45 offices... why do they need more than one?
they hire many employees in different countries
Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
601–610 of 689 posts
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#602Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is fair to say that when you have R&D headcount in thousands it better be something really impressive. Boeing 747 design team was 4500 engineers and they were done in 29 months.
Software is a little strange sometimes. It’s a different type of systems engineering, that’s more akin to sorcery, than to actual physics. The hardware is, of course, limited by physics, like the speed of electrons and heat dissipation. But once you get past that, your computer system is a collection of bytes that you reassemble to form whatever it is your imagination desires. And while the 747 is a magnificent plane…
A taxi company over here had a contractor build them their own hailing app. Cost them less than €600k, it's pretty slick.
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#603Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where does IC stands for? Probably not intensive care :D
Individual Contributor. Basically means no direct reports.
The fact that this term exists implies bloat and a focus on process not productivity. You may as well call them "leaf nodes".
There are programmers and senior programmers, data designers and senior etc. There are also team leads and program managers. There's basically two tracks, you either create stuff or you manage the creation of it.
They have different titles now, and there's a lot of Agile fluff (how is a scrum master not just a secretarial service and the function of a team leader not to keep their meetings focused?)
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#604Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always feel thankful that I don't have to deal with taxi drivers when I travel.
It's interesting that you say that, since it was one of my favorite parts about Europe being able to just walk up to any main street corner and have a ride somewhere. No need to have an app or anything, always works, no privacy/data issues. And it was never a big deal to walk a couple blocks to the main roads
In the US I’ve never come across a taxi driver that wasn’t an asshole, but Uber drivers are usually chill and fine.
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#605Earlier quoted context omitted.
Am at a Unicorn. Engineering is 20-30 engineers total. This person is definitely confusing Unicorn with some generic big engineering heavy company. Many companies scale very differently. Some scale with large engineering efforts - mine doesn't. The change in number of engineers has barely moved in the last 2 years. That said - to the question about unicorns: You're always expendable. Same as any job - same politics -…
Hmm, sounds like you've got some dyfunctional managers. I've never personally witnessed management faking urgency on a project just to get productivity on it. Management is generally charged with making sure ICs know what the priorities are as set by Product. It's possible that Product changes its mind often, confusing everyone. But if Product, Management, and ICs are confused about what your "critical business funct…
I love how you distinguish between "ICs" "Management" and "Product". When you say "Product" do you mean Marketing? Sales? Production? Manufacturing? Do they have "ICs" as well as their own "Management"?
The whole point of "Agile" was supposed to break down these divisions. Management is "generally charged" with getting the greatest productivity they can out of their resources. How that productivity is measured may be by "the priorities as set by Product", but that doesn't take into account ROI, sunk costs, COGS, Cap/Opex etc etc.
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#606Seems reasonable when your core business has been massively impacted. Being a public company can't make it easier. Also as a startup, good sub-answer to the "Isn't Uber / Twitter / Dropbox etc working on this?". Yes, but in a market downturn, your investors want you to dig in harder while their investors want them to survive and focus on core.
I honestly wonder what the strategy is. Obviously they are heavily impacted in the short term, but also this is a company that has been losing money from the get go. If the intent is to build and build and build and search for profit eventually, then I'd think they'd weather this storm more than they are. They invested heavily in building up a world-class engineering team and just cut a huge chunk loose. It makes me…
And perhaps focus on being a global taxi company instead of things like self-driving cars which is the job of a global taxi manufacturer.
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#607Seems reasonable when your core business has been massively impacted. Being a public company can't make it easier. Also as a startup, good sub-answer to the "Isn't Uber / Twitter / Dropbox etc working on this?". Yes, but in a market downturn, your investors want you to dig in harder while their investors want them to survive and focus on core.
I honestly wonder what the strategy is. Obviously they are heavily impacted in the short term, but also this is a company that has been losing money from the get go. If the intent is to build and build and build and search for profit eventually, then I'd think they'd weather this storm more than they are. They invested heavily in building up a world-class engineering team and just cut a huge chunk loose. It makes me…
become an AWS competitor?
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#608Hard to let go of that many people without losing critical knowledge, Uber will come out of this a diminished company in many ways. Best of luck to those laid off.
what kind of unique expertise is required to run a taxi app?
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#609Earlier quoted context omitted.
>suddenly you have tons of teams working on what seems to be fairly niche aspects of the company's product At scale it tends to be worthwhile, even necessary, to engage fully with the complexity of all those "niche" aspects. When you don't understand how something could possibly take so much effort, it's possible all the people working on it are idiots and you could do it better in a weekend. (When you spot situation…
It is fair to say that when you have R&D headcount in thousands it better be something really impressive. Boeing 747 design team was 4500 engineers and they were done in 29 months.
I can't find you a source right now but back in '94 when I was learning IBM mainframe Assembler the history was mentioned and they claimed thousands of engineers, mathematicians and physicist worked for 3.5 years on the first mainframe (or was that the 360?).
Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices
#610They’re an app. Do they need 45 offices?