We've been asked to target LCOL areas for new hires.

Dropbox
drl/food

Go to company page Dropbox

drl/food
Jun 24, 2021 706 Comments

With this new "Virtual First" WFH mantra our directive for new hires is to exclude HCOL areas. We're being asked to not hire in San Francisco, New York, Seattle... at all. We're even being asked to not look in lower-than-high COL areas like Austin, Chicago, DC. So the list where we should be looking at resumes instead are places like Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas (non-Austin), etc.

I assume we're not the only ones doing this.

How are you feeling about working from home indefinitely now that your jobs are leaving?

At some point this will have some effect on visa work, why sponsor anybody when you can hire them directly in their low cost country? How could a company even justify sponsoring anybody when they're just going to work remotely? Why even hire inside the US at all when all your employees are virtual?

I'm just wondering how far this will all go. I'm not advocating for or against, just noting that things are starting to change and unless we adapt we're going to be in for some hard times. That sweet, sweet TC we've all gotten used to might not be around forever.

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TOP 706 Comments
  • And how many suitable candidates you find in those areas?
    Jun 24, 2021 29
    • Zynga
      ComeToPast

      Go to company page Zynga

      ComeToPast
      @Waterloop: I live in a newly build apartment, 2b2b pretty luxury apartment, for $1800/month. I don't know why you consider this not as lcol. Try finding similar apartments in Seattle, Bellevue, or SF. You'll end up paying $3.5K at least
      Jun 26, 2021
    • Verily
      TrulyTruly

      Go to company page Verily

      TrulyTruly
      @Zynga

      More like 5k lol
      Jun 26, 2021
  • 84.51˚
    Zabariu

    Go to company page 84.51˚

    Zabariu
    I am in a LCOL area. Referral please?

    Overall I think it makes sense and might help develop more of the country.
    Jun 24, 2021 24
  • Good initiative by Dropbox. Hope rest of the industry follows.

    PS. I’m in the Midwest and have been remote for the last 5 years.
    Jun 24, 2021 12
    • Google
      blindly__

      Go to company page Google

      blindly__
      Also, timezone difference is _not_ BS, it's the single issue of remote work that technology can't solve. If you don't think it's a big deal being 8+ hours removed from a lot of your team, you've clearly never done it. "The valley has managed Eastern friendly time cycles" - 3 hours apart and 8+ hours apart are entirely different beasts.
      Jun 25, 2021
    • Synopsys, there is more remote work now and it might grow in the near future. But, I am not sure about the long term. A lot of people like office and some want to see if people are actually working. Handling different timezones can be quite tough, especially if not executed properly. There are also factors like weather and politics to consider, especially for highly skilled immigrants. Unlike weather, politics of a place can change a lot, but it takes time.

      Additionally, I am sure most well paid folks at faang and such realize that they overpaid for all their houses (plural). They would not want those values to fall sharply and that might cause them to vote against remote initiatives in their company.
      Jul 24, 2021
  • Dropbox
    stopgapme

    Go to company page Dropbox

    stopgapme
    Ex-Dropbox HR here. Our big round of layoffs prioritized cost over talent. We let go of a ton of talented people who just cost too much. We ended up with good enough but people who didn’t negotiate their way to ridiculous TC, which was getting out of hand for a serious chunk of execs, managers, and ICs. Unlike layoffs I managed at many other tech companies in my career, Dropbox layoffs this years round was mostly about cutting the high cost, high value talent. So I am not surprised by this news about focusing on LCOL hiring at all.
    Jun 25, 2021 9
    • VMware
      r2v

      Go to company page VMware

      r2v
      @fudi547 if Dropbox is doing it simply to stay solvent, then only equally precarious companies will follow. This would be easy to tell should they somehow manage to become competitive again or not.

      But in actuality, big companies paying high TC tend to do so in order to prevent competitors from snatching up talent. Which makes it harder (that's their hope) for them to innovate. This won't change. And those able to negotiate higher TC will still be able to do so, relative to their COL. Which isn't any different than before.
      Jun 25, 2021
    • Amazon
      qMxE35

      Go to company page Amazon

      qMxE35
      Guys, relax. We already have companies like IBM, Cisco, Intel, Adobe, etc. that hire subpar talent for peanuts. Why are you so worried about Dropbox joining their ranks? Not all wannabe unicorns end up successful and Dropbox is yet another one whose time is up.
      Jun 26, 2021
  • This is the future, you can fight it the same way people fought the internet, and many other transitional periods of time.

    These jobs ARE doable remote, the last 16+ months has proven that beyond any doubt. Why should a company pay you 3x what it would cost them to hire someone from the middle of Iowa? You claim to be more skilled, but you have no evidence or fact. Most people in SF came from those other areas.

    Is there AS MUCH talent in this little Iowa city? No, but they now have hundreds to thousands of city’s, towns, etc that they can hire from. If you’re worth your comp over someone from small town USA, prove it. Put out 2x/3x/4x their work output, or 2x/3x/4x their quality. If not, get ready to get replaced.
    Jun 24, 2021 11
    • Xperi / Eng
      mLMerc

      Go to company page Xperi Eng

      mLMerc
      @Capital One: Read other comments. The OP said they don't expect to find Staff-level easily. Other ex-DBXers on this thread admit they're getting rid of high-quality talent that's costing them too much. In other words, DBX was built by HCOL top-talent and now it's given to cheaper LCOL folks for maintenance.
      Jun 28, 2021
    • There might be some lessons from the past which can probably inform us about the future of remote work. Post 2010, Yahoo, IBM, Aetna and some more companies had some workers fully remote and some as needed. They called them back to office and this made it to the news. In contrast, most tech companies have been 100% remote due to the pandemic. But, there might still be valuable lessons in the past.
      Jul 24, 2021