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"getting an MBA and climbing the corporate ladder" - one would have thought in Tech companies Engineers would count for more than MBA's, but clearly that's not

by ivenkys 16y ago

"getting an MBA and climbing the corporate ladder" - one would have thought in Tech companies Engineers would count for more than MBA's, but clearly that's not the case with Yahoo.

borism 16y ago
except Yahoo is not tech but media company
- joubert 16y ago
  I don't disagree, but they have some smart and fun hackers at yahoo.
  - smwhreyebelong 16y ago
    They used to. Yahoo! used to be a great company for an engineer to work for. Given what they have been doing lately, it seems the focus has changed from being a tech company to a media company. In fact, it all probably changed when Terry was brought in to run the company and he wanted to focus on digital media. There's a lot of small intangible things that go in to making a huge successful company. The core employees "wanting" to work at the company (as compared to just collecting a paycheck) is one of the most imporant ones.
josefresco 16y ago
An engineer is the last person I'd want running a company like Yahoo! (and for many reasons). Hired-gun CEO's are expensive and don't always work, but the odds of success must be greater then hoping your brilliant founder/engineer works out as an executive. I would argue it's easier to educate an old CEO on tech than it is to teach an engineer how to be a successful exec.
- derwiki 16y ago
  See Slide, Yelp, Facebook...
- ivenkys 16y ago
  "Engineers would count for more than MBA's" - i never said that an Engineer/Founder should be the CEO. However, in a Tech company the contribution and therefore compensation of an Engineer would be expected to be higher than that of an MBA.
- smwhreyebelong 16y ago
  It depends. Ben horowitz wrote a blog post recently on why they prefer founding CEOs : http://bhorowitz.com/2010/04/28/why-we-prefer-founding-ceos/ http://bhorowitz.com/2010/04/28/why-we-prefer-founding-ceos/
abstractbill 16y ago
It's not just Yahoo. Companies that think of engineers as anything but replaceable "resources" are very much an exception to the norm.

by ivenkys 16y ago

"getting an MBA and climbing the corporate ladder" - one would have thought in Tech companies Engineers would count for more than MBA's, but clearly that's not the case with Yahoo.

borism 16y ago

except Yahoo is not tech but media company

joubert 16y ago
I don't disagree, but they have some smart and fun hackers at yahoo.
- smwhreyebelong 16y ago
  They used to. Yahoo! used to be a great company for an engineer to work for. Given what they have been doing lately, it seems the focus has changed from being a tech company to a media company. In fact, it all probably changed when Terry was brought in to run the company and he wanted to focus on digital media. There's a lot of small intangible things that go in to making a huge successful company. The core employees "wanting" to work at the company (as compared to just collecting a paycheck) is one of the most imporant ones.

josefresco 16y ago

An engineer is the last person I'd want running a company like Yahoo! (and for many reasons). Hired-gun CEO's are expensive and don't always work, but the odds of success must be greater then hoping your brilliant founder/engineer works out as an executive. I would argue it's easier to educate an old CEO on tech than it is to teach an engineer how to be a successful exec.

derwiki 16y ago
See Slide, Yelp, Facebook...
ivenkys 16y ago
"Engineers would count for more than MBA's" - i never said that an Engineer/Founder should be the CEO. However, in a Tech company the contribution and therefore compensation of an Engineer would be expected to be higher than that of an MBA.
smwhreyebelong 16y ago
It depends. Ben horowitz wrote a blog post recently on why they prefer founding CEOs : http://bhorowitz.com/2010/04/28/why-we-prefer-founding-ceos/ http://bhorowitz.com/2010/04/28/why-we-prefer-founding-ceos/

abstractbill 16y ago

It's not just Yahoo. Companies that think of engineers as anything but replaceable "resources" are very much an exception to the norm.