8 Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job

Re:8 Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job by greedo on Wednesday December 28, 2022 @07:33PM (#34167975)

Loyalty, like love, can be blind. One of the best SREs I work with, is just a stellar performer. Over delivers, solves complex problems quickly and with well thought out and reliable solutions. We needed another SRE, so we hired his best friend. Terrible employee, both in what they deliver and how they act. Night and day difference from the first SRE.

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Re:8 Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job by avianlyric on Wednesday December 28, 2022 @07:47PM (#34168081)

> We needed another SRE, so we hired his best friend.

Well there was your mistake. You should have hired the best SRE he knows, not his best friend.

I’m good friends with many software engineers, but the strength of our friendship has no correlation with their engineering capabilities.

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Re:8 Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job by jpmoral on Wednesday December 28, 2022 @10:02PM (#34168964)

I think the point is that they were brought on on the strength of the first person's recommendation, not because they were the best friend.

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Re:8 Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job by tete on Thursday December 29, 2022 @10:39PM (#34181501)

I agree. There is different mindsets though. If someone was my best friend, I would not recommend them because of that, if they were a bad fit. That would be unfair to both the employer and the friend.

Not sure why anybody would do that. Even for inexperienced people or people that need more guidance in general there's usually spots, just in other other companies.

Companies still hire people that chose the completely wrong career and fields. And in many companies there is demand for them for all sorts of reasons. Worst case they have to do shitty jobs, nobody else wants to do.

With the current lay-offs I think it's mostly the result of "hire everyone" during covid.

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Re:8 Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job by greedo on Wednesday December 28, 2022 @10:23PM (#34169083)

Obviously I left out that the bad apple came from his recommendation. That's where trusting the judgement of a great employee can have blind spots.

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Re:8 Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job by throwaway2037 on Thursday December 29, 2022 @03:55AM (#34170815)

I agree. Hiring friends and family is dangerous in my view, unless you are running your own small company.

Alan C. Greenberg, former CEO of investment bank Bear, Stearns & Co. said (to paraphrase): "The problem with hiring friends and family: You hire 100% of the dummies." Bear had an incredibly strict policy about not hiring friends and family. As a result, I am always suspicious when people recommend to hire friends and family.

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Re:8 Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job by parineum on Thursday December 29, 2022 @02:50AM (#34170486)

And I bet you didn't ask that guy next time you needed to hire someone.

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