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Hiring and Teams

Engineering Leadership Lessons from Rippling’s Launch of an AI Spend Console

Engineering Leadership Lessons from Rippling’s Launch of an AI Spend Console

The Hiring Plan Has a Second Number Now Rippling's finance team projected the company was on track to spend forty percent of its R&D headcount budget on AI tokens, according to Rippling's own account in the AI Spend Console write-up. Left alone, that

Moving from FAANG to a Startup: What Actually Changes

Moving from FAANG to a Startup: What Actually Changes

Someone I mentor asked me recently what they should consider before leaving their job at a large tech company for a startup. They had been thinking about it for months. I asked them directly: "Why? What do you actually want to get out of this?" The reasons people

Every Traditional Hiring Signal Is Breaking Simultaneously

Every Traditional Hiring Signal Is Breaking Simultaneously

Run three technical screens this month and you will likely see the same pattern: comprehensive, technically accurate answers to questions that should require synthesis and tradeoff judgment. The responses are perfect. And completely hollow. No experienced engineer talks that way when explaining a system they've actually built. The

The Aggregate Looks Calm. The Edges Are Rough.

The Aggregate Looks Calm. The Edges Are Rough.

Workers in jobs most exposed to AI saw unemployment rise 0.30 percentage points between 2022 and early 2025. Workers in the least-exposed jobs? Up 0.94 points. AI-exposed workers are doing better, not worse. If you read that and conclude AI has not affected hiring, you are