This is called capitalizing. Companies are not allowed to do it with R&D under GAAP. But it gets tricky when one company can build a factory, call it capex, and spread the expense over 10 years. Whereas another builds software infra and must expense 100% immediately.
Curious how this would change if R&D was capitalized. Of course it would just make ebitda a less accurate proxy for cash flow but we’d still be looking at it very differently.
If it was an engineering role I’d definitely call it a brain teaser. But for say a marketing role, an interviewers wants to see that you understand the way money flows through the business and what the parameters therein are. Maybe it’s still a brain teaser but I would say it’s relevant to the job.
Seems inefficient though, these days I really only navigate with Spotlight. Just hit the key command, type what I’m looking for, and hit enter. I don’t like navigating through any finder-like UI to access my files.
I agree 100%. So instead of saying “The web needs to be good! We need to spend time (money) on this!” Say “I ran an A/B test and the top of our funnel had an X% higher conversion rate when the page loaded in less than Xms. Here are my ideas for what analytics to cut to get us under that number. It’ll take some work but our funnel will improve and there’s an added benefit because all execs will view a unified report, which will ensure that all future business decisions are made with one standard set of metrics. This is win win win!”
Why not provide the bottom / top line impact of page optimization? Your business’s profitability is the most important thing to your bosses. They do not care about making the web good, nor should they IMHO. Your job is to show why both parties’ incentives are actually aligned, not opposed.
100% this. I've been through a BFA conservatory program. Having your work torn apart, respectfully, in public happens every single day. When I moved to the corporate world I was shocked that no one knew how to give or receive feedback. I've seen and given a few talks on how this activity can by applied in a corporate setting.
The 5/15/40/40 vesting schedule is _really_ rough. If given the choice between Amazon and "no-name company," yes, Amazon will do wonders for your resume. But, if comparing an Amazon and Google offer, I'd want a big, big signing bonus from Amazon.
It's difficult to believe that this is FTEs. Very easy to believe it's FTEs, contractors, temps, and vendors. Including warehouse workers etc.
EDIT: I was curious, so I took a peek at their 10-K [1]. "We employed approximately 566,000 full-time and part-time employees as of December 31, 2017." I couldn't find any info on their FTE count with a quick keyword search.
I agree that for-profit prisons are not good for society. But does this one (granted, massive) mistake mean that we can no longer try to innovate in this space? Does it mean that the only model is publicly funded rehabilitation? That's obviously not worked either.
Who says anything about a modest return? How much does the U.S. spend on prisons? How much does the world spend on prisons? Say they operate at a 30% discount, how much revenue is that? Off the top of my head, a lot.
There is such a thing as for profit for good. Perhaps they believe they can be both better and cheaper than prisons at the same time. That allows them to provide a compelling pitch to governments and convince them to direct funds to Promise instead of prisons. The government wins because it's cheaper, their users win because they are not incarcerated, and they win because they have cash flow. These types of businesses are not impossible to create.
The idea that software engineers are paid more than everyone is a fallacy. There are a good deal of jobs that pay significantly more, especially when looked at over the long run. It generally does require going back to school, which is a risk/reward tradeoff that must be examined.
I’m glad other people feel the same as me. Sometimes it seems like if you’ve got a SDE job people think you’re the king of the hill. I’m working on an exit from tech as well.