[oinfoalgo]

No, it is not the same at all.

I worked at a small investment firm in college during the time and I remember the portfolio manager doing the portfolio allocation for a retirement plan. Randomly picking Janus mutual funds in the hall right before he went to lunch.

I remember the secretary complaining in December 1999 how she knew a secretary at another firm that got rich from an IPO.

There has just never been a level a speculation like in late 1999 that I have ever experienced. This was over geocities level webpages on dial up modems with almost no business plans to even make money.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I do miss it somewhat. At the time, a selected number of us on my product team were given retention bonuses because the company didn't want us being poached for internet jobs. I'm not complaining, because it was free money but anyone wanting to poach us away would probably have just offered more.

OTOH, I remember being in SF in spring 2001 for Embedded Systems Conference and overhearing a couple of Web developers on the same bus talking about how everyone they knew was losing their jobs. So I guess by that time, the end was in sight! Our bonuses continued for at least a year after that.

[DanielHB]

This is the first time I ever hear of temporary "retention bonuses" in big Cos to avoid poaching.

So I guess the hype was worse back them because I don't think anyone is getting them now haha.

[shaftway]

FuckedCompany.com was the source for tips about this. We'd check it every morning, and it predicted our company's layoffs like clockwork.