Some Microsoft employees fume over the company’s open offer to hire hundreds of OpenAI staff::Current employees point to layoffs and a salary freeze this year at Microsoft and wonder why it’s promising to match the pay of OpenAI staff.
I worked for Microsoft for a long time, and by far my least-favorite part about it was the way politics from on high turned hard work into a cruel joke- oh, you did awesome work this year, but the c-suite spent all the money so you can’t get the bonus or level promotion I want to give you and oh here’s this news:
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they’re laying 18,000 of you off
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while hiring H-1b contractors
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and buying back shares
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and killing off in-house projects because we bought a competitor
Yeah if you wonder why MS employees have opinions about stuff like this, it’s because it’s genuinely unpleasant to realize that your career depends on not getting fucked by people with every incentive to fuck it
I wonder why MS employees don’t take offers elsewhere. Their salary is probably under market value if they are at MS for too long (ie. their initial vesting is over).
It’s not so easy to just replace your job when you have a specialized skill. It takes months of applying to other jobs, doing interviews, coordinating with recruiters, etc. Not everyone has the time, patience, or ability to do that.
That being said, I am constantly looking for a better position. It takes time out of my day but it’s worth it in the long run.
This. Job hopping works for some time even when you are young, when you learn fast and when everyone is hiring.
I took me one year to get out of my managerial job and I took a paycut, went to work a smaller company with lesser job title. My previous job was too good on paper. In reality it was a total shitshow. I was open to take the first reasonable offer, but recruiters were hesitant to even talk to me.
And it’s not just job titles. Skills fade if you are in position where you don’t continue learning.
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I mean, I get why people would not like this but it is a value proposition. They think a random OpenAI employee is much more valuable than a some Microsoft employees. Hence, they’d rather boot specific Microsoft employees and hire OpenAI people instead.
The OpenAI people built ChatGPT, the Microsoft folks worked on Clippy.
