Thread regarding Qualcomm Inc. layoffs

I've been thinking about this post since it was written. I also left QCOM but felt it was the "right" thing for me to do, just out of professionalism, to train the remaining people on my work. But I totally get the OP's position and admire his moxie in taking that position. Good luck dude, QCOM's losing a good one. But IMHO, they (QC) are going to have to go through some pain to right their ship as apparently they weren't willing to address issues before. I just wonder if they are trying to address any issues or just bumbling forward w/o any introspection on how they got to this position (and its not all market dynamics).

yeah, everybody got sick of "Ninja" and "Guru" and "Growth Hacker" on resumes. So now it's on to "Colonel".

if it's not esoteric, then experts can be found, and knowledge replaced. sounds more like a failure of talent recruiting. Maybe outsourced HR was looking for Linux Colonels

It's not esoteric. It's just different; and certain engineers tend to be lazy, and think the world should come equipped with drop-down menus that are a holdover from ancient Xerox Park technology.

is this like full blownsies linux desktop? I didn't know such knowledge was that esoteric. I stand corrected.

107650: While people may not be indispensable, certain knowledge is. The Q thinks their "Proprietary Brand Linux" is "all that." Shorter: It really isn't. Their "sh*t on chips" has to function in the real world, where other manufacturers of hardware and software applications use open source Linux to cut costs. They are rapidly losing the people who have in-depth knowledge of both their proprietary product and open source Linux. Most of their H1B hires just coming on board have little or no knowledge of either. This is fatal--both to product development and providing customer service--something the Q also makes money on.

Screwed?!! Do people really think they are irreplaceable? Hell, even steve jobs was replaceable. Although technically cancer fired that megalomaniac SOB

Anonymous107291, why are you posting like me... You know you aren't me...Sheesh!

Brave of you, but I can understand the resentment. Not a SW guy at QC, but the thing about "telecollaboration" over a time zone difference of 12h that gets me is that at least one person on either end of the time difference gets screwed, I.e., has to be up at 9pm or worse on lync.

Lol... It gets better. They just figured out they need one person for each of the three major mobile platforms that I've been working on, one guy that can do drivers, and one other guy that is familiar with kernel development. So that 10 to 1 advantage of overseas offshoring suddenly just shrunk to 5 to 1, at best.... ha ha. I guess I should tell them about the other things I was working on that they haven't figured out yet, that they were getting from me for free. I wonder if they still think I was an "expensive US employee" Lol.

It's also laughable that companies, in the interest of cutting cost, employ the likes of outsourcing firms like WiPro. Yeah, sure they'll work on your IP for the next 6month to a year, until their cheap contract runs out...And then when that does, where do you think WiPro ends up placing those people who have all that IP knowledge about your company? Yup, at another company trying to build almost the same things.The only places that are interested in hiring exactly that skillset that person has....Companies like Intel, MediaTek, Samsung, etc. You know how much I got to learn about what our competitors do simply by talking to some of the WiPro guys? Lol. I can't imagine what some of our competitors must be learning too.

Well, here's the thing. I don't blame the actual overseas workers for this predicament. They are just like everyone else want to work. And I have no problem with companies that want to use multiple worksites to cover 24 hours of product development, and make sure there's no overlap or waste. But it's complete bullshit when companies use this as a reason to "cut cost" thinking that quality will be the same, meanwhile saying there's not enough qualified people here in the US to do the work, and at the same time say they can hire 10 people that are just as good overseas to do the work and be even more productive. If that really was the case, why does our fearless leaders find a need for me to train 10+ people that don't know how to do something that can easily be learned if those 10+ people could learn on their own, just like I did? I never took classes, my leaders never spent money on me and sent me away on a training classes, and I never had a more experienced geek explain to me line by line how to do something when I was here. I had to spend my own time to figure out how shit works, and if I couldn't cut it, I would find a way to figure it out. If these so called 10 people overseas are soooo great, why can't they do the same thing and have already picked things up and be ready to take over what I was doing with zero interruption? Or is it because really good people overseas aren't really 1/10 th cost of people here? Could it be that really good people overseas are hard to find, because they usually are the ones that cost almost the same as people here? Or could it be that turnover overseas is so bad for really good people, we can only afford the crappy people? Anyway, management math does not add up. I have yet to see the resumes of any of the 10+ people from a leading school like IIT... Why? Because those really good people are here making the same money as everyone else.... So like I said, good luck... Fortunately, there are plenty of companies that have already figured this ridiculous sort of management math don't add up. That's why they are hiring here, and have products that are at the cutting edge...Anytime a company starts focusing more so on cutting costs than bringing in the next leg of innovation, it's game over for geeks in the U.S. at that company. And that's ridiculous, despite the glaring overhead of a prolific number of headcount in truly overhead groups like HR and project management...Any, I'm so glad I didn't bother to document everything, and check in everything, and do everything "process oriented" to make my work easily replaced by someone else. It probably allowed me to outlast many of my colleagues until the right opportunity came up elsewhere... Good luck people....

You chose to retain your own IP....that's what intelligent (business) people do. Unfortunately, engineers have very little business sense and are eager to give away their knowledge for free or for a misguided sense of security. You will go far in life my friend and are an inspiration !

This. When you give your employees crappy RSU grants, low pay, and take away benefits, YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.

Good for you! Qualcomm managers are not used to hearing no because all they want is yes people. Builds character for them to have to actually think.

Paul Bunyan exit stage left!