Lego to expand online ambitions by tripling total of software engineers
ft.com
ft.com
> Based in the remote Jutland town of Billund, Lego last month officially opened its digital hub in Copenhagen, adding to existing software centres in London and Shanghai. The group aims to employ 1,800 software workers by the end of 2023, triple the number it had at the start of last year, with about 400 of them based in Copenhagen.
Maybe I missed something. If I didn't, as someone who is currently struggling to hire software workers right now, I will say those numbers sound ... optimistic.
Billund airport does have a fantastic aeroclub with fast and well maintained aircraft though. Can be in Paris within 4h.
That doesn't seem very impressive, taking into consideration a flight from Stockholm <> Madrid takes ~4 hours, and that seems to be about double the distance as Denmark <> France.
Very high expectations for role/responsibilities and technical prowess. Very low remuneration on offer. And that was before rates and salaries shot through the roof post-pandemic.
Unless that's changed, and given the seeming lack of remote roles, I will be shocked if they meet this goal without most all new hires being junior outsourced/offshore resource.
Most of Europe is for a multitude of reasons still expecting to treat software as a cost centre.
The expectation of an IC making as much as a Director of <insert corporate department> is unthinkable to HR, even though the market worldwide is shifting exactly in that direction.
I was embarrassed to find out I was being paid more than my more senior colleague from Germany, not even taking tax into account yet.
He could double his net total comp simply by moving here and doing the same role as he does now.
They WANT people in the office. They just opened up nla new Copenhagen office and opened up their corporate headquarters in Billund. They are also the largest real-estate holder (or, their owners Kirkbi is) in Billund - They pretty much own the entire city.
They do rely on the “coolness” factor of working for LEGO though. Many people work there because their parents did or because they think it’s cool.
They generally treat their employees very nice and I’d have no problem recommending them as a employer.
It’s still a multinational enterprise though, with all the problems that it entails (corporate restructuring every 2-3 years, anyone?)
These positions will most likely (I’m not employed there anymore so this is just a guess) be for their new Copenhagen office, London office or Shanghai. They also just recently opened up their new corporate headquarters in Billund and will be looking to put people there.
Tech talent is hard to come by in Denmark in general these days, but The LEGO Group has had additional issues with finding talent. The reason for this is that they insist people move to Billund - something no sane Dane would ever do, unless they really, really wanted to work for LEGO.
Their rates are “fine” though. Far from being the best, but fine. Their benefits are awesome though.
Last I heard, they were forcing people back to the office in a “hybrid” setup. 2 days remote, 3 days in the office.
They’ve also traditionally have low employee churn - 10, 20 and 40 yearn anniversaries are very, very common.
Their tech implementation is dismal from end to end. And it’s pervasive throughout the company. So improving anything takes years and hundreds of meetings.
Rates are fine but you could make much much more elsewhere. I got a 45% bump in my current job after laughable annual adjustments (+0.56% in 2021). Generous bonus scheme yes but no RSUs, no ESPP. And bonus is not based on personal performance at all.
Cost of living is very high and taxes are insane on both income and capital gains.
Software engineers in my department were ok but none were exceptional. Leadership is laughably bad.
Low churn is real but not in software. A lot of the workforce are old on average. Lack of young people. Good benefits and low workload but detrimental to career progression, to your hunger to achieve and to your social life.
Overall, I do not recommend unless you are offered a high salary in one of the main hubs.
The Brand Protection department hold an enormous amount of political power internally - they rival, if not outright eclipse, Legal…
Redstone wouldn't quite work, you'd need wires or pre-stoned blocks, but you could use wireless, or adapt the concept slightly with other things like pneumatics.
You could have all the blocks have removable decorative tops, and an inner part with some kind of Lego style grid that can support gears, and have a train of them where you want the redstone power.
If you could find enough interesting ways to make blocks customizable you have crafting, especially if it's an open standard you can 3D print.
Water would be possible if you just accept a lot of leakage(Make your thing an island and have a pump that recycles faster then it leaks), or your make your pieces fit well.
If it got big you could have clubs and contests like we have shared servers.
At some point you'd really just need electronic blocks to properly do a lot of this stuff though, and it would probably be hard to pull off.
The difference being that since Lego was here well before, so Minecraft should be defined from Lego, not the other way around.
Also, if they were to build cheaper parts from more factories, would they lower their margins when a significant population is already paying the higher price ?
In comparison, their software if really bad and needs a lot more efforts whatever price they sell their sets.
It's nifty to be able to rotate the model as you're building it, and the effects coming from the figures as they move about the various bricks in real-life, but the app performance is very hit or miss.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that all the instructions were available as PDFs.
I’m not sure if I went to pogo.com to play it or not.
EDIT: I think I may be thinking of something else - regardless, found a flash archive of the old games here: http://biomediaproject.com/bmp/lmp/games/lego-game-archive-c...
Which ones are you referring to specifically?
LEGO published an official reference for communicating with all of the modern technic hubs on their github: https://github.com/LEGO/lego-ble-wireless-protocol-docs
There are several projects that have implemented parts of the protocol, ex: https://github.com/undera/pylgbst https://github.com/JorgePe/pyb00st https://github.com/virantha/bricknil
If the official protocol leaves you wanting, there exists 3rd party firmware for a most of the hubs that allows you to run python directly on the hubs: https://pybricks.com/
They make toy bricks, they actually make the freaking best toy bricks ever… Just stick to that!
I know I might be exceedingly idealistic, and as soon as MBAs and consultants take over a company things need to change, but have strong feelings towards LEGO and I am fine being idealistic here!
If Lego was to just continue doing what they initially did, they would still be doing houses and furniture as it was a carpentry shop initially.
If they would stop after their first "hit product" (The Lego plastic bricks), then we probably wouldn't have either Legoland nor Lego Tecnic, as just two examples. Some Lego video games have been excellent as well, and I wouldn't want to miss out on more in the future.
If they were to stop developing new ideas now, who knows what we're missing out on from the future?
As many companies have proven before, it's not impossible to remain competitive in their current market (plastic bricks), and still be able to create new cool stuff.
So I hope you're wrong, mostly for my own sake, because I still love the Lego bricks, and hope they remain the same, while I also look forward to what they can bring out in the future.
Some companies are going for all four! Eg https://www.usa.philips.com/c-e/pe/sonicare-subscription/hom...
I’d disagree.
They used to, but currently the best toy brick would be chinese makers’ technic blocks (which might be 10% weaker than Lego bricks, but cost a third of the price and are available in bulk), coupled with an alternative controller like Sbrick or Buwizz or a few others that entered the market.
For simpler, more “classic” sets, the buckets are still good value to buy in physical retail stores, but otherwise frustrating to use compared to single or two/three color sets.