Big Tech Killed the Golden Age of Programming

(www.taylor.gl)

128 points taylorlunt | 1 comments | 30 Jul 25 14:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source

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lokar ◴[30 Jul 25 15:20 UTC] No.44735404[source]▶

I’ve seen this claim that Google and others had some plan to over hire.

From my time there that was not the case. There was the natural demand for more people on existing projects and lots of (often good) ideas for new projects.

The money just poured in. We could never actually hire close to the approved levels. Internal “fights” were over actual people, not headcount, everyone had tons of open headcount.

I think there was just so much money, revenue growth and margin that management (which was dominated by engineers) just did not care. Fund everything and see what happens, why not?

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castwide ◴[30 Jul 25 15:39 UTC] No.44735648[source]▶

>>44735404 #

In my experience, it felt that way from the outside. I got solicited by five different Amazon recruiters in 2022 alone. The one time I engaged, they didn't even have a specific role in mind. It definitely gave me the impression of blanket hiring with the primary (if not sole) purpose of increasing headcount.

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1. quantumsequoia ◴[31 Jul 25 01:36 UTC] No.44741511[source]▶

>>44735648 #

It's called pooled hiring, and it makes sense when a company is hiring lots of people for lots of teams. Most large companies do this when hiring rates are high. You end up with better employee-team match when you interview a candidate first and then match them based on their skills/interest, rather than contacting them for a specific role they may or may not be interested in.

Has nothing to do with whether hiring is for headcount or other reasons

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