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Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

nytimes.com

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Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#891

Post by madars »

madeofpalk wrote: post #57
NorwegianDude wrote: post #6

> laid off employees who worked on ... the Pixel phone. That sounds weird to me. Pixel phones has grown very fast in the last years and I don't se how it can be seen as anything but a great success.

Google sells approximately zero Pixel phones. Every year they'll say "we're serious this time" and promise to dump money into marketing, but it really goes nowhere and carriers continue to push other phones.

12% of phone sales in iPhone-heavy Japan are Pixels and Apple has fallen below 1/2 - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-28/iphones-s...

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#892

Post by freedomben »

forward1 wrote: post #848
freedomben wrote: post #846

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's the ethical alternative? everybody must produce everything they want/need without any sort of trading, and without owning any land? or does the government just force people to work and distribute everything anybody needs?

Must there be an alternative? What if the world is not ethical by design? What does the evidence say about it?

Fair point, but if we're stretching the definition to the point where nothing can be ethical, then there isn't any meaning to the word "ethical" as it relates to a binary "is" or "is not."

If we agree that nothing can be fully "ethical," there still should be some continuum on which to place the current system, unless you contend that every system and/or action is ethically equal, which I would further contend erases any meaning of the word rendering the premise moot.

So that said, is there any system that is more ethical than the current?

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#893

Post by prettyStandard »

ianceicys wrote: post #770
Solvency wrote: post #768

Between Discord, Twitch, Amazon+Prime, and Google... what's the layoff pattern here? Are we talking about social community teams? Streaming/networking engineers? Or is there no connective thread between these four companies? Are there other corporate layoffs that round out this intrigue?

Salesforce just announced a hiring freeze and word on the street is that in the next 30 days they are going to be cutting staff.

Word on the street is Angie's List is quietly firing. They already let go of their contractors and now they're looking at their employees.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#894

Post by nashashmi »

throwaway13394 wrote: post #442

I work in Core Eng at google. Woke up this morning and saw my director - who we all loved and had been at Google for 20 years - is gone. One concerning thing that I haven't seen reported is that my leadership chain is almost entirely Indian, all the way up. And they've announced that they are starting to offshore entire core products to India, primarily in bangalore IIUC.

Way to go for DEI initiatives.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#895

Post by depressedpanda »

arcbyte wrote: post #821
TriangleEdge wrote: post #813

Google doesn't innovate anymore. The last attempt at an innovation I saw was Stadia (RIP). But, most Google products have a replacement now; Google can finally die.

What was innovative about Stadia?

The controllers connected directly to Stadia servers over WiFi, avoiding an unnecessary roundtrip via the device displaying the video feed.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#896

Post by HDThoreaun »

mc32 wrote: post #596
HDThoreaun wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inflation ticked up to 3.4%, it's not through the roof. Real wages are up. The economy is absolutely doing very well for some people.

Are you guys and gals checking your grocery receipts? Eggs have doubled over the last two years. Milk, meats, fruits and veggies... I can't think of much that hasn't gone up at a higher rate than before the pandemic. I applaud the Fed for hiking interest rates, free money can't go on forever if you want to avoid the fate of Argentina, but c'mon, the economy is not good. It's not bad, but it's not good. Laid off peopl…

Eggs are now $2 a dozen at walmart.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#897

Post by xpe »

pompino wrote: post #662
xpe wrote: post #530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unions make sense if the employers have the ability to exploit the workers. This is an overly narrow definition, so I label it is largely incorrect. Think of it this way: society involves dynamically-shifting power balances. To the extent the goals of a society include: (a) standardizing certain rights and norms (b) providing checks and balances so the powerful have less temptation and ability to exploit the less W…

> But the solution is not to argue that the notion of a union is useless. The intellectually honest solution is to seek achievable solution in the mess that is the real world. You can say that about any topic, but what specifically are you proposing? Or do you just want to talk about stuff?

> Or do you just want to talk about stuff?

Saying that comes across as dismissive.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#898

Post by rsanek »

JAlexoid wrote: post #734
gopher2000 wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure we're reaching that point? The market has certainly cooled but tech jobs are still available. I do think that many new grads will have to adjust their expectations from high 6 figure jobs in FAANGs to normal-but-still-fine compensation in tier 3-4 companies. I would also argue that it's hard to predict what the market looks like 4 years into the future. That's a reality people should acknowledge when the…

Long story short - I would advise to not go into debt for a top tier CS degree, unless truly passionate. I am fortunate enough to have been educated in Europe and without any student debt. I can switch careers, without needing to keep income at a level to pay living expenses and loans.

most student loans in the US have very low required minimum payments. that's part of why these loans can stick around for decades.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#899

Post by [deleted] »

dijit wrote: post #669
10xDev wrote: post #466

What is interesting is that now with all the layoffs we also have more CS graduates than ever [0] who were told that tech companies are struggling to find candidates to fill their vacancies. We are reaching a point, if not already at the point where we will have bunch of unemployed CS grads who will have to make a pivot into something entirely different. [0] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d22/tables/dt22_322.10.…

I had a theory that FAANG (et al.) are implicitly trying to solve the problem of developer salaries. If we take things back to basics: supply and demand. If your biggest cost is developer salaries, then making a huge supply of developers is the best way to suppress those wages. I have long felt that the push to get women and minorities into coding was driven by this: to get as many people coding as possible so that s…

[deleted]

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#900

Post by pcthrowaway »

TheBigSalad wrote: post #420
mindwok wrote: post #98

I'm surprised to see so many comments here taking layoffs personally, or talking about how layoffs are stupid. Layoffs are not personal, and the corollary to that is that you should never treat your company as a friend. It's a company trying to maximize value. Also, layoffs do work. Almost every large, successful company has done them at some stage. They are an expected, and necessary, part of operating a company and…

Nobody wants to work at a company that does layoffs after a huge year.

If the alternatives are not working at all, or working at a company that might have problems paying their employees , I think many will take the risk of working at a large tech company that does regular layoffs but gives generous severance
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