So you want to work for Google (Aka Alphabet) because you want three free Gourmet meals a day, to play with a Scalextric at work, or to have free access to a room filled with musical instruments? So you want to work for Google because you think you’ll have shorter working hours whilst still earning a very handsome pay package? So you want to work for Google because it’s so very, very cool?
These reasons count for nothing (especially the working hours misconception). There’s only one good reason to work for Google. That is its “moonshots” department. – Here you get to work on things which could have been plucked straight from the mind of Willy Wonka.
In the past few years, Google’s moonshots team (formally known as its ‘Other Bets’ Group) has been developing self-driving cars, glucose-monitoring contact lenses, ‘internet balloons’ (stratospheric balloons to deliver Internet in rural areas), artificial intelligence, and ‘life extension therapies.’
The ‘other bets’ are more than just a wild adjunct to Alphabet’s core business of facilitating internet search. During yesterday’s investor call, Google CEO Ruth Porat said he moonshots are ‘really important’ to enhancing the company’s long term value.
Will you get paid millions for developing lenses that monitor glucose levels? Who knows. For the moment, the moonshots are losing Google a lot of money. – Total operating losses on “Other Bets” were $3.6bn in the 12 months to December. Right now, Porat said Google is focusing its hiring efforts on engineers and product managers; she made no mention of crazy inventors.
Separately, Jes Staley has got a foolproof way of preventing Barclays from adding to its cost base. The Wall Street Journal reports that Staley has made it almost impossible for the firm to create new payroll numbers, making it very, very difficult for Barclays line managers to hire anyone externally.
Meanwhile:
Jes Staley just hired a new head of risk for Barclays from J.P. Morgan. (Telegraph)
Nine years ago, Deutsche Bank’s share price was nudging €100. Today, Deutsche shares are trading at a record low of less than €17. (Financial Times)
Are you a commodities trader? Maybe you should be working for newly formed Concord Resources? It just got a $250m credit line from Goldman Sachs. (Financial Times)
Who to schmooze if you’re an M&A banker: ‘Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Altice, and Platform Specialty Products’. The four companies have generated $1bn in investment banking fees in the past three years. (Financial Times)
Edmund Dilger, who joined Gleacher Shacklock in June 2012 after more than a decade at Lazard, is off to a fintech firm. (Financial News)
Pimco has one less Bill as head of Pimco Europe leaves. “There were a number of Bills around; we all seemed to be on the Pimco executive committee. There was Bill Podlich [co-founder], Bill Gross, Bill Thompson [CEO] and Bill Powers [managing director]. People will not refer to me as Bill but Bill Benz because there were a lot of Bills around.” (Financial News)
‘I was so arrogant and disorganized that no one would hire me. – Except for Pimco.’ (Business Insider)
VTB Capital will hire you irrespective of the conviction. (Swiss Info)
Gazprom Bank is closing in London. (Intellinews)
China’s ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ is called Ding Ning. (Mirror)
Working for Jefferies: it’s intense. (Dealbreaker)
Why those dark pools were full of high frequency traders, and why this was a bad bad thing. (BloombergView)
A professional recruiter tells you exactly what she looks for in an applicant. (Clickhole)
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Morning Coffee: Deutsche Bank’s secret plan for cutting staff. The most unruly place to work in financeJohn Cryan is grumpy for a good reason.
Morning Coffee: Looks like this is the kindest, most generous bank to work for. UBS bankers trapped by ostentationWant to work for a bank that is either thoughtful and generous or horribly inefficient? This is the one.