4 ms·

It's crazy to me that they pretty much doubled their headcount over the pandemic, I know there are economic reasons for some of the recent layoffs but the hirin

It's crazy to me that they pretty much doubled their headcount over the pandemic, I know there are economic reasons for some of the recent layoffs but the hiring sprees some companies went out seem crazy to me

revskill 4y ago
Normally they hired talent to prevent talents join competitive companies ?
- azemetre 4y ago
  I think it may just be taking advantage of the lose monetary policy of the last decade plus. It's easier to justify one-shots, experiments, or new product searches when loans are cheap and aplenty. The money spigot has dried up and you either adapt or die.
  - mym1990 4y ago
    Just curious, are companies like Snap going out an getting massive loans to facilitate hiring?
    - colinmhayes 4y ago
      Looks like snap has $4b in debt, up from around 1 before the pandemic.
    - azemetre 4y ago
      I mean they initially raised ~$5 billion in multiple rounds when first started in 2011. [1] I doubt they could raised an equivalent amount if they started in say 2018 in the current environment. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/snapchat https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/snapchat Snapchat just recently had its first ever profitable quarter, 2021Q4, since going public. That's a bad look, I also doubt this story will hardly be unique in the upcoming year (more tech layoffs from "unicorns").
petesergeant 4y ago
> It's crazy to me that they pretty much doubled their headcount over the pandemic Dunno, my impression was that selling stuff online (and thus adverts) went gangbusters over the pandemic, as did social media in general.
colinmhayes 4y ago
Cheap money and tons of new opportunities with everyone stuck inside. Social media companies realize how huge the first mover advantage is so they scaled as quickly as possible to take advantage of the pandemic.
fullshark 4y ago
It was a bet that the world had changed forever and they didn't want to be left behind, if they were wrong they'd just fire some people and course correct. All in the game.
bdcravens 4y ago
It's never surprising when companies try to capitalize on opportunities. The shock seems to be when they then trim back when those opportunities no longer exist.
omreaderhn 4y ago
There was an enormous amount of liquidity pumped into the system by fiscal and monetary authorities. That all these companies massively increased headcount is entirely rational. Wealthy people and companies did very well during the pandemic because they were direct beneficiaries of the fiscal and monetary support.

revskill 4y ago

Normally they hired talent to prevent talents join competitive companies ?

azemetre 4y ago
I think it may just be taking advantage of the lose monetary policy of the last decade plus. It's easier to justify one-shots, experiments, or new product searches when loans are cheap and aplenty. The money spigot has dried up and you either adapt or die.
- mym1990 4y ago
  Just curious, are companies like Snap going out an getting massive loans to facilitate hiring?
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    Looks like snap has $4b in debt, up from around 1 before the pandemic.
  - azemetre 4y ago
    I mean they initially raised ~$5 billion in multiple rounds when first started in 2011. [1] I doubt they could raised an equivalent amount if they started in say 2018 in the current environment. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/snapchat https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/snapchat Snapchat just recently had its first ever profitable quarter, 2021Q4, since going public. That's a bad look, I also doubt this story will hardly be unique in the upcoming year (more tech layoffs from "unicorns").

petesergeant 4y ago

> It's crazy to me that they pretty much doubled their headcount over the pandemic Dunno, my impression was that selling stuff online (and thus adverts) went gangbusters over the pandemic, as did social media in general.

colinmhayes 4y ago

Cheap money and tons of new opportunities with everyone stuck inside. Social media companies realize how huge the first mover advantage is so they scaled as quickly as possible to take advantage of the pandemic.

fullshark 4y ago

It was a bet that the world had changed forever and they didn't want to be left behind, if they were wrong they'd just fire some people and course correct. All in the game.

bdcravens 4y ago

It's never surprising when companies try to capitalize on opportunities. The shock seems to be when they then trim back when those opportunities no longer exist.

omreaderhn 4y ago

There was an enormous amount of liquidity pumped into the system by fiscal and monetary authorities. That all these companies massively increased headcount is entirely rational. Wealthy people and companies did very well during the pandemic because they were direct beneficiaries of the fiscal and monetary support.