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I really find these mea-culpas hard to take when I know even just a smidge more than they expect. In this case, I did a Doordash technical screen three months

I really find these mea-culpas hard to take when I know even just a smidge more than they expect. In this case, I did a Doordash technical screen three months ago during a job hunt. Recruiter painted a rosy picture of growth and outlook, slathered me in honey-words, etc. This was well into the downturn. Normalcy bias is powerful and I can understand that some companies did not move fast enough to respond to the change in the weather, but I can also fault them for it, and find these apologies self-serving.

SheinhardtWigCo 4y ago
I don't understand, do you expect recruiters to have realistic insights into the company's trajectory?
ferdowsi 4y ago
Recruiters are salespeople. Toxic positivity, undue flattery, etc are all part of their toolbox. It's ultimately on the candidate to perform due diligence on the organization, like with any product.
- SoftTalker 4y ago
  Good salespeople are at least somewhat objective. I had a realtor point out issues with properties that I might never have thought to ask about. Now, maybe that was to steer me to other properties that he would make more money on, but they were real issues. It did serve to build a sense that he was not hiding information just to get a sale.
anm89 4y ago
Were you expecting a recruiter to say "Yeah things aren't great. I expect layoffs in the next few months" .? If so that's honestly on you. They would get fired for saying that. Of course they are never going to
- namibj 4y ago
  Well, sounds like an easy situation to find yourself committing fraud in as the recruiter. Getting a bonus and the recruit loosing a better/lasting chance might already suffice depending on how aware the recruiter was about the future of the company.
1attice 4y ago
There are three comments to this post, and they are all along the lines of, "well of course they lied that's their job, you should know better." Firstly, this isn't about me -- I was smart; I took a different option. But this is about my industry, and so my sword must flash from its scabbard. I know you're sick to death of the P-word, but do think of the privilege that would be required in order to take responsibility for the decision, i.e. in order for the decision to be made non-coercively. Thinking it through, you'd need: 1. Local knowledge about the way the tech industry works (which I do, so guess which job I didn't take after looking over their figures) 2. Access to plausible alternatives 3. (most importantly) confidence in oneself and one's perceptions. I've spent the past half-decade of my good fortune trying to help friends enter the industry from other careers (urban planning etc.) and it's this implicit-never-spoken-about shit that is the biggest barrier-to-entry. You can either have diversity in your industry or you can have life-or-death decision things that 'everybody just knows,' except for the newcomers. Pick one. P.S. also the stakes are much higher if you're offered a work visa and a relocation package to a country where you can only legally work for a single employer. And that employer, if they fsck off -- well; that's how you get people alone and stuck, strangers in a strange land, running out of money and hope.
roflyear 4y ago
They didn't lie. DD is making $700m a quarter in gross profits. Profits are going up. The company is doing great. The stock is way up today. They did not lie about the company doing well and having a good outlook. Seems like they do.
janalsncm 4y ago
I personally wouldn’t fault the recruiters. The higher ups who set recruitment targets are to blame. If they recruited a person who got laid off a few months later, it suggests poor planning.

SheinhardtWigCo 4y ago

I don't understand, do you expect recruiters to have realistic insights into the company's trajectory?

ferdowsi 4y ago

Recruiters are salespeople. Toxic positivity, undue flattery, etc are all part of their toolbox. It's ultimately on the candidate to perform due diligence on the organization, like with any product.

SoftTalker 4y ago
Good salespeople are at least somewhat objective. I had a realtor point out issues with properties that I might never have thought to ask about. Now, maybe that was to steer me to other properties that he would make more money on, but they were real issues. It did serve to build a sense that he was not hiding information just to get a sale.

anm89 4y ago

Were you expecting a recruiter to say "Yeah things aren't great. I expect layoffs in the next few months" .? If so that's honestly on you. They would get fired for saying that. Of course they are never going to

namibj 4y ago
Well, sounds like an easy situation to find yourself committing fraud in as the recruiter. Getting a bonus and the recruit loosing a better/lasting chance might already suffice depending on how aware the recruiter was about the future of the company.

1attice 4y ago

There are three comments to this post, and they are all along the lines of, "well of course they lied that's their job, you should know better." Firstly, this isn't about me -- I was smart; I took a different option. But this is about my industry, and so my sword must flash from its scabbard. I know you're sick to death of the P-word, but do think of the privilege that would be required in order to take responsibility for the decision, i.e. in order for the decision to be made non-coercively. Thinking it through, you'd need: 1. Local knowledge about the way the tech industry works (which I do, so guess which job I didn't take after looking over their figures) 2. Access to plausible alternatives 3. (most importantly) confidence in oneself and one's perceptions. I've spent the past half-decade of my good fortune trying to help friends enter the industry from other careers (urban planning etc.) and it's this implicit-never-spoken-about shit that is the biggest barrier-to-entry. You can either have diversity in your industry or you can have life-or-death decision things that 'everybody just knows,' except for the newcomers. Pick one. P.S. also the stakes are much higher if you're offered a work visa and a relocation package to a country where you can only legally work for a single employer. And that employer, if they fsck off -- well; that's how you get people alone and stuck, strangers in a strange land, running out of money and hope.

roflyear 4y ago

They didn't lie. DD is making $700m a quarter in gross profits. Profits are going up. The company is doing great. The stock is way up today. They did not lie about the company doing well and having a good outlook. Seems like they do.

janalsncm 4y ago

I personally wouldn’t fault the recruiters. The higher ups who set recruitment targets are to blame. If they recruited a person who got laid off a few months later, it suggests poor planning.