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The interesting thing is how well accepted this is. Go on Reddit's /r/cscareerquestions (a popular forum for programming job help) and you'd get downvoted by pe

The interesting thing is how well accepted this is. Go on Reddit's /r/cscareerquestions (a popular forum for programming job help) and you'd get downvoted by people who prefer to have to "study" for the test.

cbHXBY1D 10y ago
That subreddit seems to only care about getting hired by Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. It's funny because there is so much interesting work being done at smaller startups. If you are a new grad and get hired by one of the above companies, you usually aren't going to be doing the most interesting work. Source: I work for one of those companies.
- sotojuan 10y ago
  In my experience with those kinda people ("high achieving" students), they just want to work at a big, prestigious company. What they do there isn't that important to them.
  - Karrot_Kream 10y ago
    While there are definitely students pursuing the prestige, I think you're painting this with too wide a brush. The career progression for me and a lot of my friends who were high achieving students was to start out at one of those companies. A lot of us didn't have much money saved up, and didn't come from much money. After building up some money, and realizing the little surface area to work with at one of these companies, we left. Visa issues are also a very real problem that chain a lot of good talent to these corporate juggernauts.
    - sotojuan 10y ago
      Fair point—it just seems that way after spending a lot of time in that sub :-)
      - nostrebored 10y ago
        The fact of the matter is that your average employee who lasted a year at Google is probably significantly better than their startup counterpart. Having this stamp of approval on your resume gives you a lot of bargaining power in the job search process. The churn at these companies is very high.
  - alexbanks 10y ago
    From the perspective of a recent (sub 5-year) grad, if I was qualified to work at one of the big, prestigious companies I would, for no other reason than the long term career doors it would open.
  - adrianratnapala 10y ago
    Isn't it perfectly rational for a new grad to want to get some prestige on his or her CV? Especially as those companies probably pay better than the alternatives.
bamboo_7 10y ago
yes! I had to unsubscribe because I got sick of being downvoted for reminding people that career goals are not always about making the most money.
- derefr 10y ago
  In a consequentialist sense, isn't "fuck you money" the sort of singularity beyond which you can have your career any way you like? So any path to "fuck you money" should theoretically be ranked above a path that doesn't lead to "fuck you money." It's sort of the same argument people use for justifying ranking AI X-risk as the highest concern for Effective Altruism.
  - Chos89 10y ago
    I don't think any job/career/being employed (99% of the time) is a right path to "fuck you money", it's mostly entrepreneurship

cbHXBY1D 10y ago

That subreddit seems to only care about getting hired by Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. It's funny because there is so much interesting work being done at smaller startups. If you are a new grad and get hired by one of the above companies, you usually aren't going to be doing the most interesting work. Source: I work for one of those companies.

sotojuan 10y ago
In my experience with those kinda people ("high achieving" students), they just want to work at a big, prestigious company. What they do there isn't that important to them.
- Karrot_Kream 10y ago
  While there are definitely students pursuing the prestige, I think you're painting this with too wide a brush. The career progression for me and a lot of my friends who were high achieving students was to start out at one of those companies. A lot of us didn't have much money saved up, and didn't come from much money. After building up some money, and realizing the little surface area to work with at one of these companies, we left. Visa issues are also a very real problem that chain a lot of good talent to these corporate juggernauts.
  - sotojuan 10y ago
    Fair point—it just seems that way after spending a lot of time in that sub :-)
    - nostrebored 10y ago
      The fact of the matter is that your average employee who lasted a year at Google is probably significantly better than their startup counterpart. Having this stamp of approval on your resume gives you a lot of bargaining power in the job search process. The churn at these companies is very high.
- alexbanks 10y ago
  From the perspective of a recent (sub 5-year) grad, if I was qualified to work at one of the big, prestigious companies I would, for no other reason than the long term career doors it would open.
- adrianratnapala 10y ago
  Isn't it perfectly rational for a new grad to want to get some prestige on his or her CV? Especially as those companies probably pay better than the alternatives.

bamboo_7 10y ago

yes! I had to unsubscribe because I got sick of being downvoted for reminding people that career goals are not always about making the most money.

derefr 10y ago
In a consequentialist sense, isn't "fuck you money" the sort of singularity beyond which you can have your career any way you like? So any path to "fuck you money" should theoretically be ranked above a path that doesn't lead to "fuck you money." It's sort of the same argument people use for justifying ranking AI X-risk as the highest concern for Effective Altruism.
- Chos89 10y ago
  I don't think any job/career/being employed (99% of the time) is a right path to "fuck you money", it's mostly entrepreneurship