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Googler... ex-Googler

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Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#941

Post by SR2Z »

tanjtanjtanj wrote: post #936
SR2Z wrote: post #909

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because, with rare exceptions, the last war Google the company won when it came to launching something of lasting value happened in the late 2000s, give or take a few years. People repeat this a lot, but it's obviously not true. Google Photos is recent, really good, and had more than a billion users really quickly. Waymo is like a decade away from eating the entire urban taxi market. Gemini is the best LLM for writ…

If Photos is recent then Google search was recent when Photos was released! It’s a decade old and that’s only if we don’t count what it was before it was spun into its own product, google’s more recent integrations spun as “releases” non withstanding. YouTube INCREASING creator support? That’s news to me and every other YouTube creator. Creator support peaked around the time Photos released, nearly a decade ago and h…

Photos was brand new in 2015. Search is from 1998. I'm not a mathematician but that means that search is about three times older than it...

If the point you're trying to make is that Google needs to bring every service they offer up to a billion users within five years of launching it, I don't know if there's much of a point to me trying to convince you

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#942

Post by glacier5674 »

sublimefire wrote: post #378
windward wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>job security is an illusion It really is. Even government and blue chips aren't safe. In fact, those are where you'll find it's the most disconnected from your own agency.

Government jobs are safe because rarely if ever people get fired.

[dead]

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#943

Post by glacier5674 »

mixermachine wrote: post #506
jillesvangurp wrote: post #148

I experienced something similar at Nokia around the time things were starting to go bad (due to competition from Google and Apple). I got caught up in one of the earlier layoff rounds. As I've been able to reconstruct since then what happened was roughly that: - I got a excellent performance review and a small raise. All good, keep on doing what you are doing! I was pretty happy. - Nokia started to prepare for layoff…

> job security is an illusion Depends a bit on your country. My CEO can fire me but there is a longer notice period depending on how long I have been with the company. - 2 years: 1 month - 5 years: 2 months - 8 years: 3 months ... - 20 years: 7 months Germany btw.

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Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#944

Post by leoqa »

skybrian wrote: post #926
ChuckMcM wrote: post #795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google is just really bad at this, but seems to think it's not bad at this. That is a very charitable way to look at it, when I worked their I started from that point as well. "Hey, this thing you just did, you did it really badly, can we workshop some ways to not do this so badly in the future?" And yet, again and again they would do something similar again and still do it badly. As the examples piled up, I was ab…

When I was there, someone getting fired was extremely rare, which doesn’t seem to fit well with “you can always replace people” line that you’re talking about? But Google is a big place and it was long ago, so perhaps it’s a “blind men and the elephant” thing.

For better or worse, tech has become a cyclical job and we’ve seen big firms printing billions due almost annual layoffs. This started around Covid and will continue likely as the new norm.

Prior to that, I only saw layoffs during market downturns (2001, 2008, 2012) and generally much smaller.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#945

Post by glacier5674 »

antisthenes wrote: post #485
nehal3m wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to disrespect you, but I don't think your opinion on the value of their work is relevant, the author's is.

Sure, and water is wet. Yet the blog was posted in the public domain, so saying what is and isn't relevant is...irrelevant. It's in a public forum, up for discussion. End of story.

[dead]

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#946

Post by bitbasher »

karolist wrote: post #912
bitbasher wrote: post #845

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have written about technical things (how I choose technologies, what to avoid, reasons I went from language X to Y, etc). I never had any interesting social interactions from the blog/writing and the internal pressure to keep it updated eventually wore me out, so I got rid of the blog. I have considered distilling everything into a book, complete with a working application. I'm more interested in the technical aspe…

Is it a SaaS? Phone app? Hardware device? Not looking for specifics, just intrigued by your post to understand what tech category the product is.

It's a b2b saas offering.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#947

Post by mik09 »

abdj8 wrote: post #110

Layoffs are a difficult thing for employees and their managers. I have seen people (one was a VP of Engineering) escorted out of the building, sent in a cab to home along with a security guard (this was in India), not allowed access to computer or talk with other employees. But, recently have had a very different experience. The current company I work for announced 30% layoffs. The list was made public within one hou…

its nice to know even people like google are treated like this. even people with management roles.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#948

Post by skybrian »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #928
skybrian wrote: post #926

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was there, someone getting fired was extremely rare, which doesn’t seem to fit well with “you can always replace people” line that you’re talking about? But Google is a big place and it was long ago, so perhaps it’s a “blind men and the elephant” thing.

Yeah, I probably should have put firing in quotes since there are a zillion ways to get someone to leave. Being "Laid off" is a form of firing, telling someone all of their multipliers are being zeroed out so that they "quit" is a form of firing. Putting someone on a "performance improvement plan" where the requirements to get off that plan is to do really unpleasant work is a form of "firing." Lots of ways to get so…

Yes, there was lots of turnover and "percent" started looking pretty extreme for me after a few years. But at the time, I assumed that's just how it is with software developers in Silicon Valley. We can and do change jobs frequently. It was well-known that it's the best way to get a raise. But I also knew more old-timers at Google than at other places.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#949

Post by tharkun__ »

SR2Z wrote: post #941
tanjtanjtanj wrote: post #936

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Photos is recent then Google search was recent when Photos was released! It’s a decade old and that’s only if we don’t count what it was before it was spun into its own product, google’s more recent integrations spun as “releases” non withstanding. YouTube INCREASING creator support? That’s news to me and every other YouTube creator. Creator support peaked around the time Photos released, nearly a decade ago and h…

Photos was brand new in 2015. Search is from 1998. I'm not a mathematician but that means that search is about three times older than it... If the point you're trying to make is that Google needs to bring every service they offer up to a billion users within five years of launching it, I don't know if there's much of a point to me trying to convince you

That's not what they said.

They said, if Photos is currently recent (aka 2025-2015 = 10 years = recent) then Search was recent when Photos came out (aka 2015-1998 = 12 years = recent).

Which given the overall timeframes, I'd say that's close enough to say 10 years ~= 12 years. And they said they'd actually count the non-Photos time of Photos as Photos, so add some to the 10 years.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#950

Post by throwaway2037 »

constantcrying wrote: post #902
throwaway2037 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, the last paragraph is really touching. That comment from the CEO is brilliant: "I trusted them yesterday, I trust them today." That will stay with me for some time!

It is a genuinely terrible idea by the CEO though. Yesterday you paid them, today you don't. If you think that doesn't change your relationship, you have to be a fool.

    > It is a genuinely terrible idea by the CEO though.
Maybe in your culture, but not all. In many cultures (people have shared numerous personal stories here), there are more humane ways to handle layoffs rather than treating former employees like a trespasser/thief/criminal one microsecond after the announcement.
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