Tech Talent War Heats Up: Google Offers 300% Pay Rise to Keep Star Employee! Will It Work?
- Tech giant Google offered a shocking 300% raise to stop an employee from leaving for AI startup Perplexity AI. This highlights fierce competition for talent despite recent tech layoffs, raising questions about its effectiveness and hidden pressures behind such drastic measures.
Search engine giant Google once offered an employee a 300% hike in salary who planned to switch jobs to Perplexity AI.
Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI revealed this instance on the Big Technology Podcast. The IIT-Madras alumni Srinivas the length to which big tech giants are willing to go to retain their employees.
Srinivas said that the employee who received a massive salary hike was part of the 'search team' and had no direct involvement with its AI division.
Further, Srinivas spoke about the layoffs in the tech industry. He said the firms target those with high salaries who do not proportionately contribute to productivity.
Tech layoffs in 2024:
Layoffs in the first month of 2024 have left tens of thousands without jobs, with the tech industry alone cutting 32,000 roles.
Last month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned employees to brace themselves for more job cuts. He stated that the company needs to make "tough choices" to create capacity for investments.
In an internal memo to all Google employees, Pichai wrote, "We have ambitious goals and will be investing in our big priorities this year." He stated, "The reality is that to create the capacity for this investment, we have to make tough choices."
Since January 10, Google has laid off over a thousand employees in various departments.
In 2023, Pichai announced plans to cut approximately 12,000 jobs, which is around 6% of its global workforce. "I have some difficult news to share. We've decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We've already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices," Pichai said in an open letter. Layoffs at Alphabet include dozens at the division for developing new technology X Lab, hundreds in the advertising sales team, hundreds across teams, including the hardware team responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit, and a majority in the augmented reality team.