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Even with the hiring freezes across Silicon Valley, good engineers will right now be trying to leave Twitter in droves. The stress of all this will have an add

by muglug 4y ago

Even with the hiring freezes across Silicon Valley, good engineers will right now be trying to leave Twitter in droves. The stress of all this will have an additive effect, and make a salary cut more bearable if they have to change jobs. Instagram has about 20,000 employees. Twitter has about 7,500. How many of those can it lose before advertisers start leaving in droves? At that point, whatever monetisation strategy Musk comes up with will be too little too late.

Nicksil 4y ago
What's to say there isn't just as many, equally capable people looking for a job there? They'll be fine. Most people are going no where and those that leave will be replaced immediately.
- muglug 4y ago
  Hiring new engineers while the CEO is busy boiling some of its engineers alive is notoriously difficult. Plus, interviewing takes engineering time, since you need existing engineers to conduct those interviews. Engineers who are being asked to "show their work" won't want to take time away to interview their replacements.
  - Nicksil 4y ago
    >Hiring new engineers while the CEO is busy boiling some of its engineers alive [...] But that's just your anecdote and has no actual affect on the time necessary to hire new software developers. And the time it takes to hire has always been there; it isn't anything novel and certainly isn't stopping anybody from applying/hiring.
    - muglug 4y ago
      I'm guessing you haven't worked at a big valley tech company. But this may be your chance!
      - Nicksil 4y ago
        >I'm guessing you haven't worked at a big valley tech company. But this may be your chance! A "big valley tech" company? No. A big company? Yes. But you didn't explain why that mattered.
- whateveracct 4y ago
  > Most people are going no where Many people will peace out if their job makes them feel stressed and insecure. They have options and remote work makes it even easier to both interview (on Twitter's time) and switch to a new job (the world is your oyster and job changing friction is minimal). > and those that leave will be replaced immediately. Twitter is gonna have a hard time differentiating itself as a job now. Why work for Elon who treats people like this? Maybe that one somewhat niche political/ideological faction in software will be more likely. Lifestyle devs (most of them)? Nah - there's 10 chiller options out there. I don't think there's enough true believers out there to sustain even normal dev turnover of 1-3y. Maybe Elon will have to pay even more money on salaries to stand a chance. Or he'll give up since he seems a little Dunning-Kruger on this venture as SV CEO.
bumblebritches5 4y ago
yuppie_scum 4y ago
The stress of people paying money to use your company’s product?
- deleted 4y ago
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whateveracct 4y ago
Elon might not understand software business in the modern age. Unlike Tesla or SpaceX, there is little unique tech to serve as a moat. The companies rely on engineers on staff to keep the lights on. And crucially, they have 1000 other options who will pay as well without any relocation - unlike a specialist in rocket science or other hard engineering.
knighthack 4y ago
The assumption you're making is that all of 7,500 of those staff are worthwhile staff who are worthy of being hired. I doubt it. If the indication is true that Twitter is carrying a lot of deadweight, then Elon's purge is going to make Twitter a very lean and profitable tech company, not unlike Netflix.
- cromwellian 4y ago
  I think you'll find the most capable engineers at Twitter will be the first to leave, not the deadweight. These people will be able to get a job anywhere, or start a company, and they're not going to sit around and be screamed at by a capricious dictator who doesn't know anything about how long things actually take (and if Elon did, he wouldn't be promising FSD "real soon now" every year) If I was working at Twitter and Elon strolled in and said "Ship this (non-emergency fix) in one week or you're fired", I'd tender my resignation immediately. First, it's ridiculous. Second, we already know he wants to get rid of 1/3 to 2/3rds of the company, so there's no guarantee if you pull 80-hr weeks, weekend all-nighters, that you won't get fired anyway. And honestly, a CEO expecting people to regularly pull crazy hours like that is a red flag.

by muglug 4y ago

Nicksil 4y ago

What's to say there isn't just as many, equally capable people looking for a job there? They'll be fine. Most people are going no where and those that leave will be replaced immediately.

muglug 4y ago
Hiring new engineers while the CEO is busy boiling some of its engineers alive is notoriously difficult. Plus, interviewing takes engineering time, since you need existing engineers to conduct those interviews. Engineers who are being asked to "show their work" won't want to take time away to interview their replacements.
- Nicksil 4y ago
  >Hiring new engineers while the CEO is busy boiling some of its engineers alive [...] But that's just your anecdote and has no actual affect on the time necessary to hire new software developers. And the time it takes to hire has always been there; it isn't anything novel and certainly isn't stopping anybody from applying/hiring.
  - muglug 4y ago
    I'm guessing you haven't worked at a big valley tech company. But this may be your chance!
    - Nicksil 4y ago
      >I'm guessing you haven't worked at a big valley tech company. But this may be your chance! A "big valley tech" company? No. A big company? Yes. But you didn't explain why that mattered.
whateveracct 4y ago
> Most people are going no where Many people will peace out if their job makes them feel stressed and insecure. They have options and remote work makes it even easier to both interview (on Twitter's time) and switch to a new job (the world is your oyster and job changing friction is minimal). > and those that leave will be replaced immediately. Twitter is gonna have a hard time differentiating itself as a job now. Why work for Elon who treats people like this? Maybe that one somewhat niche political/ideological faction in software will be more likely. Lifestyle devs (most of them)? Nah - there's 10 chiller options out there. I don't think there's enough true believers out there to sustain even normal dev turnover of 1-3y. Maybe Elon will have to pay even more money on salaries to stand a chance. Or he'll give up since he seems a little Dunning-Kruger on this venture as SV CEO.

bumblebritches5 4y ago

yuppie_scum 4y ago

The stress of people paying money to use your company’s product?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

whateveracct 4y ago

Elon might not understand software business in the modern age. Unlike Tesla or SpaceX, there is little unique tech to serve as a moat. The companies rely on engineers on staff to keep the lights on. And crucially, they have 1000 other options who will pay as well without any relocation - unlike a specialist in rocket science or other hard engineering.

knighthack 4y ago

The assumption you're making is that all of 7,500 of those staff are worthwhile staff who are worthy of being hired. I doubt it. If the indication is true that Twitter is carrying a lot of deadweight, then Elon's purge is going to make Twitter a very lean and profitable tech company, not unlike Netflix.

cromwellian 4y ago
I think you'll find the most capable engineers at Twitter will be the first to leave, not the deadweight. These people will be able to get a job anywhere, or start a company, and they're not going to sit around and be screamed at by a capricious dictator who doesn't know anything about how long things actually take (and if Elon did, he wouldn't be promising FSD "real soon now" every year) If I was working at Twitter and Elon strolled in and said "Ship this (non-emergency fix) in one week or you're fired", I'd tender my resignation immediately. First, it's ridiculous. Second, we already know he wants to get rid of 1/3 to 2/3rds of the company, so there's no guarantee if you pull 80-hr weeks, weekend all-nighters, that you won't get fired anyway. And honestly, a CEO expecting people to regularly pull crazy hours like that is a red flag.