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Waymo’s Hiring Binge
- erhserhdfd 7y agoAnyone have a copy of this not behind a paywall?
- kamikaz1k 7y agoOutline says there isn't much... https://outline.com/3MyKkw https://outline.com/3MyKkw
- netinstructions 7y agobecause it's just grabbing the first three paragraphs that anyone can see before the paywall...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dang 7y agoThe Information sometimes does an unlock for HN readers. I'll ask. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20information%20unlocked&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Edit: they did! Changed now.
- mdszy 7y ago>Waymonauts Weird-ass names for employees of a company is one of the weirdest "WE HAVE TO TRY HARD TO MAKE PEOPLE FEEL LIKE A PART OF THE CULTURE" things ever, honestly.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- CydeWeys 7y agoOr it's just convenient to have a shorthand for people working at a particular place, and as long as you're doing that, may as well have fun with it. The obvious "Waymoers" doesn't exactly work anyway.
- mdszy 7y ago"Waymo employee" is too hard to say?
- Quarrelsome 7y agonot as fun to say. Doesn't roll off the tongue.
- DevKoala 7y agoThis is your career, so do with it as you like. Nevertheless, understand that there are people who hate the pet titles that "fun" investors like to give to their employees. Enjoy it "Waimonauts", lol.
- mdszy 7y agoI'm exactly 0% concerned about how "fun" it is to say who I'm employed with, but you do you I guess.
- zelly 7y agoCredit Karma also apparently calls its employees "Karmanauts". Heavy duty cringe.
- tudelo 7y agoalso, noogler and n00b are some fun ones
- warent 7y agoNoogler is supposed to be silly/goofy, it's not cringe at all if it's self aware Disclaimer: used to be a noogler. I'm not mad at all!!1!
- rainyMammoth 7y agoSeems to have achieved its goal on you.
- warent 7y agoIs there really so much need to take ourselves so seriously and simultaneously go out of our way to try and make others feel badly about the way they live their lives? It's unfathomable to me.
- rainyMammoth 7y agoThat was a bit snarky and didn't specifically meant it that way. Sorry if it was understood that way.
- tudelo 7y agoJust because it's silly or goofy doesn't make it not be haha cringe
- dehrmann 7y agoI'm sure that will be one of the first things Intuit drops.
- hornbaker 7y agoWaymofos would be better.
- therein 7y agoWorks for any startup with the -mo suffix too. Since Waymo skipped on that demonym, big opportunity for Venmofos.
- echelon 7y agoSomeone (perhaps me) would be offended at the meaning and implication of that name. It's awful.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoYes, that's the joke. That said, there is a large, reputable, international law firm called Morrison & Foerster that revels in this wonderful domain name: https://www.mofo.com/ https://www.mofo.com/
- sib 7y agoLet's face it - if you were hiring lawyers, wouldn't you want a bunch of MoFos?
- mkolodny 7y agoPersonally, I think it's hilarious. It reminds me of the "Butt-faces" - the name the first executive group at Nike gave themselves [0] [0] https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike-ebook/dp/B0176M1A44 https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike-ebook/dp...
- jcims 7y agoWho cares. People like to be a part of a team. I was a noogler for a little while. The little propeller cap is on a shelf a few feet behind me as i type this. I was in my 40's but it was the first time i was part of a tribe at work and it felt kind of good (despite being old and 'kind of weird' relative to the rest). I quit before i graduated so i guess it wasn't that special, but i think it's overall a positive thing (if managed well).
- alexbanks 7y agoI agree. It would really feel good to be a part of something. A team, a mission, whatever.
- hlmencken 7y agoI can't imagine it was a top down thing. It's just a silly point of culture that isn't that important day to day. Take a step back and have some empathy for people who aren't under iron rule and shitpost and have fun in ways that are stupid but trivial midday.
- icebraining 7y ago> I can't imagine it was a top down thing. Why not? We see it every day.
- dchyrdvh 7y agoGamification, creating fake ladders, groups, clubs and shiny awards are common techniques in managing the emotionally-driven producers, aka the line workers. I'm not sure if this works with waymo employees, as they are likely smarter than those who create these kindergartens.
- oblio 7y agohttps://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...
- draw_down 7y agoWho cares, grow up.
- winrid 7y agoAt my current company, we are Hippos. :)
- PedroBatista 7y agoI’m not sure Janice is happy about that.
- aresant 7y agoInstructive the degree to which good HR, recruiting, and operational onboarding can create giant moats for these larger tech cos. Hiring 700 "mostly engineer" employees in a year! I pride myself as an "operator" and have worked in businesses that have scaled quickly but it is unimaginable how one doubles the highly compensated / hard to find employee count in a year at that scale. In an economy where excess labor of that quality is non-existent. That's an average of almost 3 people a work day you need to recruit away from probably another high income role, getting them to show up, get devtools opened, build and manage security clearances, trying to integrate into the org, etc.
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y agoThere’s a lot of ways you can get that number. Lateral movements within the co, temp conversion, lowering the bar/changing the scope. But agree, there simply isn’t that kind of liquidity in the market to make that number without it being suspicious on technical levels.
- mr_toad 7y agoTurnover in professional jobs is quite high, sometimes around 20% per annum. There may not be many people out of work, but there are always people looking for the next job.
- heavenlyblue 7y ago20% per annum is 1 transfer every 5 years. I just had a job change after 6 years and was constantly asked why I stayed so long.
- mr_toad 7y agoThe distribution is not symmetric. The mode is less than the average and there’s a long tail of survivors.
- donavanm 7y agoIn the us the tech industry attrition rates Ive seen are around 15% per annum. Varies slightly based on company/year/market/location etc. 20% is “bad” and 10% would be surprisingly “good.”
- a_t48 7y agoWeird, they ghosted me after my phone screen, coming from another self driving company. Guess they weren't that impressed with me. Or I "missed" the hiring binge.
- erikpukinskis 7y agoOr the employee who screened you had no idea what they’re doing. That’s pretty common in my experience. Or some random thing you said triggered a fear of theirs and they downvoted you in an abundance of caution. That’s pretty common too. Not really worth reading into it. But it is worth applying again at a later date if you’re pumped about the company.
- a_t48 7y agoI didn't read too much into it, was mostly just vaguely disappointed.
- wolfgke 7y agoI want to quote Brooks's lawv (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brooks%27s_law&oldid=942474898 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brooks%27s_law&ol...): "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later".
- KKKKkkkk1 7y agoGreat quote, and highly relevant.
- iamaelephant 7y ago> Mawakana just hired a new head of fleet operations, Ryan McNamara, who previously worked on product quality for the Google Pixel phone As the previous owner of 2 Pixel phones, this man is the last person on Earth I want in charge of operations of a fleet of 2-ton automated vehicles. No offence.
- polishdude20 7y agoI don't know man. My pixel 2 is the best phone I've ever had.
- superfrank 7y agoI'm not trying to argue with you, obviously everyone has different experiences, but that's such a funny thing to hear someone say. I had a Pixel 1, Pixel 2, and a Pixel 3a (current phone) and I feel the 2 was the worst of the bunch. I had mine replaced twice in the 18 months I had it due to crashing and overheating issues. I would never in a million years recommend the Pixel 2 to someone, but I know there are plenty of people out there who love theirs.
- pepicon 7y agoBut then you ended by three generations???
- guiomie 7y agoI've had the Pixel 2, and never had any issues, now I've had the 3 for over 8 months I think, and It has convinced me to switch to iPhone. It's full of bugs and inconsistent UX. I need to reboot the phone every 45 minutes since it will not connect to wifi.
- bko 7y agoThis may seem like a stupid question, but why isn't there a company that just outsources driving to remote drivers? Imagine a car simulation in which someone in a low cost country sees what the driver in the car would see, including the surroundings (side mirrors, behind them, etc). She can look around, same way as someone in the car and that person can drive. And her actions gets sent to the car half way across the world. Kind of like a Mechanical Turk for driving. Is this crazy?
- bathtub365 7y agoI would not get into a car driven by someone in a "low cost" country whose only incentive for not getting into an accident is getting fired.
- mandelbrotwurst 7y agoThey might also care about not killing people, but fair enough I guess.
- bathtub365 7y agoNot as much as if they were actually in the car.
- kkotak 7y agoWhat about DRUI?
- phlipski 7y agoThis is an interesting case - probably the only time your lawyer would RECOMMEND blowing! :)
- 2zcon 7y agoHaving been in a taxi with a driver who bragged about staying up all night on stimulants, I disagree.
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- anon-waymonaut 7y agoNot mentioned in the article is the high rate of attrition at Waymo. It's roughly the industry average (~20% Y/Y). So the % of folks that are new is even higher than reported here.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- KKKKkkkk1 7y agoThe article points out that the heads of perception and of motion planning have been replaced. That's big. The former head of planning Nathaniel Fairfield specifically has a legendary status there.
- dipshitlol 7y agoThis is less a story of anything other than that "theinformation" has access to google's internal systems and should be investigated accordingly in a court of law.
- dehrmann 7y agoThis read like a paragraph of commentary followed up machine-generated narration of LinkedIn status updates.
- eluusive 7y agoCruise did the exactly the same thing and it turned into an internal disaster. They're going to have to lay off a ton of people.