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Brex Layoffs

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Re: Brex Layoffs

#91

Post by gamblor956 »

cowthulhu wrote: post #7

Interesting that the CFO and CTO also got the boot, but the positions weren’t eliminated. Is this a power grab? Or am I misreading?

The CFO position is generally mandated by law in most states, though it can be filled by another officer such as the CEO (i.e., it doesn't need to be its own position).

However, it is generally considered a red flag for a large company to have these positions filled by the same individual (unless the company is a subsidiary of an even bigger company, in which case the CFO role in the subsidiary may be a pro forma position).

Re: Brex Layoffs

#92

Post by Deprecate9151 »

claudiulodro wrote: post #61
soneca wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think there is a career out there better than (I assume) software development? My view is that we are still in pretty good times. Maybe not great, but everyone who kept their jobs is still earning a big salary. And everything else other than software development is worse (specifically if you bundle things like ML into “software development“). I am curious. What career would you change to?

Self-employed tradesman pays as much on a per-hour basis as contract dev work and doesn't have to compete with a million people in developing countries willing to work for $20/hr. The project management parts from software development aren't too different either -- it's all tasks, coordinating stakeholders, etc. That's my angle, but there are plenty of other fields too: healthcare (nurses make as much as most SWEs an…

I want to call this out because I see this advice a lot (and it's also my backup plan).

Trade work can be a fantastic way to earn a living, but it is HARD work. It will break your body if you do it for your whole life. There is a reason plenty of people jumped to office work the first chance they got.

Don't go into the trades blind, take care of your body, or you'll be like my grandpa and need help uncurling your fingers if you fall asleep making a fist.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#93

Post by oldandboring »

claudiulodro wrote: post #61
soneca wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think there is a career out there better than (I assume) software development? My view is that we are still in pretty good times. Maybe not great, but everyone who kept their jobs is still earning a big salary. And everything else other than software development is worse (specifically if you bundle things like ML into “software development“). I am curious. What career would you change to?

Self-employed tradesman pays as much on a per-hour basis as contract dev work and doesn't have to compete with a million people in developing countries willing to work for $20/hr. The project management parts from software development aren't too different either -- it's all tasks, coordinating stakeholders, etc. That's my angle, but there are plenty of other fields too: healthcare (nurses make as much as most SWEs an…

> but look in any middle-class neighborhood: maybe 5% of the people are in tech -- what is everyone else doing?

This comment is why I love HN. Once you sort through all the kiddos who don't know anything about anything, you get golden nuggets like this.

In my middle (almost upper-middle) class neighborhood we have a bunch of doctors and psychologists, a bunch of lawyers, a few retired professionals, a couple professors and.... me in tech.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#94

Post by vegancap »

Tone of this is just awful, reads like he's saying they've laid off a bunch of people who were slowing us down, and sort of ends it by saying how excited he is about the business now they've been let go...

Re: Brex Layoffs

#95

Post by Ancalagon »

myth_drannon wrote: post #41
Ancalagon wrote: post #2

Kind of saw that coming. The salaries at Brex were insane.

To be fair, everyone is laying off. Whatever paid peanuts or millions. Hopefully, the devs who got the bigger piece of the cake stashed some under the mattress.

20% after an 11% layoff is high even during current times imo

Re: Brex Layoffs

#96

Post by kstrauser »

gamblor956 wrote: post #79
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I would have assumed that attorney is one of those jobs that is going to be hugely disrupted by AI. Should people new to the field bother if they aren't going to be top X% (5? 10?)?

Actual legal work, as opposed to legal-adjacent tasks, will be the last to be disrupted by AI, at least so long as AI means LLM. Law is simply too complicated to rely on something that doesn't have the ability to understand. Doc review staff will be effectively eliminated...but they're already being eliminated by non-AI technology, so AI will just be the last straw.

I watched a tech demo of an LLM writing code to make a neat little user interface. I would have thought that utterly impossible a couple years ago.

I don’t think this would be a good time to start a career drafting contracts.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#97

Post by AnotherGoodName »

claudiulodro wrote: post #61
soneca wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think there is a career out there better than (I assume) software development? My view is that we are still in pretty good times. Maybe not great, but everyone who kept their jobs is still earning a big salary. And everything else other than software development is worse (specifically if you bundle things like ML into “software development“). I am curious. What career would you change to?

Self-employed tradesman pays as much on a per-hour basis as contract dev work and doesn't have to compete with a million people in developing countries willing to work for $20/hr. The project management parts from software development aren't too different either -- it's all tasks, coordinating stakeholders, etc. That's my angle, but there are plenty of other fields too: healthcare (nurses make as much as most SWEs an…

>I've never been to the Bay Area, so what I'm about to say may not apply,

This is honestly where it is hitting. When I moved to the bay area ~10years ago I asked myself 'why are they paying me usd500k to move here when I could just work from my home country for a fraction of that'.

Meanwhile in my home country there's a tech boom. In fact my current big faang company is hiring there and closing jobs here.

Can't say I'm surprised except that it took this long for the realization that you don't need to have your staff move to the bay area and thus you don't need to pay bay area wages.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#98

Post by kstrauser »

e1g wrote: post #24
eterm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What am I not understanding about your comment, 300m is 25m per month, so that sounds very profitable?

They spend every cent of the revenue they made AND the extra $17m each month.

Ohhhh, I misunderstood that in the same way. $17 is the burn (i.e. the net loss), not the expenses.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#99

Post by JCharante »

> Waiver of the one-year equity cliff for those who haven’t reached theirs yet.

That's nice, however I find it "unfair" that if you are offered X RSUs as part of your first year comp but they vest over 4 years then if you get laid off you lose them even if you already "worked" for them. My experience losing 40k worth of RSUs at my first job has certainly soured equity compensation in my eyes.

Re: Brex Layoffs

#100

Post by shmatt »

bsilvereagle wrote: post #45
shmatt wrote: post #35

Oof to this link in the post https://www.brex.com/journal/operate-at-all-levels What a terrible culture, dunking on people management, calling it meaningless And no, I don't want the Director of AI to explain react component rendering to me, it sounds like they are grooming a generation of super-micromanaging executives. Maybe the CTO was kicked out after he failed to complete 3 back to back leetcode hards

> it sounds like they are grooming a generation of super-micromanaging executives My read from the linked example was the Director built a tool outside of the critical path that was a quality of life (performance) improvement. This is a prime example of code that leaders should be writing - the team isn’t blocked by them, they can put it down at any time, they maintain familiarity with the tools and codebase (both th…

A leader should know how to influence his org within a 3 minute conversation to do this. The fact he stopped his Director of AI work to do this means their org is broken - or worse they have no influence over it
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