Chan's Personal Blog

Well, today the axe fell at Yahoo and approximately 1500 Yahoos were laid off. To alleviate everyone's worries, I have survived, and live to fight another day as a Yahoo. Most groups saw a 10-15% cut. I'm quite thankful that my group only had a 5% cut as we've been fairly disciplined in our hiring, so we're pretty lean as it is. Unfortunately some of the peer groups that I work with have lost some fairly awesome people. I don't pretend to understand why, but it was definitely met with some shock. I would have to describe today's office atmosphere as quiet, somber, and respectful.

I guess one of the lighter side of things happened over at Yahoo headquarters. Some start-up wanted to try to hire some of the newly laid off Yahoos, so they parked a taco truck at HQ. They were handing out free tacos and job descriptions. I'm glad I wasn't near there because I don't think I could resist the taco's siren-like song.

One of the other things that I have yet to get used to about Silicon Valley are the stalker recruiters. This week I had at least three different recruiters call me asking if I was looking for work. It's just weird because they cold call me or e-mail to my work phone/e-mail address, and I never hand out that information. The good recruiters even know my name and what I do. In Victoria, I think this was much more rare. Recruiters, if you're reading this, I'm not interested.

Speaking of which, I even had a financial person from Merrill Lynch cold call me asking to meet with me to talk about financial planning and wealth management services. First, I seriously doubt my networth can be described as wealth. Second, didn't Merrill Lynch almost go bankrupt because of bad financial planning?

In either case, I salute my fellow Yahoos-In-Arms and those who have fallen today. Thank you for your contributions. Also thanks to all the Yahoos who sent me notes telling what a huge loss it would be if I got laid off. +1 self-esteem.