Google cuts 200 jobs in Sales and Marketing in second round of layoffs

Google Inc. said Thursday, March 26, it will cut nearly 200 jobs in its global sales and marketing teams due to unchecked growth and “overlapping organizations.”
Google announced its first-ever cuts of full-time employees in January, when it said it would eliminate 100 positions from its recruiting organization.

Source: MarketWatch, Google

Related article: “Google slows acquisitions down to nothing“

Indian Firms, Microsoft Top H-1B List

Indian outsourcers, along with Microsoft and Google, again lead the list of companies bringing foreign workers to the U.S. on the H-1B visa program.

According to U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS), Four India-based companies topped the list:

Infosys Technologies (INFY, India): 4,559 H-1B visas approved in 2008, 4,559 in 2007
Wipro (WIT, India): 2,678 H-1B visas approved in 2008; 2,567 in 2007
Satyam (SAY, India): 1,917 H-1B visas approved in 2008; 1,396 in 2007
Tata (TCS.BO, India): 1,539 H-1B visas approved in 2008; 797 in 2007
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT): 1,018 H-1B visas approved in 2008; 959 in 2007
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG): 248 H-1B visas approved in 2008
Lehman Brothers: 130 H-1B visas approved in 2008

In fiscal year 2007, six of the top 10 visa recipients were based in India; two others among the top 10, Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH) and UST Global, are headquartered in the U.S. but have most of their operations in India, according to BusinessWeek

• The H-1B program, which started in 1990, was set up to allow U.S. companies to import the best and brightest in technology, engineering, and other fields when such workers are in short supply domestically.
• The H-1B visa program is currently capped at 65,000 per year, with another 20,000 set aside for advanced-degree graduates of U.S. universities.

USCIS will begin taking H-1B applications for the next fiscal year on April 1 and will distribute the new visas on Oct. 1.

Source: U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS)

Android Engineering Director leaves Google for Coupons.com

“Coupons, Inc., the leading provider of interactive coupon marketing and technology solutions and owner of the Coupons.com DigitalFSI Network, has appointed Steve Horowitz as Chief Technology Officer.

Horowitz, 41, joins Coupons, Inc. from Google where he led the engineering team that built the Android mobile operating system and platform which launched with T-Mobile late last year. At Coupons, Inc., Horowitz will oversee all of the Company’s worldwide engineering, product management and technology efforts as it expands its digital coupons and promotions platform.”, according to the company press-release

According to WSJ blog: “Mr. Horowitz, remains enthusiastic about Android, which enables phones to run advanced entertainment and productivity services”

Google cuts print ads service in bid to trim costs

According to MarketWatch: “Google Inc. said Tuesday it’s discontinuing its print advertisements program, a fledgling service that didn’t mesh with the Internet company’s new focus on austerity amid the economic downturn.”

“The closure of Google’s print ads service also follows news last week that the company was undertaking its first-ever round of layoffs, by dismissing roughly 100 members of its recruiting organization.”

Why Google Employees Quit

“In 2008 Google HR set up a private Google Group to ask former employees why they left the company. We’ve been forwarded what appears to be authentic posts to the thread by a number of ex-Googlers, which we reprint below minus identifying information other than their first names.

The thread shows a brutal honesty about what it’s like to work at Google, at least from the point of view of employees who were unhappy enough to resign. Top amongst the complaints is low pay relative to what they could earn elsewhere, and disappearing fringe benefits seemed to elevate the concern. Other popular gripes – too much bureaucracy, poor management, poor mentoring, and a hiring process that took months.”, writes Techcrunch

Google to Lay Off 100 Recruiters

Google is laying off 100 recruiters and closing some engineering offices, as the downturn continues to take its toll. The layoffs, disclosed Wednesday in company blog posts, are a very rare step for Google, which said in October that it is still hiring, but much more cautiously. The company has also recently let go a significant number of contractors in areas ranging from public relations to engineering, according to Reuters and WSJ

Update 1 (1-14-2009): According to official Google blog: “Our first step to address this was to wind down almost all our contracts with external contractors and vendors providing recruiting services for Google. However, after much consideration, we have with great regret decided that we need to go further and reduce the overall size of our recruiting organization by approximately 100 positions.”

Update 2 (1-14-2009): Google’s Changes to Engineering in 2009

Google Layoffs: 6000 Cut – Details Kept Off Web

WebGuild reports: Today, in documents obtain by the Associated Press, Google filed a paper document with the SEC stating that “a substantial number of temporary workers” had been laid off. The company has sought special exemption to keep the document from circulating on the Web.

The document states that Google has 24,400 employees, however on  September 30, 2008 the company reported  to the SEC that it had 20,123 employees when in reality it had 30,000. At that time Google did not report the 10,000 temporary employees to the SEC, because Google wanted the option to lay off employees on demand to meeting earning expectations without reporting to the SEC.

Now the company says 4,300 of the 24,400 employees are temporary. So why report temporary employees now and not then? Why get an exemption to keep the documents private?

Further the company reported 30,000 employees on November 24, 2008 and 24,400 on Dec 15, 2008. Where did 6,000 employees disappear to in 3 weeks?

Google Gears Down for Tougher Times

According to WSJ: “with the U.S. economy in a recession, Google is ratcheting back spending and cutting new projects. “We have to behave as though we don’t know” what’s going to happen, says Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. The company will curtail the “dark matter,” he says, projects that “haven’t really caught on” and “aren’t really that exciting.” He says the company is “not going to give” an engineer 20 people to work with on certain experimental projects anymore. “When the cycle comes back,” he says, “we will be able to fund his brilliant vision.””

Google To “Significantly Reduce” Contractors

According to Silicon Alley Insider and CNet: “Google has about 10,000 contractors and it wants to reduce that number”.

“In an interview, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the company has been concerned about its high contracting expense. Brin said Google augments its workforce of 20,123 employees with about 10,000 contractors.

“It’s really high,” Brin said of the number of contractors. He said Google began looking at the number six months ago and has a plan to significantly reduce that number through vendor management, converting some contractors to regular employees, and other approaches.”

Yahoo: Past, Present and Future

According to DesignFail.org blog:

Yahoo Past, Present and Future