All good advice, I do disagree with one statement, however, mainly because I've seen this getting violated many times now:
> "Make sure that your role (as an engineer) in your company is in the most critical part of the company as you can handle."
The main problem here is how much the organization wants to think it can continue without those crucial parts, I've seen wild things go down in this regard, and I think we'll see a lot more in the near future with people hoping that AI will take care of it. And, on the flipside, and much to my surprise, how often the org can actually survive through such disaster cuts regardless, even though they'll end up at a worse place than they were at before, but the simple act of surviving it -- at that point -- is enough of a success to continue onwards.
The trick is to align with how corporate leadership defines "crucial" and not the way a "crank turner" defines it.
A crank turner thinks having a solid platform to stand on, a long crank arm and good lubrication is crucial. Because those things ARE crucial to crank turning.
Corporate management is looking at the machine the crank is attached to and thinking if that machine is going to produce the company's next quarter of growth.
The machine you crank could even be very profitable right now, but it's not where the company is going. Here's an easy to follow example from a smallish business:
mittermayr: My other points explain why just being in the most critical role isn't a guarantee. I also pointed out that "foolish management can still goof and let you go."
That being said:
> and much to my surprise, how often the org can actually survive through such disaster cuts regardless, even though they'll end up at a worse place than they were at before, but the simple act of surviving it -- at that point -- is enough of a success to continue onwards.
mittermayr: Either this is foolish management, or you're misinterpreting the situation. If the company believes that, in the end, it's successful, then how can you argue that the company isn't? Can you provide an example? Otherwise, you might be misinterpreting the situation, and it's what pbronez says is "The machine you crank could even be very profitable right now, but it's not where the company is going."
Interesting video, but it doesn't really apply to this discussion. The author stated that he kept everyone employed through the transition. He saw an area to grow his business into, and transitioned the Etsy staff to it. (As opposed to laying them off.)
One thing I don't understand is why he didn't sell the Etsy part of his business.
Yeah no layoffs in that example. The connection is that it's very easy for the carpenters to see the Etsy business as "crucial," but the CEO decided to kill that entire line of business. From an individual career perspective, you could have mis-identified this and focused on being the guy who manages the Etsy storefront.
Selling the Etsy side of things is an interesting idea. I wonder how you could do that without also selling off the tools and things you need for the SKUs you want to keep. I don't think they had distinct brands, for example.
>how often the org can actually survive through such disaster cuts regardless, even though they'll end up at a worse place than they were at before, but the simple act of surviving it -- at that point -- is enough of a success to continue onwards.
A trillion dollar company can lose 99% of its value and still end up a multi billion dollar business. And I don't think many cuts come close to that kind of bloodbath.
They can survive the cuts because leadership isn't fundamentally affected by 99.99% of day to day operations. And their compensation at that level isn't on simply "make good product and accrue revenue". That's a big part why we've been in this irrational market for quite a few years now.
> "Make sure that your role (as an engineer) in your company is in the most critical part of the company as you can handle."
The main problem here is how much the organization wants to think it can continue without those crucial parts, I've seen wild things go down in this regard, and I think we'll see a lot more in the near future with people hoping that AI will take care of it. And, on the flipside, and much to my surprise, how often the org can actually survive through such disaster cuts regardless, even though they'll end up at a worse place than they were at before, but the simple act of surviving it -- at that point -- is enough of a success to continue onwards.