only hire the best is, "How do you make sure of that?" They should have an answer, and it needs to be a good one.
We used to have a question for interviewers where I work: "Will this person raise the average?"
I used to detest it. I left no shortage of smartarse remarks about infinite limits in a finite world.
In fact nobody really liked that question and it was eventually removed in favour of variations on the core question: do you want to work with this person?