4 ms·
Unpopular opinion with some truth in it. Many of the SWEs and other product people in these companies left at the peak of pandemic due to burnout, but mostly du
by negamax 4y ago
Unpopular opinion with some truth in it. Many of the SWEs and other product people in these companies left at the peak of pandemic due to burnout, but mostly due to cheap money. Many senior leaders cashed out their stock and went into the sunset.
Companies responded with mass hiring as money was everywhere. They grossly underestimated the complexity of running an engineering org and now the bill is due. I think until the old guards come back, we will see the pain exacerbate.
PS: It's an opinion
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoMost Canadian companies don't want to pay the salaries to have the "old guard." I suspect a lot of people left during COVID not just because they were burnt out but because they could get better pay working remotely for US companies. They better hope we end up in a deep recession, because they're not fit to compete for talent when there's employers out there hiring remote at competitive rates.
- negamax 4y agoThat's exactly the narrative I want to address. Because I have seen this first hand. When the stocks were booming. Old people left. They didn't took another job. They left. Some cashed out $x millions. Lot of indiscriminate hiring happened to puff up the leak. Companies were flushed with money. But that was a failing strategy. Companies can continue to go down that path, it will have further diminishing returns
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoI mean, I did that. I left Google and cashed out. I'm not old, but I'm mid-life. I'm not able to retire. I just couldn't handle the bullshit anymore. But now I'm working again (for less $) because I need the money :-) But TBH the hiring frenzy was happening long before that. When I left (end of last year), I heard Google had hired something like half its staff just during the pandemic period. Not sure if I believe that, but if so, that's crazy. None of those people even saw the inside of the office.
- negamax 4y agoThere you go. I have done something similar. And place was puffing up with out of college new hires. Everyone getting pat on the back. I stand by my assertion, companies will have to get the old people back unless they are happy to have years of over investment with little returns, increased uncertainty around release cycles
- ZephyrBlu 4y ago> And place was puffing up with out of college new hires. Everyone getting pat on the back I've read that FAANG companies like Facebook and Google dramatically increased their headcount in the last couple of years during the pandemic. It definitely seems like jobs were being handed out like candy and now companies are going to feel the consequences.
- ghaff 4y agoThe “old” people who did well with stock are done. Maybe you can get them to consult for a bit.
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoI'm "somewhat old" and not done, just done with BigCorp. I did well with stock, but it turns out it takes a lot of $$ to live well when you have kids in school and all that still. I'm doing the startup game for a bit to try to re-ignite the spark. A few weeks away from Google and I was excited to write code again. Google sucked the motivation out of me.
- osigurdson 4y agoThe typical Canadian company is probably not worried about it as they believe they will be able to find offshore workers, use Fiverr to fill the gap, etc.
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoAnd the quality will show, naturally.
- jejeyyy77 4y agoYour 1st and 2nd point = correlation but not causation IMO.