
MIT MBA Student: Amazon and Microsoft Are Hiring, Google and Yahoo Aren’t - gthuang
http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2009/01/12/mit-mba-student-amazon-and-microsoft-are-hiring-google-and-yahoo-arent-yet/
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mdasen
It makes sense to be hiring if you have work for people to do and the money to
pay them. Take Amazon, if they are able to swim during this period where their
competitors are treading water, they'll have a significant advantage when
things pick up again. Likewise, labor is cheap right now (comparatively).
Workers don't bargain as hard for salary because they don't think they can get
another job. Often workers who get jobs in a down economy have lower earnings
for years because the raises they get are likely to be based off that
original, low salary for years to come - they might even start thinking that's
the going rate for people in their position.

Google and Yahoo's profits aren't the same as Amazon and Microsoft's. They're
probably more elastic as people rely on their free stuff rather than paying
up. For example, we're no longer buying AdWords to my knowledge and rather
just hoping people find us through regular search. Likewise, I'm sure the
market for Google's premium $50/user Google Apps has dried as people use the
free version that's almost the same.

It's tough times, but if you can see what needs to be done and have the money
to do it now, you'll put yourself in a good position later.

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peregrine
Amazon and Microsoft are billion dollar companies that sell products and
services. Google and Yahoo are billion dollar companies that sell ads and
services.

It would be irresponsible for Google or Yahoo to hire MBA's right now when
both companies are uncertain about the profits they normally see.

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swombat
Buy cheap, sell high... now's the time to hire great people for cheap, if you
have the cash... I'm surprised that Google isn't hiring much - or perhaps it's
just MBAs that they aren't hiring.

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byrneseyeview
The problem with the 'sell high' part is that you don't get to, uh, sell. If
an MBA usually goes for $120K, and he accepts $80K this year because it's that
or nothing, what happens two years from now if the market recovers? Does he a)
get a 50% raise, or b) get another job, and force you to hire someone new?

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aneesh
True. But you're not really "buying" either. You pay this MBA $80K, and he
adds a certain amount of value (presumably more than $80K). It's all
dividends. There's very little fixed cost (training, a couple weeks to get up
to speed) that could be considered as "buying".

~~~
byrneseyeview
_There's very little fixed cost_

I think that's a big mistake. Getting used to people at the company, learning
about the industry, learning new technology, developing new skills in general
-- all of these are investments with a long-term (multi-year) payoff.

I think one way you should reconsider your statement is to invert it: how will
a company behave different if they can only make investments in their
employees that pay off in one year? Two years? Ten years? Japanese companies
(still) train people knowing that they can afford to take a loss on them for
the first couple years, and recoup it later.

