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I always see them hiring Android programmers on Linkedin, including right now https://careers.tiktok.com/position?keywords=android&category=&location=CT_75%2CC

by Mc91 4y ago

I always see them hiring Android programmers on Linkedin, including right now https://careers.tiktok.com/position?keywords=android&category=&location=CT_75%2CCT_1103355&project=&type=&job_hot_flag=&current=1&limit=10&functionCategory= https://careers.tiktok.com/position?keywords=android&categor... Wonder if Android people will be laid off.

unglaublich 4y ago
Big companies always fish for talent, even when laying off people. The bar to get accepted is just a LOT higher.
oldstrangers 4y ago
Makes sense considering Android makes up 71.74% of the mobile market. Especially emerging markets, which is right up their wheelhouse.
- nso 4y ago
  Here in Mexico I just today made note of a phone service provider offering unlimited use of TikTok with their basic offering. Personally I have never been anything but annoyed by the whole concept of the short videos, but my 5 year old daughter likes it. But then again I also get irrationally angry at programming tutorials in video form as opposed to text, so maybe I just don't "get it".
  - arberx 4y ago
    Its because they have no net neutrality.
  - ollien 4y ago
    Those short form programming videos perpetuate the parts of this industry I really dislike, particularly the "look you install the latest dependency and things go :rocketship: :rocketship:". They never convey much nuance and are just frankly uninteresting, unless you want to just have passing knowledge of things existing.
  - linuxftw 4y ago
    > but my 5 year old daughter likes it. The tech is made to be addictive. You shouldn't let children use such a thing IMO.
  - blululu 4y ago
    Tutorial videos are demonstrably worse at education, but they are just much, much easier to produce than a well written step by step blog post.
me551ah 4y ago
If they are still trying to hire for Android, then it's unlikely that they would.
- toyg 4y ago
  Sadly that's not how mass-layoffs work. It would make too much sense. Chances are those openings are just bait, permanently there regardless of whether they actually need people.
  - htrp 4y ago
    > Chances are those openings are just bait, permanently there regardless of whether they actually need people. 100%.... most firms will have permanent reqs open just to see if there are outstanding candidates available.
Aromasin 4y ago
Based on data from other "tech layoffs", very few if any core engineers will go. It'll be sales, recruitment, and an assortment of engineering-adjacent positions like solutions, industrial design, data analytics, and product. I quite like this article from interviewing.io on the make-up of most layoffs by position based in LinkedIn data: https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other-departments https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other... If you look at pure software engineering, it's about 5%. When we say "tech layoffs" we default to thinking "technical people", but that's not really the case.
- baumy 4y ago
  This is extremely interesting data, and not what I would have expected. I'm aware HR and recruiting folks are having much much harder times than engineers in finding new positions, but assumed engineers had still been hit harder than that link shows. For companies outside the big techs that are still wildly profitable and sitting on mountains of cash, laying off people is largely about refocusing on actual profitable activity. Keeping engineers around makes sense for them. For companies that are on the cusp of profitability, or still actively burning through money, layoffs seem to be more about reducing burn, which means you're more likely to lay off highly paid engineers. Still, 5% seems low. How do you square this with the observation that every open SDE role at a company that pays at least somewhat decently seems to have hundreds of applications? If so few SDEs were really laid off, I wouldn't expect the SDE hiring market to have turned as drastically as it did since last summer / fall.
  - philsnow 4y ago
    > For companies that are on the cusp of profitability, or still actively burning through money, layoffs seem to be more about reducing burn, which means you're more likely to lay off highly paid engineers. Bothering to do a layoff only makes sense if management wants to see the company survive. So, assuming that the only outcomes being targeted are the ones in which the company is still alive, consider the cost of replacing the employee later: at least right now, engineers are more expensive to hire than most other roles[0], so it could cost less overall to lay off HR/recruiting with the expectation that you'll backfill those roles in 9-18 months. [0] for various reasons; to hire for any given role, you have to source, engage/recruit, interview (which takes up the time of the people on the team they'll join), somehow pick one or more of the candidates, make offers, and then onboard them. These costs are largely the same for any role, except that interviewing engineers costs engineering time (and it's harder to get enough quality candidates in the top of the funnel for engineers than other roles, so you have to spend more HR/recruiter time there).
ganlaw 4y ago
As someone who has been doing primarily Android engineering for the last 7 years. I am not surprised they are still hiring Android people. It is really hard to hire Android people. Every company I’ve worked (FANNG included) at struggled to fill Android roles. TikTok has reached out to me every month for the last year or so as well.
- mattgreenrocks 4y ago
  > It is really hard to hire Android people. Every company I’ve worked (FANNG included) at struggled to fill Android roles. Why is that? Does iOS present similar hiring challenges?
  - symlinkk 4y ago
    Probably because anyone smart enough to work in tech is smart enough to have an iPhone instead of an Android
    - triyambakam 4y ago
      Lol at thinking that Apple is somehow more secure. You've bought the lie. I use Graphene.
      - kyawzazaw 4y ago
        is it really about security in the original comment though?
        triyambakam 4y ago
        Then what is it about? The poster claims it's about intelligence so i don't see how else it could be.
    - skeeter2020 4y ago
      Ah yes, you're part of the "exclusive club" of people who own an iPhone; they only added 200M members to their ranks last year. Only the smartest, tech Rockstars... or anyone with a piece of government issue id and enough credit to get a 2-year cell plan.
onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
At one point - TikTok was rumored to be worth $400B. That's about 40% of GOOG - which prints $60B per year. TikTok makes nothing. It's only growing revenues at 53%, and they're massively decelerating. It's going to be hard to IPO for anything near that without ZIRP when they don't have profits and their growth rates are declining... Easiest way to make the numbers look better for IPO is fire half the employees and make the other half work 3x as much.
- shuckles 4y ago
  ByteDance almost certainly does many tens of billions of revenue a year.
  - woobar 4y ago
    Prints money means profits. Alphabets revenue in 2022 was $280B, with ~$60B profits. ByteDance info is harder to find, but in 2021 it was ~$60B revenue, with $7B loss. [1] https://musically.com/2022/10/07/bytedance-2021-financials/ https://musically.com/2022/10/07/bytedance-2021-financials/
ravenstine 4y ago
Everyone is "hiring" all the time. Even zombie companies like Sears post developer jobs on LinkedIn.

by Mc91 4y ago

unglaublich 4y ago

Big companies always fish for talent, even when laying off people. The bar to get accepted is just a LOT higher.

oldstrangers 4y ago

Makes sense considering Android makes up 71.74% of the mobile market. Especially emerging markets, which is right up their wheelhouse.

nso 4y ago
Here in Mexico I just today made note of a phone service provider offering unlimited use of TikTok with their basic offering. Personally I have never been anything but annoyed by the whole concept of the short videos, but my 5 year old daughter likes it. But then again I also get irrationally angry at programming tutorials in video form as opposed to text, so maybe I just don't "get it".
- arberx 4y ago
  Its because they have no net neutrality.
- ollien 4y ago
  Those short form programming videos perpetuate the parts of this industry I really dislike, particularly the "look you install the latest dependency and things go :rocketship: :rocketship:". They never convey much nuance and are just frankly uninteresting, unless you want to just have passing knowledge of things existing.
- linuxftw 4y ago
  > but my 5 year old daughter likes it. The tech is made to be addictive. You shouldn't let children use such a thing IMO.
- blululu 4y ago
  Tutorial videos are demonstrably worse at education, but they are just much, much easier to produce than a well written step by step blog post.

me551ah 4y ago

If they are still trying to hire for Android, then it's unlikely that they would.

toyg 4y ago
Sadly that's not how mass-layoffs work. It would make too much sense. Chances are those openings are just bait, permanently there regardless of whether they actually need people.
- htrp 4y ago
  > Chances are those openings are just bait, permanently there regardless of whether they actually need people. 100%.... most firms will have permanent reqs open just to see if there are outstanding candidates available.

Aromasin 4y ago

Based on data from other "tech layoffs", very few if any core engineers will go. It'll be sales, recruitment, and an assortment of engineering-adjacent positions like solutions, industrial design, data analytics, and product. I quite like this article from interviewing.io on the make-up of most layoffs by position based in LinkedIn data: https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other-departments https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other... If you look at pure software engineering, it's about 5%. When we say "tech layoffs" we default to thinking "technical people", but that's not really the case.

baumy 4y ago
This is extremely interesting data, and not what I would have expected. I'm aware HR and recruiting folks are having much much harder times than engineers in finding new positions, but assumed engineers had still been hit harder than that link shows. For companies outside the big techs that are still wildly profitable and sitting on mountains of cash, laying off people is largely about refocusing on actual profitable activity. Keeping engineers around makes sense for them. For companies that are on the cusp of profitability, or still actively burning through money, layoffs seem to be more about reducing burn, which means you're more likely to lay off highly paid engineers. Still, 5% seems low. How do you square this with the observation that every open SDE role at a company that pays at least somewhat decently seems to have hundreds of applications? If so few SDEs were really laid off, I wouldn't expect the SDE hiring market to have turned as drastically as it did since last summer / fall.
- philsnow 4y ago
  > For companies that are on the cusp of profitability, or still actively burning through money, layoffs seem to be more about reducing burn, which means you're more likely to lay off highly paid engineers. Bothering to do a layoff only makes sense if management wants to see the company survive. So, assuming that the only outcomes being targeted are the ones in which the company is still alive, consider the cost of replacing the employee later: at least right now, engineers are more expensive to hire than most other roles[0], so it could cost less overall to lay off HR/recruiting with the expectation that you'll backfill those roles in 9-18 months. [0] for various reasons; to hire for any given role, you have to source, engage/recruit, interview (which takes up the time of the people on the team they'll join), somehow pick one or more of the candidates, make offers, and then onboard them. These costs are largely the same for any role, except that interviewing engineers costs engineering time (and it's harder to get enough quality candidates in the top of the funnel for engineers than other roles, so you have to spend more HR/recruiter time there).

ganlaw 4y ago

As someone who has been doing primarily Android engineering for the last 7 years. I am not surprised they are still hiring Android people. It is really hard to hire Android people. Every company I’ve worked (FANNG included) at struggled to fill Android roles. TikTok has reached out to me every month for the last year or so as well.

mattgreenrocks 4y ago
> It is really hard to hire Android people. Every company I’ve worked (FANNG included) at struggled to fill Android roles. Why is that? Does iOS present similar hiring challenges?
- symlinkk 4y ago
  Probably because anyone smart enough to work in tech is smart enough to have an iPhone instead of an Android
  - triyambakam 4y ago
    Lol at thinking that Apple is somehow more secure. You've bought the lie. I use Graphene.
    - kyawzazaw 4y ago
      is it really about security in the original comment though?
      - triyambakam 4y ago
        Then what is it about? The poster claims it's about intelligence so i don't see how else it could be.
  - skeeter2020 4y ago
    Ah yes, you're part of the "exclusive club" of people who own an iPhone; they only added 200M members to their ranks last year. Only the smartest, tech Rockstars... or anyone with a piece of government issue id and enough credit to get a 2-year cell plan.

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago

At one point - TikTok was rumored to be worth $400B. That's about 40% of GOOG - which prints $60B per year. TikTok makes nothing. It's only growing revenues at 53%, and they're massively decelerating. It's going to be hard to IPO for anything near that without ZIRP when they don't have profits and their growth rates are declining... Easiest way to make the numbers look better for IPO is fire half the employees and make the other half work 3x as much.

shuckles 4y ago
ByteDance almost certainly does many tens of billions of revenue a year.
- woobar 4y ago
  Prints money means profits. Alphabets revenue in 2022 was $280B, with ~$60B profits. ByteDance info is harder to find, but in 2021 it was ~$60B revenue, with $7B loss. [1] https://musically.com/2022/10/07/bytedance-2021-financials/ https://musically.com/2022/10/07/bytedance-2021-financials/

ravenstine 4y ago

Everyone is "hiring" all the time. Even zombie companies like Sears post developer jobs on LinkedIn.