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Layoffs at Block

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Re: Layoffs at Block

#911

Post by SoftTalker »

Swizec wrote: post #36
t-writescode wrote: post #28

Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit. Yeah, you get 5 months of severance and a bunch of devices and such; but, does this CEO really think these employees will find new work in that time? In this job market? If the profits are still up and growing, why on earth would you evict 40% of the company, to send them into this job market? Why not … try new industries, play around, try to become the next Mitsubis…

> Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit. I just talked to a bunch of recruiters (we're hiring) and their main piece of advice was: The market is crazy. Move fast . We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look, bailing on offers after signing because they got a better offer somewhere else, etc. 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned edit: I am in…

> We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look

Really? So no take-home projects? No leetcode? No six rounds of interviews? Just show up and express interest, you're hired!

Re: Layoffs at Block

#912

Post by saos »

> we've done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here,

This part really fustrated me

Re: Layoffs at Block

#913

Post by johnnyanmac »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #889
johnnyanmac wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>After the massive X/Twitter layoffs (60-70% headcount culled) with X/Twitter still standing, this assumption was clearly proven false. I agree with your sentiment, but this example is awful. Twitter cut engineering staffed, pissed off advertisers that caused an exodus, had its stock steadily declining under Musk, and eventually decided to go private again. Only to be "aquired" by Musk's AI wing. Maybe there was a la…

Think its a bit absurd to pretend Twitter (content and politics aside) isn't running just fine from technical point of view with 40% of the staff.

I think it's absurd to

1. screw up your market advantage so badly that you create a semi comoetent competitor over the course of a year.

2. Have a rampaging chatbot so utterly unhinged that it gets you litigated in multiple countries

3. Be reported that your site (which makes money off of ads provided to humans) is estimated to have at least 70% bots

4. To be hemorraging money so badly you make the company y private and then "acquire" it to further hide the losses.

Yet still insist that things are running "fine on a technical level".

Yes, if you only care about the ability to broadcast a 280 character message + media to the world, manage a "friends" list, and pay a subscription for a blue checkmark (and even longer messages! Its like Hacker News all over again!), Twitter is still operational with 40% of staff plus whoever he had to rehire back.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#914

Post by SoftTalker »

wavemode wrote: post #279
yogorenapan wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wildy varies. I'm a new grad and got my first offer after 8 applications and got another offer last week unprompted. Meanwhile my friend graduating from the same university has done 300 applications and a couple dozen interviews with no offer.

What differentiates your resume from your friend's?

Likely it's something about the two individuals. GP probably interviews better, is more confident, more attractive, something like that.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#915

Post by enriquto »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #660
pjmlp wrote: post #655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been through a couple of layoffs and merges, as I approach mid-century, the MBA powered managers are always to blame, because the stupid way to manage every year has to be x% exponential increase over the previous year, always forgetting that it is physically impossible when everyone goes for the same goal. And then when targets aren't met, it is the employees that get shown the door while management gets thei…

> the stupid way to manage every year has to be x% exponential increase over the previous year, always forgetting that it is physically impossible when everyone goes for the same goal. That's why we have this corporate ritual, which we carry out each year, or even each quarter - a solemn ceremony, where we divide everyone into two groups: the cost centers and the profit centers . Everyone works in harmony for the sam…

> we divide everyone into two groups: the cost centers and the profit centers.

This would make some sort of sense if it was honest. For a start, the owners and shareholders are plainly cost centers (they are literally useless sinks of revenue).

Re: Layoffs at Block

#916

Post by dehrmann »

squidbeak wrote: post #814
dehrmann wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If AI makes people twice as productive and you're a mature software company chasing marginal value, if the marginal value people added was worth it before AI, surely more marginal value at the same cost is better. It's also the wrong side of the AI curve to be on. Maybe AI will replace dev jobs, but why not wait to find out? And if it does, prompt-coding is a different skill than traditional coding, and it's not what…

> It's already the wrong side of the AI curve to be on. Maybe AI will replace dev jobs, but why not wait to find out? Have you considered their internal use has already proven AI's capability to them?

The sense was that it got a lot better late last year. There hasn't been enough time to make this call holistically, from development to market reaction to turndown. It also doesn't address the Jevons paradox take that with more people and AI, they can get even more done. Every place I've worked has had an idea and tech debt backlog far deeper than the companies' capacity.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#917

Post by renewiltord »

KittenInABox wrote: post #224
simianwords wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fundamentally you see jobs as more important than the end product. this is a tension i keep finding in many minds.

I see fundamentally human wellbeing as more important. Jobs are just the structure society has built as a gateway for this.

I actually don’t think you do. At the least, the question then becomes “is wellbeing most well served by paying a small number of software engineers a lot of money”. That is prima facie absurd.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#918

Post by SoftTalker »

NicuCalcea wrote: post #599
HDThoreaun wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's also giving out massive severance packages

Is four and a half month's pay considered massive in the US? What do you normally get when you're made redundant?

I got one month and unused PTO last time I was laid off.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#919

Post by marojejian »

borroka wrote: post #900
3rodents wrote: post #698

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which companies are you applying to? Even in this new world, titles still matter a great deal. A former “director of AI” and FAANG data scientist is valuable even before considering whether you are competent. The part that stands out is that you are getting rejection emails from automated systems. With your pedigree, you should be talking direct to whoever is hiring — you’ve earned the right to bypass the automated s…

At first, I was a bit selective about my applications (meaning I was applying to maybe 5 positions per week, not one per month), but in the last six months, I have sent dozens of applications for positions (real or fake, I don't know) that I thought were appropriate for my skills and experience (director, manager, some senior IC positions, not even staff). I have no problem relocating; I could do so in 15 days (I cur…

Thanks for your frank comments. There are a lot of people in your position for the first time, I think, and many more to come. It sounds quite undeserved and is rather a symptom of our poor system. All I can say is I think it's likely that someone like you (who I read as both cognitively and emotionally intelligent) is likely to adapt and will thrive eventually, both due to your characteristics, and because the system isn't that broken, and will also adapt. Good luck, and don't take it personally.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#920

Post by siva7 »

GeoAtreides wrote: post #261

I wrote this, currently at -2 points, a mere 24 hours ago, as a response to simonw unbounded and unwarranted optimism: >>We're three years into the ChatGPT revolution now and so far the main observable impact on the craft that I care about is that I can build more ambitious things. >I think you refuse to extrapolate the obvious consequences and have forgotten (if you ever knew) how it's like to be in trenches. You pu…

> I wrote this, currently at -2 points, a mere 24 hours ago, as a response to simonw unbounded and unwarranted optimism

It's fascinating how rich individuals like this guy still believe that shit. I told three years ago also people that you don't have to fear the ai revolution as it's only empowering us workers more. I fully believed it. I'm still one of the foremost experts on AI in my region but fast-forward im not telling people anymore that illusion. I work for a big corporation and am involved in the strategic decisions so i know that we're cutting tens of thousands of jobs because of ai while at the same time telling workforce "softer" reasons to not panic.

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