[SeekAndFind]

I wrote this about Microsoft’s layoffs. I haven’t looked at Google’s hiring figures for 2021 and 2022 but I believe the situation is the same as Microsoft’s.

Here’s Why laying off 10,000 workers at Microsoft is almost meaningless.

You can see in just 1 year, Microsoft hired 40,000 workers in 2022 (Goodness, how do you hire 40,000 people in just 1 year? That means employees just spent time interviewing and not working in 2022).

So, cutting 10,000 is meaningless as Microsoft will probably cut another 10,000 by end of summer 2023.

Notice each year prior from 2019, 2020, Microsoft only hired 20,000 each year. So, hiring 40,000 people in just 1 year is an outlier and points to the company over hiring by 20,000.

I suspect the same issue applies to Google and the other big tech firms.

[Dr. Sivana]

So, hiring 40,000 people in just 1 year is an outlier and points to the company over hiring by 20,000.

More likely the company is changing its priorities and is hiring more of what it needs (Azure) and less of what it doesn't (OS, mature Office apps). This was an opportunity to let go of those who work in a now unfavored area. The workers are not all interchangeable.

I say this as a recently laid off backup admin who has found the landscape has changed and I am not able to quickly find a good landing spot.

[GingisK]

It is trial by fire for their employees. A very small percentage of software people actually produce good software. The rest drink coffee, gossip, and surf the web.