Google slowing hiring to “technical and critical roles” only

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23206113/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-memo-hiring-slowdown-2022

by obnauticus • 4 years ago

223 109 4 years ago

It's easy to forget that these systems have so many players in place outside of the technical roles, but they're the ones that keep the ship moving. I will be curious if this has an at all stagnating affect, but this is Google, so it is doubtful.

rootsudo• 4 years ago

Google and Amazon keep sending me emails, so I guess not so much slowing! GCP site of the house for the latest role, Engineer, SRE type.

metadat8• 4 years ago

I am still getting the mails too, but as a hirer myself, I can tell you the mails and LinkedIn job postings are the last thing to get turned off.

Right now probably isn't a great time to negotiate an impressive comp package with Big-G, Facebook, Oracle, SAP, or Netflix.

daveidol• 4 years ago

But what about stock prices? May be a good time to reach a particular equity package that is likely to go way up in the future vs fewer shares at a time when prices are high.

xvector2• 4 years ago

Right now is the PERFECT time to negotiate an impressive comp package at FAANG!

Comp bands themselves aren't changing, only the numbers of hires are being reduced. If you are good enough to get and pass the interview loop at FAANG during a recession, the company really wants you - so you can probably negotiate the maximum comp package - which is doubly beneficial as stock prices are low right now.

Source: I and some of my friends have recently received offers from FAANG

l33t2328• 4 years ago

SRE is software reverse engineer, correct?

MontyCarloHall• 4 years ago

Site Reliability Engineer. Basically an extremely high-level sysadmin.

shadowgovt2• 4 years ago

Site Reliability Engineer. Broadly speaking, Google divides software engineering into two categories:

- software engineers, who create, initially maintain, and develop long term maintenance plans for software

- site reliability engineers, who keep existing products healthy, deal with unexpected complications in realtime, and continuously engineer improvements on how to do their jobs so they can carry more and more active software per SRE.

savant_penguin• 4 years ago

https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/devops/what-is-sre

jlokier• 4 years ago

I wish it was, reverse engineering is fun!

But no, it's site reliability engineering.

ls15• 4 years ago

That seems technical to me

mdm12• 4 years ago

In Q2 alone, we added approximately 10,000 Googlers...

Maybe it is okay to slow hiring if 'normal' is ten thousand new hires in three months

nojito• 4 years ago

That's really low for a company as large as Google

riku_iki• 4 years ago

I think they were adding around 15k annually in previous years.

metadat8• 4 years ago

They must have a lot of churn, that's a significant percentage of their entire workforce.

compiler-guy• 4 years ago

I don't think churn is particularly high as a percentage of total workers. The company really is growing that fast. There have been over ten-thousand positions open via careers.google.com in the last several months (although I expect that to shrink in the coming days). And 10K isn't that unusual of a quarterly number.

No inside info here, just noting that that kind of hiring is par for the course.

ceras• 4 years ago

Most of that is growth, not churn. Alphabet has hovered around 20% net headcount growth per year for awhile, per their earnings reports.

teirce• 4 years ago

No, the company has more than doubled (maybe tripled?) in size in the last 3-4 years.

UkrainianJew• 4 years ago

It's from a press-release that is intended to minimize the fears among investors. So the number likely includes part-time youtube moderators, cafeteria staff, and a lot of other minor jobs with incredibly high churn.

carbadtraingood• 4 years ago

I would assume those folks are not googlers, but are contract labor.

spaceman_2020• 4 years ago

I've felt for a while that tech companies have been overhiring. Some, like Google, just to ensure that competitors don't get that talent. Others, like Coinbase, just to add an extra point to their pitch deck.

sangnoir3• 4 years ago

Some, like Google, just to ensure that competitors don't get that talent.

This meme never made sense to me. How big is Google compared to it's competitors? Even if we narrow the scope down to the top 5% of talent - Google jas plenty of competition there. At best, Google can hang onto employees for a few years: not a great strategy for competing when employee churn is high.

If Google really wanted to hoard talent, they'd ensure current employees earn as much as new hires.

erganemic• 4 years ago

Oof, I've got an L3 interview with Google in a little over a week. Hearing about hiring slowdowns like this is making me wish I'd been more aggressive with my interview timeline, but I'm not sure I've prepared enough as-is. If I'd gone any faster I /definitely/ wouldn't have had enough time to refresh on DS&A and grind out Leetcode.

I know the consensus on HN is that FAANG is nothing special (and not that hard to get into!), but for a recent grad with mediocre internships from the pandemic and minimal opportunities for development in the role I'm currently in, getting clout like that on my resume early in my career would be awesome. Here's hoping the slowdowns really don't end up hitting technical roles as hard.

metadat8• 4 years ago

Good luck buddy, wish all the best for you.

titanomachy• 4 years ago

HN has plenty of people who say that, but I don’t think I would call it a consensus.

yegle4• 4 years ago

AFAIKT Google's recruitment for SWE and SRE (system engineer ladder) are separate. If you did not pass the SWE interview, ask the recruiter if you can do an SRE interview. Hope this helps!

Source: I went the process of failing the SWE interview but got an offer as an SRE.

ignoramous• 4 years ago

It isn't to mean that SRE is any easier...

okdood64• 4 years ago

SE is arguably much harder. Instead of just optimizing for coding, you need to be good at linux troubleshooting, low level kernel stuff and networking. There’s a reason most new hires come in as SWE, particularly new grads with not much real world experience.

That said, if you already possess this knowledge it could be easier as it takes a bit of the randomness out of getting a LeetCode question that you can’t figure out.

ThePadawan• 4 years ago

I feel like I need to add my own 2 cents to this point:

Definitely ask your recruiter and have them confirm which track you're interviewing for.

They just have numbers to hit. They will try to drop you into whichever track they need to. If a recruiter ever "seemingly misspoke" and moved you from SWE to SWE-SRE, ask for confirmation and/or insist on interviewing the track you are actually interested in.

frays• 4 years ago

The title and article literally says that Google is still hiring engineering and technical roles.

Why do you think this would affect you interviewing as a software engineer?

wesleywt• 4 years ago

They might be hiring as many developers as they use to

edmundsauto• 4 years ago

I hear you about the hypercompetitive perspective. I'm 20 years older and can't believe the stress that we put learners through.

If I can offer my voice - focus on doing some real shit. Don't worry about the career ladder - find experiences where you accomplished some real goals. Getting on the FAANG career ladder too early is probably very limiting. The big differentiator is whether you can take on accountability for making decisions; this requires practice (and luck) => experience.

Don't stress it. People told me this when I was a recent college grad in the mid 2000's. Develop your own heuristic of learning and growing versus stagnating. On the outside-of-FAANG-world, there are so many more opportunities for growth than a kept engineer can imagine.

lovich3• 4 years ago

Getting on the FAANG career ladder too early is probably very limiting

I can’t help but at chuckle at this with how big a barrier there is in comp between faang and non faang companies. You can get in if you spend months studying again or have a job that legitimately has you using comp sci on a day to day basis but for most folks they are gonna forget the skills needed to get a faang job shortly after college if they don’t get into one

sangnoir3• 4 years ago

I know the consensus on HN is that FAANG is nothing special

It's nothing special to those who are OK with leaving 6-figures on the table per anum - or are independently wealthy.

xvector2• 4 years ago

I think OP called it "nothing special [on HN]" because the majority of HNers probably already work at or have worked at FAANG.

AnotherGoodName• 4 years ago

Every single large company is expecting a long economic winter.

I'm just stating this in case people fool themselves in any way at the moment. Things are bleak and those who aren't lay people have pessimistic outlooks.

skippyboxedhero• 4 years ago

For advertising companies, yes...rates went up a huge amount last year, earlier this year I started hearing about companies moving ad spend to TV, flyers, anything but online because the ROI is so poor (and a lot of consumer-facing companies are facing a slowdown in demand after the boom last year left them with too much inventory now, this will impact advertising too).

For companies connected to these trends or the capital cycle, yes...it is going to be bad, most companies that failed to IPO won't survive, a lot of the late stage flippers have already lost everything (they just aren't marking down yet).

But this is a small part of tech, and a small part of the world. US tech had the fun on the way up...well, this is the next part. But the general economics of demand for tech are still good. The problem with large tech companies is that they took profitable businesses and then started hiring like mad and setting fire to cash (this isn't only unprofitable companies, Google is a tech company with a bureaucracy attached, the way that company is run is just comical). Tomorrow has come.

the_watcher• 4 years ago

moving ad spend to TV, flyers, anything but online because the ROI is so poor

So… deciding to move to channels where ROI is unknowable?

achow• 4 years ago

Google is a tech company with a bureaucracy attached, the way that company is run is just comical

And not much consequence for that, and that too in a slowing economy.

TameAntelope• 4 years ago

And yet labor participation is above pre pandemic levels, wage growth is accelerating, we just hit three year highs on new jobs in June, gas prices are finally dropping…

If you think companies are some kind of accurate leading indicator here, you’re being highly selective in the data you’re evaluating.

The economy is complex, it’s safe to slow down hiring, no one will remember a company that left money on the table when the storm clouds started forming, but they will remember a company that ignored “obvious” signs of a problem.

fshbbdssbbgdd• 4 years ago

The data is really mixed, it depends what numbers you are looking at. By some measures, wage growth is slowing and employment has stalled: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/opinion/employment-wages-...

(I know people don’t like Krugman, but this piece is nuanced and apolitical)

rufus_foreman• 4 years ago

Labor force participation rate is below pre pandemic levels, not above. 63.4 in February of 2020, 62.2 in June.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART

Real wages are declining not growing. $393/week median in Q2 2020, $362/week in Q4 2021.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

Number of job openings are declining after peaking in March. 11,855,000 in March, 11,254,000 in May.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTSJOL

Gas prices went from $1.94 a gallon in May of 2020 to $5.03 in June of last month.

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=e...

Yes, prices might have come down slightly since June. But overall, the statistics you cite are all trending negative.

astrange2• 4 years ago

Things aren’t bleak in the US - wild growth is slowing down but we’re not obviously in a recession, technical or not. And if we’re in a technical recession, you’re not losing your job, just don’t buy any yachts.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-23/morgan-st...

tgsovlerkhgsel• 4 years ago

Self-fulfilling prophecy?

If people are worried about their jobs (or being laid off/unable to find new jobs), they'll spend less...

UncleEntity• 4 years ago

I feel for the kids these days, last couple years under lockdowns and now they probably won’t have too many entry level tech jobs out there since everyone seems to be tightening their belts.

saagarjha5• 4 years ago

I can't speak much for those graduating this year, but anecdotally those who graduated e.g. last year had a very competitive market ahead of them. I'm hearing things from this year like not providing offers to interns, which is definitely going to suck for them, but the market overall isn't what I'd call "cool" yet though it's definitely moving in that direction.

leoqa• 4 years ago

As a new parent, I was planning on leaving my current stressful startup for Google, as I hear it’s must more intentional and slower paced.

Not sure what my options are now but I’m running out of steam during a recession that is projected to last for 1-2 years. I’m the sole provider for a young family and also my aging mother whom didn’t plan for retirement.

Hopefully this all blows over quickly or I can harness resolve to keep grinding it out.

blindfolded_go• 4 years ago

In a similar situation myself. No option but to keep going..

poulsbohemian4• 4 years ago

a recession that is projected to last for 1-2 years

What leads you to believe this will be the case?

arvinsim• 4 years ago

Do you believe it will last longer?

nly• 4 years ago

Here in the UK figures were announced today that show the economy bounced back to marginal GDP growth in May.

bordercontrol• 4 years ago

Don't forget to get a really good insurance in case you lose the ability to work in the industry.

paganel• 4 years ago

I know it's partially out of context, but to read about the CEO of a trillion+ company talk about "more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days", with focus on the word "hunger", is kind of neo-capitalist dystopian. Especially right now, as more and more people around the world are actually experiencing real hunger, not the made-up "hunger" meant to bring in even more profits for said trillion+ company. Completely tone-deaf.

entangledqubit• 4 years ago

This looks like a more nuanced pullback than back in 2008 when it seemed like they stopped hiring almost completely. Back then it was more out of fear than logic.

Due to the literal hoard of cash sitting around, any meaningful then existential threat would have required a large rapid change of the world economic order and demanded a large scale reorg and mass firings anyway - so they may as well have assumed the world wasn't ending and just kept hiring. That decision then really ended up mucking things up internally.

bleue1• 4 years ago

I am working as a Security Engineer(SE) for a (well-known; not FB) social media platform, and got an offer for a similar SE role at Google. Career wise, making the change will not necessarily make me happier; however Google's financial situation and stock perspectives feel better in this troublesome period, and makes me think that it will be better for my young family. What would you do?

saagarjha5• 4 years ago

I worked at a well known, non-Facebook social media platform during a turbulent time where my grant went down 50% and the company went through a botched acquisition offer. Thankfully I was still compensated well afterwards and it didn't affect me too much, but I do know colleagues who had to reconsider home purchasing decisions. Google's not impervious to market forces, and I obviously have no information as to how it will perform in the future, but in general it's probably safer than smaller companies. If you don't have much of a safety net, or have specific goals you'd like to meet in terms of compensation, picking Google may not be a bad idea. On the flip side, if you like the culture of working for a smaller company, are confident in your ability to switch jobs on your own terms, or are compensated primarily in cash it may be less attractive to join. It's really up to you, but the only general advice I can give you is that it never hurts to explore your options and make a decision once you have more information, such as actual offer letters. I work as a security engineer and as far as I am aware there are still plans to hire additional headcount in our team and many others, so you might as well give it a try.

papito• 4 years ago

So the companies that actively sucked up all the new graduates because of the glut of cash now have to learn frugality. Poetic, don't you think? It's not even a sign of bad times - the times are totally normal. What was happening was abnormal.

A software engineer who does't care about gaming the FAANG Leetcode interview process is still valuable - even more valuable.

Tade0• 4 years ago

Interesting because I was approached by two different recruiters from Google in the past few months.

I don't know if it's impostor syndrome or just sheer brand strength, but my first reaction was "why would Google be interested in me?".

Judging by the tone of those emails it might be that Google turned up the heat in HR already and people are racing to meet KPIs.

saagarjha5• 4 years ago

Google hires a lot of people for a variety of roles. I'm sure you're very good at what you do :) but also they're a large company like any other that has a desire to recruit new talent.

kleinsch• 4 years ago

Google recruiters will get in touch regardless of whether you have a chance of passing the interview or there’s actually a role open that makes sense. Just went through 6+ weeks after passing their interview where they couldn’t find me a team, so took a job at another company.

Google slowing hiring to “technical and critical roles” only

Related Stories