Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Ford paid 75k out of college in 2017 and then gave 2% raises yearly with no hope for overtime. I switch jobs and now make 120k working less hours. Ford just can't compete because they have too many mouths to feed.

Well put. Nothing short of a popularity contest. Some of the 5's in our group you can tell were not very popular in high school or college.

The GSR's no how to work...…. errr include them in every activity they were excluded from in their previous life.

When I initially hired into ford I was warned that ford hires stellar talent and then turns them into mediocre employees. Based on my experience that is true. Reward is based on popularity instead of accomplishments. Managers are so busy with their meetings and special projects that they don’t have time to notice who is actually doing the work which allows people to blow their own horn (or someone else’s horn) and take credit for work they didn’t accomplish. On a number of occasions I have seen other people get awards for my work. Very discouraging. You either leave ford, settle into an average career or learn to spend more time crowing than working. Glad I left.

The Ford software dev model is definitely archaic. They brought in a leader from Amazon to try to fix. We were excited at the prospect. All that happened was the same tired processes and thought patterns were slightly altered and rebadged the glorious data center of the future. New layers of processes were then added on top and new teams were formed to support the processes, promotions were handed out like candy and victory was declared. Those who fought valiantly to truly enact change somehow all chose to retire.
It is a head scratcher why is Ford so resistant to change? the ever present power point presentations and videos in no way reflect reality.
It is so disheartening and such a struggle to remain hopeful.

@12Myjlsf-emk What I observed at Ford was cream of crop developers at Ford paid well, promoted to tech spec LL6 and sometimes tech spec LL5, then are let go or pushed out by the non-technical leaders. Saw it time after time, the majority of the Ford leadership team does not value the cream of the crop. And they are also threatened by them, so they must be eliminated, or forced to do non-meaningful work until they quit.
The net result is the cream of the crop do not stay at Ford. Each successive “generation” of Ford developers becomes less capable. Very odd system created by the leadership team, to protect themselves.

Cream of the crop developer at Ford are very well paid, for the MI CoL, these are the few who actually get the work done, I know based on my personal experience, a plug and play developer will never recognize this fact since they don’t want to be categorized as one!

Having worked in many locales and many companies as a software developer for over 30 years this is what I have experienced.

There are companies that treat the IT staff as a necessary evil, these companies pay poorly and treat the IT staff poorly.

There are companies that view developers as plug and play. These companies rarely pay well and view developers as disposable.

There are companies that are very choosy about who they hire, they believe one great developer is better than 50 mediocre developers. These companies pay very well and treat developers well. They have small well run development teams. Interviews at these companies tend to be by invitation. The old saying of birds of a feather flock together is apropos.

I have worked at each of these types of companies. The last type is the optimal company. If not for needing to relocate to MI to take care of aging parents, I would still be there,
So yes, the cream of the crop software developers are pulling down 200-300k a year.

Ford is the second type of company. It treats its developers as disposable, plug and play pieces.
Ford is a very frustrating place to work. It takes six months to a year to develop and launch software that at my previous employer was accomplished in a week. You would think that something that takes six months to a year to deploy would be of high quality, but you would be wrong. The defect level at Ford is insane. There are so many silly processes that add no value, the software is ancient, there are many people standing around watching a few doing the work. Oh yes we are an agile team, NOT.

If you are a plug and play developer, Ford is your place. But don’t be bitter, when you are replaced.

Depends on whether an H1B can be onboarded in short order.

Yeah much more like it. 200k for Java Developer is quite a tall tale. I just emailed a cat I know who hires some of the brightest in this field based out of Researched Triangle Park and he responded with rolled eyes regarding salaries that high.