Saturday, June 25, 2011
Ex-Googlers Hiring Engineers at TellApart
Founded in 2009 by two ex-Googlers, the company helps online retailers target visitors to their sites who haven't purchased anything, but who might be persuaded to with the right advertising.
Of the planned 20 hires, about a third will be technologists, said Mark Ayzenshtat, co-founder and chief technology officer. Because TellApart's success relies on its ability to predict who will actually make a purchase, the company will be hiring people with expertise in operational machine learning. The company crunches a lot of data, so engineers with distributed systems and Hadoop experience are also in demand.
The company is also hiring business development and sales and marketing employees to help it acquire new clients.
Because of the company's Google roots, it hires engineers who are autonomous, take ownership of projects, and can succeed with little coaching or guidance, Ayzenshtat said.
TellApart offers competitive cash compensation and generous equity rewards, Ayzenshtat said.
Unlike the Google interview process that Ayzenshtat himself endured, TellApart doesn't ask abstract brainteasers to test engineering candidates' mettle. Instead, it asks questions meant to see how easily intimidated and adaptable candidates are.
For instance, an interviewer might ask how one would go about building Google's search engine. The best candidates will take a crack at it, Ayzenshtat said. Sub-par candidates will betray their lack of imagination by noting that they don't have experience in search. That's a warning sign, Ayzenshtat said, because startup engineers will have to tackle a lot of problems they're not experienced in.
"People know what they're good at and they expect to be asked about that, but if you throw so meting at them from left field, they often are put off," he said.
Candidates who make it through the interview process, though, can expect some nifty perks. Ayzenshtat and co-founder Josh McFarland -- who worked on Google's AdWords together -- took the entire 21-person company on a vacation to Hawaii after they met their quarterly goals last year.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Recent Wall Street Layoffs Likely Permanent
* Financial sector layoffs up 21% this year
* More cuts likely to come from Wall Street
* Layoffs come as profitability suffers
NEW YORK - U.S. financial firms have been cutting staff dramatically this year, with more layoffs expected to come from Wall Street, according to a report Tuesday.
Unlike the widespread layoffs stemming from the financial crisis of 2008 that was followed by hiring when markets recovered, the 2011 reductions appear to be more permanent.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employment consulting firm, said the financial sector has outlined 21 percent more job cuts so far this year than it did in 2010. Banks, insurance firms and brokers have outlined plans to eliminate 11,413 positions through May, according to publicly available information cited by Challenger, compared with 9,431 during the same period a year ago.
Wall Street has long been characterized by fickle hiring patterns, but John Challenger, head of the consulting group, said new cuts reflect fundamental changes in the business structure and returns of financial firms.
"They will not be as profitable in the future as they were in the past," he said. "That means they're just not going to be able to afford the workforce levels that they had when they were more profitable."
Most cuts to date have occurred in retail banking operations, reflecting subdued economic activity and loan growth. Mergers have also led to headcount reductions as smaller regional banks combine forces.
However, Challenger expects layoffs at large investment and commercial banks to accelerate through the rest of 2011.
Regulatory restrictions and declines in trading volume have challenged the business models and profitability of large investment banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley.
Goldman reported an annualized return on shareholders equity of 15 percent during the first quarter, adjusted for special items, compared with more than 30 percent before the crisis erupted. Morgan Stanley, which now has a 20 percent return-on-equity target, delivered an annualized ROE of 6.2 percent in the first quarter.
Wall Street stocks have fallen along with profits in recent months. Goldman shares are down 19 percent so far this year, and Morgan Stanley's are off 17 percent. The KBW Bank Index of large-cap financials is down a more moderate 8.8 percent.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Chicago : Fermilab shedding workers
About 1,760 of the lab’s 1,900 employees are eligible for a new severance pay package aimed at getting 100 workers to leave their jobs willingly, but involuntary layoffs will be needed if that goal is not met, lab director Pier Oddone said at a meeting with employees on Thursday.
The national lab’s main facility — the Tevatron — is shutting down in September after nearly a 28-year run as the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, superseded recently by a new facility in Europe. But the lab, near Batavia, has embarked on a series of smaller experiments that should keep its research going for the foreseeable future.
With federal funding expected to be “more or less” flat for some time to come, “we are trying to make sure funding is there” for the new projects, Mr. Oddone said, as the lab shifts from operations to construction of new experiments. Cutting headcount frees up cash to finance those experiments.
The lab is asking for volunteers to take the severance package but will decide who gets to quit based on its workforce needs. “The lab has to be functioning when we’re all done with this,” he told employees.
Fermilab is owned by the Department of Energy and run by a consortium of universities including the University of Chicago.
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