I used to work for Udacity and in a non-IC role. I worked there during the major layoffs and restructuring of the company.
What I will say is the company and management are very mission driven (I have never worked with people prior to Udacity that were honestly driven like that.. they truly wanted to educate the world and make education accessible to everyone).
With that being said, from a financial perspective the company was having a hard time. Key revenue was from enterprise partnerships and upskilling workers in companies. There was a partnership with Google that got cut (back stabbed) at the last minute as Google announced a competing service (Google Certificates, Grow with Google, etc). It was supposed to be Udacity's certificates.
The company had to shift focus on generating revenue and cutting costs to stay alive... a lot of free courses and new ideas were axed. A focus on smaller/higher quality content, more nanodegrees, a "subscription" based certificate instead of a one time fee/forever access, etc. Most importantly, a focus on enterprise upskilling activities (helping companies train their employees to retain/re-hire their employees).
I was admitted to university through an EOP (Equal Opportunity Program), which is in the same vain as DEI. One of the criticisms of the program was just that-- people felt like they didn't deserve to be where they are. A constant worry that people would view you as the "one that got in because of their skin/income/background, etc). Obviously this applies to DEI as well.
As someone who benefited from EOP, it's weird for me to say this but in all honesty I think we would all be better off without it or perhaps doing it in a way where it isn't labelled or "celebrated" the way it is... it should be unobtrusive and not call attention to itself.
I was one of three white people out of 350+ people that was accepted through EOP. If I felt that way as a white person I can't imagine how much more amplified those feelings would be as a person of color.
What I will say is the company and management are very mission driven (I have never worked with people prior to Udacity that were honestly driven like that.. they truly wanted to educate the world and make education accessible to everyone).
With that being said, from a financial perspective the company was having a hard time. Key revenue was from enterprise partnerships and upskilling workers in companies. There was a partnership with Google that got cut (back stabbed) at the last minute as Google announced a competing service (Google Certificates, Grow with Google, etc). It was supposed to be Udacity's certificates.
The company had to shift focus on generating revenue and cutting costs to stay alive... a lot of free courses and new ideas were axed. A focus on smaller/higher quality content, more nanodegrees, a "subscription" based certificate instead of a one time fee/forever access, etc. Most importantly, a focus on enterprise upskilling activities (helping companies train their employees to retain/re-hire their employees).