Thread regarding Qualcomm Inc. layoffs

So far I have seen very technical managers and also those who just know how to play politics and for those, here are the to-do-list

1. Attend all the meetings

2. Check your emails!

3. Create a meeting for your employees whenever you really get too bored and emphasize on the importance of the projects/deadlines

4. If things go well, cheer up & send a thank you email to the team and from upper executive view, assure you grasp all the credit. Make sure that everybody knows that it happened because of your leadership!

5. If something doesn’t work, as you can’t technically help with anything , remind everybody that you are too occupied with the “management”! and meetings and everybody is responsible for his own work. Make sure you blame somebody later on and cover your own ass.

6. Once in a while ask everybody “When can you finish your project?” Regardless of what they say, ask them “Can you do it sooner?”

Now, you are a very well-qualified smart manager @ Qualcomm

High level exec’s really don’t care about execution, but only about sales. They are not in it for your health or job satisfaction. They are there to maximize revenue, which is the only metrics that matters to the board that determine exec’s bonus. They sure did well last year, with $95million.

Here is the my impression in regards to PMs, working for many years @ Qualcomm: Some managers without engineers can do NOTHING. At the same time, some engineers without some of the current managers can do things even better. The problem is that current rating/review system filters and blocks high level decision makers to see this and they will eventually realize this when it is too late.

Very true...the PdMs don't know what they are doing so they mandate every HW configuration/permutation possible so they can cover their arses. What ends up happening is CE team or engineering team suffers to support so many combinations.

PdM's have no idea what our customers want. They shotgun it hoping to hit something while the real engineers who do the real work have to suffer to get those feature sets in. Quality would be better if we had better focus and pulse on the market trends.

Funny, our new PMs had to be educated on what HLDRs, MLDRs and LLDRs were. They've never known a process like this, Sound familiar? It's comical in project meetings.

I know the guy you are talking about in your post! :) Well, if you don’t know, he got hired solely based on his tie with his current manager, team members did some fake interviews to follow upper-level “recommendation” that “we need this genius”! Didn’t you know that or you weren't there at the time!?

What do you guys think about PdMs (product managers)? Just as unproductive? As a PdM, I frequently need to babysit the PgMs (program managers) because they don't always foresee or understand how issues impact customers down the line, or how it would affect overall messaging about the product. I have to admit though that PdM has enabled me to enjoy some awesome working hours due to the flexibility of being able to push other teams from the comfort of my home

A typical syndrome of a company that has gotten too big, too fast for it's own good.

They'll fix it, some day, or perish, like so many other former star players in the industry.

Haha :))

This is ridiculous. We might face PMS only once in a month in the worst case. At Qualcomm, we have to face those who got PMS with all of its symptoms on a daily bases! :)

Maybe it is that time of the month and you are having PMS. You missed the point. The PM position is so meaningless that we don’t even know what title to give the layers of PMs.

What do you want to call them!? This is a post about unproductive mangers (layers by layer) This is not a post to debate about their title my friend!.

PMs' manager is a project manager manager. It is interesting that they are call PMS.

PMs: Project Managers

What is the title of the guy that manages PMs?