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I served at Google as an SRE for 2+yrs. I burnt out and ragequit. Now I'm an SRE at a startup. I hear that the median time of service for FAANG SREs is just sh

I served at Google as an SRE for 2+yrs. I burnt out and ragequit. Now I'm an SRE at a startup. I hear that the median time of service for FAANG SREs is just shy of 2yrs. Dirty open secret if it is true.

gbustomtv5 8y ago
Not a secret and it is true. https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full-list https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full...
barrow-rider 8y ago
> I hear that the median time of service for FAANG SREs is just shy of 2yrs. Dirty open secret if it is true. That's most places, FAANGs notwithstanding. 6 months getting up to speed, realizing what a clusterfuck it is by 12 months, dealing with it to 18 months, and then getting to the I-Want-Out point at 24+ months. Plus the whole "jump ship every 2-3 years to maximize salary" thing is possible for FAANG-level engineers.
- cagenut 8y ago
  devops are like brake pads on trucks, you stomp the hell out of them whenever you didn't look far enough ahead, and when they start to make a squeaking noise you throw them out and get new ones.
  - dekhn 8y ago
    I know at least ten SREs at Google with ten years service.
apohn 8y ago
>I hear that the median time of service for FAANG SREs is just shy of 2yrs. Dirty open secret if it is true. I wouldn't read too much into this. I've worked at tech companies where 4 years of tenure was considered old and non-tech companies where 8 years was considered young. Anecdotal evidence or course, but IME people with strong skills in the tech industry (even if it's tech marketing or tech HR) have a lot more options to change jobs for salary or experience reasons. If you're ambitious you're going to be even more inclined to move up or move out.
- 7ewis 8y ago
  I work for a tech company and like you said, I've almost been there for 4 years and apart from my own department I would genuinely struggle to name anyone else on my floor (~100 people). I could probably count the number of people I know on one hand. Whereas three years ago, I knew everyone's name across three floors. Tech turnover is just so high, even our C Suite have almost all changed twice since I've been here. I'm easily one of the longest standing members of staff and we have over 1,000 tech employees.
user5994461 8y ago
Most of SRE/sysadmin/operations leave the field after a few years, not just the company. It's not a rewarding job to be on call and have to fix issues from other people.
simmanian 8y ago
Just curious, did you burn out because of the workload?
brilee 8y ago
If a company doubles in size every 2 years, then mathematically, you cannot have a median tenure of more than 2 years.
- jkchu 8y ago
  If the company has hired enough employees recently, then the math would check out.
the_clarence 8y ago
SRE?
bruckie 8y ago
You didn't say this, but to be clear for those who may have assumed it: 2 years median time of service != median employee quit after 2 years 2 years median time of service can be explained by lots of people quitting, or by lots of people being hired (and usually a mix of both). I've noticed at Google that some positions (like recruiting coordinator) seem to churn quickly, while others (like software engineer) churn much more slowly. I haven't seen many engineers quit in less than two years (and certainly not in 1.1, which is the median in the data you linked to)

gbustomtv5 8y ago

Not a secret and it is true. https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full-list https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full...

barrow-rider 8y ago

> I hear that the median time of service for FAANG SREs is just shy of 2yrs. Dirty open secret if it is true. That's most places, FAANGs notwithstanding. 6 months getting up to speed, realizing what a clusterfuck it is by 12 months, dealing with it to 18 months, and then getting to the I-Want-Out point at 24+ months. Plus the whole "jump ship every 2-3 years to maximize salary" thing is possible for FAANG-level engineers.

cagenut 8y ago
devops are like brake pads on trucks, you stomp the hell out of them whenever you didn't look far enough ahead, and when they start to make a squeaking noise you throw them out and get new ones.
- dekhn 8y ago
  I know at least ten SREs at Google with ten years service.

apohn 8y ago

>I hear that the median time of service for FAANG SREs is just shy of 2yrs. Dirty open secret if it is true. I wouldn't read too much into this. I've worked at tech companies where 4 years of tenure was considered old and non-tech companies where 8 years was considered young. Anecdotal evidence or course, but IME people with strong skills in the tech industry (even if it's tech marketing or tech HR) have a lot more options to change jobs for salary or experience reasons. If you're ambitious you're going to be even more inclined to move up or move out.

7ewis 8y ago
I work for a tech company and like you said, I've almost been there for 4 years and apart from my own department I would genuinely struggle to name anyone else on my floor (~100 people). I could probably count the number of people I know on one hand. Whereas three years ago, I knew everyone's name across three floors. Tech turnover is just so high, even our C Suite have almost all changed twice since I've been here. I'm easily one of the longest standing members of staff and we have over 1,000 tech employees.

user5994461 8y ago

Most of SRE/sysadmin/operations leave the field after a few years, not just the company. It's not a rewarding job to be on call and have to fix issues from other people.

simmanian 8y ago

Just curious, did you burn out because of the workload?

brilee 8y ago

If a company doubles in size every 2 years, then mathematically, you cannot have a median tenure of more than 2 years.

jkchu 8y ago
If the company has hired enough employees recently, then the math would check out.

the_clarence 8y ago

SRE?

bruckie 8y ago

You didn't say this, but to be clear for those who may have assumed it: 2 years median time of service != median employee quit after 2 years 2 years median time of service can be explained by lots of people quitting, or by lots of people being hired (and usually a mix of both). I've noticed at Google that some positions (like recruiting coordinator) seem to churn quickly, while others (like software engineer) churn much more slowly. I haven't seen many engineers quit in less than two years (and certainly not in 1.1, which is the median in the data you linked to)