Chan's Personal Blog

Just finished uploading photos from the Yahoo! Year End Party, so I've attached a slideshow beneath. The slideshow is accompanied by music from Moby, "In My Heart." Please play the slideshow and music. Enjoy.



This year's controversy was, why would we throw a big Christmas party if people are getting laid off? Couldn't we save some money by canceling it, and save some jobs. The answer from the company brass is no, because the party had been booked and planned almost 6 months earlier. Canceling it would have only saved a marginal amount of money, and we would have lost a bunch of deposit money.

So one of my final "projects" for Q4 at Yahoo was to organize a potluck. My initial reaction was to cringe because potlucks at my last job was usually a venue for petty bickering and politics. Myron also foretold of bad work potlucks because most people just ended up buying stuff instead of making stuff. Thankfully, my worst nightmares were never realized, and we managed to pull it off. Our team has a lot of good cooks, and the majority of people cooked. Here's the photos of it, you can try to guess what I cooked. Although, you can't assume I cooked asian food because the majority of the team is asian.


Note: This photo feed comes from ptr, the team's official photographer.

As an added bonus, we voted on what the best dishes were. First prize got a $50 Starbucks gift certificate. Second prize got $25 for Starbucks, and a hug from our chairman Nam. Third place got $25 for Starbucks.

The winners were

1. Dolly and her home-made spring rolls.
2. Yimin and his shanghai ribs.
3. Weilin and her chicken green curry.

Thanks to all the cooks who participated. You saved my job! Thankfully, none of these wonderful people in the photos were laid off either. I think we ended up with a total of 25 different dishes.

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.