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I once worked at a very high-end online fashion retailer, and as a programmer, it was a decent place to work, and I look back fondly on my time there. However,

I once worked at a very high-end online fashion retailer, and as a programmer, it was a decent place to work, and I look back fondly on my time there. However, if you were in the fashion industry, and especially if you wanted to work at a company founded by an inspiring woman, it was absolutely the place you wanted to work. HR were inundated by applications for non-tech positions by highly capable and motivated people, and HR acted like it. It was very selective, and the best people fought for jobs there and worked hard. But for tech workers, it was simply an decent place to work, and was perpetually a little bit short-staffed. HR couldn't wrap their minds around the fact that this one segment had choices and weren't really that fussed about working there, and so it took a lot of work for engineering managers to free up basic recruitment marketing money, to streamline recruitment processes etc. I wonder if there's some of that going on. For people who want to work on the cutting edge of space-tech, SpaceX has to be very high up on the list of places you'd want to work. For people who want to build electric cars, ditto Tesla. But for software engineers who are good enough to do the work that needs to be done at Twitter? meh, there are choices. There are companies with much more interesting problems, companies with larger scale, companies who'll pay better. Are there that many Twitter True Believers? My understanding is the big draw beforehand for Twitter was that they had a great working environment, and that's evaporated. I wonder if Musk will be able to get his head around that.

leetrout 4y ago
> I wonder if Musk will be able to get his head around that. Doubtful based on how this is going.
Schweigi 4y ago
There is a certain amount of people who like to work in a “Elon Musk” company no matter what. Like him or not, but he is a guy who has a certain pull which let’s people overlook a lot of stuff. So Twitter will still bee able to hire from that pool - despite all the negative firing news.
- tester756 4y ago
  If I had an opportunity to join Twitter now then I'd definitely do it It could be interesting story to tell after years
  - prirun 4y ago
    The stress could also give you a heart attack or other chronic health problems, not solved by getting fired.
  - TigeriusKirk 4y ago
    It's a major tech company undergoing a fundamental rebuilding. I'd absolutely work there, it's a very rare opportunity. Previous Twitter never crossed my mind as a place I'd want to work. But you've got to go in knowing it will be intense chaos and it could end suddenly for you personally.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - ProjectArcturis 4y ago
    ... Why???
    - Jensson 4y ago
      Empty seats in high level roles are usually only found in startups, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete over empty high level roles in a big tech company. Elon created a ton of problems for Twitter, there will be a lot of money for the people who can fix those, so if you believe you have the kind of skills Elon values and that you can help save Twitter from him then the current state of Twitter is the most attractive workplace to be. Its basically like joining a startup that already makes billions of dollars, maybe it fails, but no startup will have as great odds as current Twitter of actually making billions of dollars. You know how they say that you should hire during recessions etc, going against the stream is often really lucrative.
    - tester756 4y ago
ryandrake 4y ago
I think that used to be true about Tesla, but now other companies are fully into electric vehicles, opening up new opportunities for people who want to go into that field. The allure of Tesla is vanishing, leaving only long hours, workaholism, and Cult Elon as the differentiating reasons to work there. Your main point is absolutely right: whenever you have a company where a lot of people want to work, that company can (and always does) get away with extreme hiring selectivity and abuse of the people it selects. See also the video game industry.
coredog64 4y ago
Counterpoint: Assuming Musk doesn't completely burn all remaining tech goodwill (which is a huge assumption), Twitter is probably the easiest entry point to a company with large scale that is also well known and will be a resume boost. Given two candidates, one who managed Twitter's datacenter and one who managed the datacenter for Mutual of Omaha, I'd posit that the former would have an easier hop onto the next rung of the ladder.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

leetrout 4y ago

> I wonder if Musk will be able to get his head around that. Doubtful based on how this is going.

Schweigi 4y ago

There is a certain amount of people who like to work in a “Elon Musk” company no matter what. Like him or not, but he is a guy who has a certain pull which let’s people overlook a lot of stuff. So Twitter will still bee able to hire from that pool - despite all the negative firing news.

tester756 4y ago
If I had an opportunity to join Twitter now then I'd definitely do it It could be interesting story to tell after years
- prirun 4y ago
  The stress could also give you a heart attack or other chronic health problems, not solved by getting fired.
- TigeriusKirk 4y ago
  It's a major tech company undergoing a fundamental rebuilding. I'd absolutely work there, it's a very rare opportunity. Previous Twitter never crossed my mind as a place I'd want to work. But you've got to go in knowing it will be intense chaos and it could end suddenly for you personally.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- ProjectArcturis 4y ago
  ... Why???
  - Jensson 4y ago
    Empty seats in high level roles are usually only found in startups, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete over empty high level roles in a big tech company. Elon created a ton of problems for Twitter, there will be a lot of money for the people who can fix those, so if you believe you have the kind of skills Elon values and that you can help save Twitter from him then the current state of Twitter is the most attractive workplace to be. Its basically like joining a startup that already makes billions of dollars, maybe it fails, but no startup will have as great odds as current Twitter of actually making billions of dollars. You know how they say that you should hire during recessions etc, going against the stream is often really lucrative.
  - tester756 4y ago

ryandrake 4y ago

I think that used to be true about Tesla, but now other companies are fully into electric vehicles, opening up new opportunities for people who want to go into that field. The allure of Tesla is vanishing, leaving only long hours, workaholism, and Cult Elon as the differentiating reasons to work there. Your main point is absolutely right: whenever you have a company where a lot of people want to work, that company can (and always does) get away with extreme hiring selectivity and abuse of the people it selects. See also the video game industry.

coredog64 4y ago

Counterpoint: Assuming Musk doesn't completely burn all remaining tech goodwill (which is a huge assumption), Twitter is probably the easiest entry point to a company with large scale that is also well known and will be a resume boost. Given two candidates, one who managed Twitter's datacenter and one who managed the datacenter for Mutual of Omaha, I'd posit that the former would have an easier hop onto the next rung of the ladder.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]