LinkedIn lays off nearly 700 staff, engineers to suffer the most Microsoft is kicking off another round of layoffs, this time cutting 668 jobs across several teams at LinkedIn. News of the cuts came this morning, which LinkedIn confirmed in a brief blog post that it described to The Register as "full." According to the Microsoft subsidiary, the cuts will range across engineering, product, …
I've noticed recently that startups appear to be looking more stable when job hunting. They have 2 to 4 years of funding and a long-term vision. Public companies are scratching around for quick share price profits like drug addicts. For all the intricate moving parts in a business, all the top of command has for a plan is a profit target.
Private is even better, but they have stable employees so they're rarely posting job openings.
IMO, startups are only more stable at present if that funding is in place and 100% committed - and stable only for as long as that funding will last.
With the increase in interest rates across the world over the last year, VC funding is on the decrease as it becomes more attractive to bank your cash and get a guaranteed return than to gamble on funding startups. When bank rates were close to 0%, there was more incentive to invest in a startup.
I'm STILL trying to figure out what value LinkedIn brings to me. Besides just another place to post my resume.
Networking? Nope. Not for me. Unless you count a ton of 2nd rate headhunter's spam. Learning? Nothing I can't get somewhere cheaper to free. Job listings? Again what do they do better than Monster or Dice, et al? And that's a pretty low bar right there.
More than anything, it's just become another waste of time chore that I only keep around because some future employer can't be arsed to actually read a resume I submit or thinks not having a presence is somehow suspect.
But one thing is for sure, laying off your engineers is always a good way to improve the user experience!
Oh wait...
I've been thinking about this for years. It felt like the right thing to do, because I'm a contractor and need to "keep my profile out there", but really I'm not sure it benefits me at all. Also, it's a massive time sink. I found myself getting into long running arguments (usually about Covid measures, and "masks and lockdowns don't work" / "Yes they DO work" / "No they don't" back-and-forth) which I'm sure didn't help to raise my professional profile one little bit.
Also, LinkedIN is a goldmine. Just not a goldmine for me. For recruiters to try to find new companies (not candidates so much) and also for hackers to gain information for Spear Fishing. So, it's a security nightmare.
And because of that I'm no longer on there any more. And I don't miss it. I feel sorry for those engineers who will be out looking for work, but I'm sure they'll find something more interesting and worthwhile.
Big tech is a monopsony and appear to be working in concert.
The west's race to the bottom on education has produced a massive shortage of skilled people - especially in IT.
With this massive upward pressure on wages how else is big tech going to reduce the cost of employing minions?
Treat em mean keep em keen.
So, go and run your own company and see if you can do a better job.
They don't owe you a job, it's a free market economy. If things are going bad they have to cut back, or go bust.
I've worked for many companies over the years, and honestly the middle management struggle to be an umbrella and shield the minions from all the shit from above, the upper management usually have literally no clue what's going on at the coal face, and are more concerned these days with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. If a company does well, it's often because the greater market happens to be doing well. What the upper management aren't going to do is to sack themselves. Unless they are Gerald Ratner, or stick their foot in their own mouth in a particularly spectacular fashion.
Deal with it, do the best job you can while you are there, and try to enjoy yourself doing something interesting and getting paid for it if you possibly can. And be thankful that you are lucky enough to have landed on your feet, rather than someone beeping bar codes in Tesco. Work to Live, don't Live to Work.
Not every point, but I can see it's a bit self contradictory. And a bit satirical.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is to be stoic, make hay while the sun shines and don't expect too much from upper management. Often the Big Wigs aren't the visionaries they make themselves out to be, they just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Although they do often work very hard (or at least long hours) and they play well at politics. Take Zuckerberg and Musk for instance. Not exactly visionaries, are they? Steve Jobs most definitely was, although by many accounts a complete asshole to work for.
Some of the best places I've worked at are where the middle manager have taken the trouble to fight for their staff, and shield them from the shitstorm that comes from above. Likewise, some of the worst have been where the managers throw you under the bus.
If you don't want to be a cog in a great big badly oiled machine, go and set up your own. It's probably harder than you think.
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