causehealth101

Very interesting. What do you think of metrics like valuation or # of employees?

"Encroach on your ability to WFH" - you perfectly summed up the reason for the vitriol from remote-only people, IMO:

They are fearful that people with your stance will give companies a better argument for less remote-work. It's one thing when executives talk about it, because they're "not on the ground" and "just want control" or "don't understand individual contributors", but when peers like you support non-100% remote, it's a real worrisome prospect for them.

I have a dumb question, tangentially related to this:

Can you set up a non-profit as long as fees and/or donations are limited to expenses (not compensation)?

It's damn near impossible. I admire your restraint :)

You're absolutely right. People do NOT want to hear it, but this is the reality in most cases.

If you search, you'll find that many are not disclosing numbers.

And among those that are, a decent number are finding ways to sidestep the requirement. For example: I saw a bizarre post for a single senior-level tech role. The range was outrageously broad, but the specific numbers were exact, something like $112,899 - $242,782 base salary.

Are you referring to the private booths available at co-working spaces?

Side note: I remember reading that inappropriate behavior occurred between coeds inside the WeWork booths. Sigh.

Good point! So that eliminates the coffee shop - what other spots can accommodate you outside of home?

One interesting, but unsettling statistic: the RATE of deaths per miles driven has increased by nearly 25% in 2020.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a34240145/2019-2020-traffi...

"When you factor in an important aspect of that change, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), you actually see that more people died this year, on average, than last year. That's because VMT was down a dramatic 16.6 percent (or 264.2 billion miles) in the first six months of 2020, which pushed up the fatality rate per 100 million VMT, a metric the NHTSA uses to more accurately compare vehicle and road safety over time. Using this number, the NHTSA discovered that fatalities per 100 million VMT climbed to 1.25 in 2020, up from the 1.06 in 2019, despite the same three-year decrease that the agency saw with fatalities-per-VMT that it did with overall fatalities leading into this year."

Wow, this is made for me. Youtube's own "view transcript" tool spits out a small side window with about 5 words per line. For me, that's a pain to read.

This transcript is displayed in paragraph form, nearly as readable as a typical article.

One very specific question: is there a way to get it on Instapaper's mobile app? While it transfers well on the web version, clicking on the transcript through the app takes me to the web version.

Thank you for this contribution!

Groupon reached a valuation of $30 Billion at one point...for years, the hype was how smart they were in rejecting that Google offer!

The unfortunate reality is that you're worth the same as what the next qualified person is willing to accept.

Compensation is determined by the local cost of labor: if a competing candidate is living in North Dakota and willing to accept 30% less, then that's what they'll pay.

It's a sad state of affairs. There are far more resources available these days to combat the information asymmetry that drives the "financial planning" industry, but it's not nearly enough to help the people who actually NEED it.

I began my career in private wealth management (minimum $5M investable assets).

I ditched that to try to help real people...joined a brokerage where I discovered sales targets still required $250K, at the very least, in investable assets (this excludes include home and any assets that cannot be held by the brokerage, so the net worth of these people was usually $500K+).

I finally gave up and attempted to run a business on a different fee model to educate lower/lower-middle class people on their finances. The Great Recession and my youthful idealism & naivete destroyed that.

Wow, quite an experience. I'm curious: how did those rich people use your schizophrenic mother in tax avoidance scheme?

This exactly. It's a whole different scale.

This reminds of a typical visit to the doctor.

The nurse enters the room, asks me why I'm there and types the answers into EMR. She leaves...

The doctor walks in and says "so, what brings you in today?"

It's either a huge redundancy or a useful way of sending off your message to join millions of others, with the goal of training the system to improve and speed up the automated service.

You've worked at 11 startups?! How long have you been in the industry?

Thanks for sharing. I was curious and checked the trend too:

Comments: May 2018 (1,199), 2019 (1,018), 2020 (697)

Comments: June 2018 (911), 2019 (799), 2020 (671)

Comments: July 2018 (857), 2019 (912), 2020 (622)

The hiring environment is a mess.

For example, big tech (FANG etc) is vacuuming up folks everywhere from startups to those hit hard like Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb.

The top career priority in times of uncertainty is stability. So you have not just those laid off from the those companies, but those still employed and nervous, who are eyeing and applying to big tech. Startups that survive and grow now and after will have the advantage of less business competition, but will see a drop in candidates who will need more time to re-adjust to risk.

You listed the roles as Onsite/Remote - can you expand on your plans here? Thanks!

Thanks for your clarification.

Unfortunately, I still feel a case-by-case approach leaves too much uncertainty and risk for the employer & candidate. And I'm not speaking to only you - your job post/comment just happens to exemplify a huge challenge facing countless companies during Covid!

So, for example: what would your hiring decision be if you interview the perfect candidate...who will 100% not relocate to LA?

Interesting.

What I'm most curious about is the Hiring Manager's POV. Do they, in fact, even want FAANG engineers?

Money aside for a moment, do startups require too much of a transition in culture (small, fast & unpredictable) or skills (more generalist & unsiloed) for FAANG engineers to perform successfully?

Not sure it's what your seeking, but Longform.org and Longreads.com are aggregators of in-depth journalism pieces.

Books are my life and my Kindle library has reached 1,200+ in 7 years of reading ebooks.

I'm a bit morbid, given that I statistically have decades of reading ahead of me, but I always dreamed of transferring the collection to my bookworm niece. I only learned of this Amazon policy recently and it was crushing!

Exactly, it's based on the local market's cost of labor. I'm curious about this topic - are developers cheaper to hire because there is an oversupply of them or an undersupply of jobs?

Exactly. It's a painful reality to accept for those who do not know it's an accepted practice.

I agree, but want to mention another variable that throws a wrench into things:

The longer it takes for one to accumulate that substantial tranche, the more entrenched they become in their home city (family, friends, community) and the more challenging it is to move.

Let me preface by saying this policy is a serious threat to my compensation - so I hear you loud and clear!

That said: this is the reality and, as unfair as it sounds from the employee's perspective, it makes perfect sense. Facebook does not pay Bay Area compensation to its employees in other parts of the world. It should be no different for those in different COL areas around the US.

Not only does this suck for current employees, but new hiring will be a nasty wake-up call. If a candidate in a different city thinks they'll cross their arms and demand Bay Area pay, there will be multiple other qualified candidates in that city & around the country more than happy to accept a competitive offer tied to their COL.

*Spelling

Yeah, this question has always stumped me. High-growth companies that are not showing a profit are getting their reputations hammered. But I can't discern which of these are doing this to their peril and which are effectively following the Amazon story and will come out of this successful.

1. I know Twitter adjusts salary based on location, and this practice is more common that not for US employees. So I'm leaning towards Yes.

2. This is the big question. In my opinion, they will soon add fine print to this "Permanent Remote" policy depending on how essential employee is (e.g. DevOps more likely to work FT remote versus Lead Engineers on core company product). My bet is that, when the panic calms down, it'll become a flexible hybrid policy for most workers. But I'm speculating and just generally think it's way too early to be declaring anything "permanent."

I agree, which is why I made sure not to mention immunity.

But at least these people would no longer be a health threat to the community, right? My thought is that they would be one step towards helping society return to normalcy (e.g. going back to jobs).