Do tech hirings signal a market rebound? 📈
Consulting Market News | The Pomodoro Technique | 3 Productivity Tools
👀 What to expect: ~900 words / 5 min read
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Exec Sum
Tech firms U-turn on massive layoffs and rehire technical workers
Scandals continue to beset the Consulting industry
Try out the Pomodoro method for effective time management
3 productivity-enhancing tech tools: Pomofocus, DirectFolders and Grammarly
Shout out to Tony, Kurt, and Achilles for referring fellow consultants. Join them and refer using your unique code below:
Industry News
Trending 📈
Salesforce and Meta U-turn and rehire workers after massive layoffs
A quick piece on broader market moves this week. Salesforce, and to a lesser degree Meta, have become the first of the major tech firms to announce drastic reversals of their large-scale firings earlier this year.
What happened:
Salesforce has announced plans to hire more than 3,300 employees, having earlier fired ~8,000, focusing on critical roles in the company’s engineering and data cloud divisions
Meta is reportedly hiring small numbers for critical engineering and technical roles, as compared with ~21,000 fired earlier this year
The KTAs:
Benioff (Salesforce CEO) has said the rise of AI/ML will kick off an aggressive hiring and investment cycle and wants to stay ahead of the curve
The analysis:
At first glance, this feels wildly contradictory. However, this could actually be very strategic from Benioff/Zuckerberg - remove the dead wood, then hire the highest quality employees for lower prices in today’s turbulent job market. Plus benefit from the publicity of being the first tech firms to be hiring. Not great for employees though.
Impact on Consulting:
This is the first glimmer of an AI-driven market rebound, which will feed through to the broader market and consulting work. Although over what timeframe remains to be seen…
In The News 📰
PwC Tax Scandal
Private Equity
The Market
McKinsey pays out an additional $230m in latest Opioid settlement
Capvision says ‘rectification’ complete after China crackdown
Consulting x AI
M&A
Reports
This week’s edition is brought to you by:
Working Effectively
Ideas to get your evenings back 🌇
What it is: A widespread technique for effective time management technique
How it works: Work in 25-min blocks with 5-min breaks
The pros: improved focus & productivity for a given task
The cons: potential for interruptions & rigidity
Tips: (1) use a physical timer (2) note down distractions for later (3) adjust the time intervals
Tech Tools 💾
Pomofocus - free tool for implementing work blocks
What it is: Free web-based Pomodoro timer
Use cases: Break down tasks, time work sessions and take regular breaks to maximise your effectiveness
How to use it: Input the task you’d like to focus on and click start
How to get it: Webpage
DirectFolders - massive time saver for finding files
What it is: Free software plugin for Windows Explorer providing direct access to your favourite folders
Use cases: Jump to any folder in a single mouse click, saving you a tonne of time searching for a particular location
How to use it: Double-click any empty area on the Desktop, Explorer or File Open/Save dialog box to bring up the menu
How to get it: Desktop Download
Grammarly - your go-to spell checker
What it is: free digital writing assistant offering grammar and spell checking (also with paid tiers)
Use cases: spell checking PPT decks, emails, documents
How to use it: Integrate it into your writing workflows, especially before sending out final decks or important emails
How to get it: Desktop Download, Browser Extension, Office Plugins
Productivity Hacks ⚙️
Keyboard Shortcuts 💻
Emoji keyboard:
Windows + ,
The coffee break ☕️
Interesting detours 🔗
Contribute to the next issue 🛣️
A big thanks to this week’s contributors Jamie, Evan, Cristian, Maria, and Phil. If you have something to share, join them via the link below:
That’s all folks. Don’t forget your timesheets.
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