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I work for a company about twice as big as Google. Getting permission to hire anyone is very difficult, and everyone is always 100% busy just to meet customer d

I work for a company about twice as big as Google. Getting permission to hire anyone is very difficult, and everyone is always 100% busy just to meet customer deadlines(which we often don't). I guess Google and other FAANG-type companies must work in a different way that I can't comprehend if they can just randomly decide to fire 10% of their workforce. If 10% of the people on my project were fired, our customers would sue us for not delivering on the contracts we signed.

cmrdporcupine 4y ago
Google has been over-hiring for years. While there are definitely projects that felt understaffed, there are just as many where you'd join a team and look around and really have no idea what you should be doing with yourself because all the work seemed spoken for. Honestly, 90-ish% of Google's revenue comes from ads. Almost every other product area there is just a financial loss unless it's supporting search&ads. They keep making "bets" to try to diversify the revenue stream, but it never works. Hence why I don't think this will be the last round of layoffs. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out and what parts of the org and what roles this affected. (Worked there for 10 years, so find this all... sad and interesting)
rsynnott 4y ago
A lot of these companies are building stuff now which might deliver revenue in X years, so by firing people now they're effectively borrowing money from the future; they cut costs now and revenue later. They're more sacrificing future growth than ability to deliver on current contracts, in general.
michaelt 4y ago
Google struck oil 20 years ago and money has been flowing in faster than they can spend it ever since. Some of that money let them drill more holes, and about 15 years ago some struck oil again. Because it's worked in the past and they can afford it, they've continued drilling countless holes. For example, their many incompatible messaging systems [1]. Some of the holes seem to have been drilled without any regard as to whether finding oil in that location is even possible. Presumably they hope to cut down on go-nowhere drilling, while still doing some drilling, in the areas where an oil strike is most likely. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-of-instability-the-history-of-google-messaging-apps/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-...
pyb 4y ago
I think what happens over time at FAANG, is that you get some divisions that are way overstaffed, and others that are way understaffed.
ma2rten 4y ago
a) It's only about 6% b) Google grew by 30k last year. c) Google is such a profitable company, because their revenue is not directly tied to number of employees.

cmrdporcupine 4y ago

Google has been over-hiring for years. While there are definitely projects that felt understaffed, there are just as many where you'd join a team and look around and really have no idea what you should be doing with yourself because all the work seemed spoken for. Honestly, 90-ish% of Google's revenue comes from ads. Almost every other product area there is just a financial loss unless it's supporting search&ads. They keep making "bets" to try to diversify the revenue stream, but it never works. Hence why I don't think this will be the last round of layoffs. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out and what parts of the org and what roles this affected. (Worked there for 10 years, so find this all... sad and interesting)

rsynnott 4y ago

A lot of these companies are building stuff now which might deliver revenue in X years, so by firing people now they're effectively borrowing money from the future; they cut costs now and revenue later. They're more sacrificing future growth than ability to deliver on current contracts, in general.

michaelt 4y ago

Google struck oil 20 years ago and money has been flowing in faster than they can spend it ever since. Some of that money let them drill more holes, and about 15 years ago some struck oil again. Because it's worked in the past and they can afford it, they've continued drilling countless holes. For example, their many incompatible messaging systems [1]. Some of the holes seem to have been drilled without any regard as to whether finding oil in that location is even possible. Presumably they hope to cut down on go-nowhere drilling, while still doing some drilling, in the areas where an oil strike is most likely. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-of-instability-the-history-of-google-messaging-apps/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/a-decade-and-a-half-...

pyb 4y ago

I think what happens over time at FAANG, is that you get some divisions that are way overstaffed, and others that are way understaffed.

ma2rten 4y ago

a) It's only about 6% b) Google grew by 30k last year. c) Google is such a profitable company, because their revenue is not directly tied to number of employees.