Palm's job board shows it's still 'business as usual' before the HP buyout 28
The announced HP acquisition of Palm is still unfinished, and still could get derailed for some unknown reason (as deals sometimes do). While you might be forgiven for thinking that Palm would put business on hold until the HP deal clears up, you'll be happy to know that's not the case.
Palm’s Career Opportunities page shows 17 jobs added since the HP announcement on April 28th, including 11 that were posted the very next day, April 29th. The jobs range from “Battery Design Engineer” to “Sr. Director webOS Product Approvals” (who we hope will be very busy approving new products!), and are all located at Palm’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Given that only 12 total jobs in Sunnyvale are shown having been posted from November ’09 through the day before the HP purchase was disclosed (there was one for Shanghai in November 2009 as well), the trend is sharply positive, and the timing clear.
As CEO Jon Rubinstein said, looks like "business as usual."
28 Comments
This is nice to know
There are two job postings to "help design the next device following the Pre". Yeah, that sounds good.
Here it is : "Palm is actively seeking experienced and creative Hardware Design Manager, for our Advanced Mobile Technology Division, to help build our next generation smartphone to follow the Palm Pre."
Shouldn't the next generation hardware already be designed by now? If the next-gen hardware is supposed to ship this summer/fall/winter then I would hope that it is already designed. It makes it sound like they haven't even started. Should we be concerned by this?
It's not unusual to leave a job posting open when you're looking to fill multiple positions of the same description.
And no it wouldn't be unusual for design changes to still be occurring at this point in development. They are probably counting on a August-Septemberish release (late summer) so now is about the time to start cramming all the fun into a usable package with a final spec going to be manufactured in Juneish.
But take all that with a grain of salt as I've never worked in a consumer market :-/
I have worked in consumer marketing and consider there points:
1) You can start "helping" at a point anywhere from initial concept right up to day1 of production.
2) I'm sure this would be an added team member, not "the guy(s)" that will do the designing.
3) Yes, they could be doing initial design, redesign/upgrade of a prototype, or production development to take a completed prototype into a line production form. Can't really say by a general listing.
It will be ready when it's ready. Do we really want another unrefined release?
this is definitely some phenominal news after all the doom and gloom that's been surrounding palms headlines lately. Hopefully this can only mean good things for the future. I know I'm more excited than ever to be a webOS user :)
Thats my favorite job listing.
http://recruit.trovix.com/jobhostmaster/jobhost/ViewJobPostDetails.do?ti...
"Work with compliance engineers to insure that battery packs meet all regulatory and carrier specifications"
Hopefully they are not trying to 'insure' the battery packs, rather they are trying to ensure they meet the specs. ;-)
LOL
Good reporting, and very glad to hear this!
Wonderful news!
I think it would be a good hope to figure they're working on something to follow up the next gen pre that they're about to release!! That's my hope anyway lol
How about a job for "Make Flash Work as Promised 4 months ago".
Or another one..."Make Slingplayer work as promised a year ago".
I'm a life long Palm user, but without a big announcement soon, I may very well be headed to 4G with HTC and Android.
?
This depends on Adobe, not Palm. And flash (the real one not the lite version) is coming to the supported devices (palm included) practically at the same time. Whenever Adobe has it ready.
Godd riddance - if you dont even realize that Flash delay = Adobe then move on. Guessing you're going to blame google when HTC is slow to release the newest android updates to your Evo?
Don't confuse Palm with Adobe, Sling, or Dataviz for that matter.
Please leave now carter. Go hang out at Androidcentral with the EvoDoers that all caught the first bus outa town when HP announced they'd bankroll webos. Great time to leave, go jump on an Android. If you are unhappy now, cant wait to see your posts when you have a two year contract on the droid-of-the-week, waiting, hoping that they format the latest o/s for your device. Wont miss your Pre-Menstual whining if you're willing to toss off a lifetime of loyalty for another phone without Flash and lacks WebOS. If Android was all that good, do you think we'd be here?
Wish I was half as smart as what you think you are PreDogs so that I could be twice as smart as everyone else. PALM told the world that Flash was coming with 1.4. Then they said it would be an update. Well...we're still waiting.
On the LAUNCH of the Pre, Palm provided a listing of software developers they were working with and listed Sling.
Well..still waiting.
So yes, I realize that Palm does not control Adobe or Sling, but they should as least shut up about the pending releases if its all BS.
Hope you have a glass stomach so that you can see where you are going....
I hope the Senior Quality Assurance Engineer they hire is good, as the build quality of their current lineup could certainly be improved upon.
I was really hoping to see lots of positions open in their Calendar group - "Junior Developer needed to make calendar meet specs from 10 years ago in Palm Pilot days" or lots of positions open in the Marketing Group -"Non-Insane Marketing Person needed- preferably not pale nor prone to hang out in fields."
I hope the one targeting the "senior engineer of trolling on teh internetz" position is good enough to create a clever sentence along the line of:
"Im a fan of company 'z' since it was born, but Im going to buy a brick phone without 'x' and 'webos', if company 'z' does not include 'y' on my phone".
Maybe Palm has a lot of employees bailing before the HP takeover? Have you seen what it's like to work at HP? Take a look at the Glassdoor.com site:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Hewlett-Packard-Reviews-E327.htm
I don't know if I would want to go to a company where everyone hates the CEO and feels they get "kicked like a dog".
Then thats why they added four hundred positions (five?) to that list just the very next day of announcing the intention of acquisition.
Palm headquarters are now empty and the tweets you see from the developers relation team are done by bots.
Good old fud.
Just lets see how things go, but they have been ok since the announcement so far.
@kwarner
I shrug my shoulders.
1) If its really that bad, they can move to another company.
2) These sites usually cater to the dis-enchanted. Much like a support forum for software or hardware, nobody shows up extoll the vitures of a fine product or service. Ever look for a place to "vent" your jubilation?
3) They're rating is a 2.5, but when you click on the break down, no category is below a 2.8. If you trust their math, good for you.
It probably rare that an acquistion brings greater material happiness over the happiest moment at the acquired companies past. But, Palm was on a DNR, so much for a previous joyful work culture, it didn't provide a viable longterm path. A less happy future is preferable to an uncertain fatal future I think. In the end, the payback for spending your unhappy day with them, is a paycheck. If its not big enough, send your resume out. At least you know the doors will be unlocked and the lights on until you find something better.
Im interested on the one talking about "Palm Cloud Services". It might be just the app catalog, but Id love a managed albeit limited, cloud environmet for indie developers, integrated into the webOS platform.
No other platform vendor is doing that anyway, that I know, except for some gimmicky social gaming features.
i don't understand why members of the webos internals doesn't applies for the job at palm. the are ones who makes the phones that much better.
Seriously, they need a "Senior Antenna Design Engineer"?? That requires an entire full time POSITION at Palm? And since they need a SENIOR one, it implies there are JUNIOR Antenna Design Engineers too???
My expectation is that most of the antenna development is done by vendors and that no "antenna department" exists. So, if you're going to have one person that is responsible, they better have advanced abilities and be able to keep pace with the tech reps vendors send to Palm to present or pitch their wares. You'd want a real phd type to oversee antennas for the two 4G formats and be able to get them to fit into a cutting edge device like we're expecting from Palm/HP.