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Stories like this make me even more sure that my path is not to join a tech giant as an engineer. The money would be great, but at what cost? I think the best

Stories like this make me even more sure that my path is not to join a tech giant as an engineer. The money would be great, but at what cost? I think the best option for me is to not derive all of my happiness from the amount coming in to my bank, and instead work on things that I have a clear impact on. When I graduate this spring I’m going to be looking at medium-sized companies with a bright future, not the shadowy giants.

themoat 8y ago
Ask lots of questions in those interviews. There are medium sized companies try to emulate giants. You can wind up with a company that's not going to pay you as well as a giant, but tries to implement all the rigid, bureaucratic policies of a giant. Speaking from my own mistake.
lapitopi 8y ago
Always take other people’s experience with a grain of salt. You don’t know their motivations or their biases or even their situation. Even if what you just read is 100% true, it’s from someone else's perspective. So you don’t know what you are missing. I have worked in both big companies and small. Politics abound in all of them. In my opinion company culture plays a large role in how toxic the place really is. Another factor is your manager. Sometimes they can even compensate for toxic culture by shielding you from it and having a pleasant environment to work in. Unfortunately I have not been able to come up with a great set of questions to divine whether someone is a good manager or not. It totally depends on how much they believe in having your back vs having their own backs. Don’t let experiences like these discourage you. There are plenty of big companies where you can have a sizeable impact because team sizes are small and the work is challenging. And there are plenty of small to mid size companies that are just surviving from one round of funding to the next on the whims of their investors. Only way to find out is ask a lot of questions and try a few of them.
lsc 8y ago
so, just a datapoint, but I personally am much more consistently happy with my situation at large companies. Smaller companies tend to be dominated by how good your boss is (or isn't) - and even when you get a good boss, the small companies just don't have the resources, usually, to treat you as well. There's also the other side of impact. Sure, it's easier to have a larger impact the smaller the company is. But... the other side of that is that there is a lot of pressure. At least on the ops side of things, a lot of my happiness has to do with how often the pager goes off. I mean, I don't mind being on pager; I can stay sober. But... if the pager goes off too often? we've got a problem, because my performance degrades as my sleep does. You can wake me up once a week. Maybe twice. More than that? and yeah, I'm not going to be so useful. Larger companies have a lot more bureaucracy, sure, but that's good in some ways. For me? the biggest way that the bureaucracy is good is that it makes my relationship with my immediate supervisor (and those up the chain) feel a lot less feudal. It feels like it's a lot less dependent on my personal relationship with this person. (I mean, sure, your supervisor and your personal relationship with them is still important... just not as important) But... a lot of people like smaller companies, too. It's a good idea to try both. But if you do get the chance to try working at a FANG company, I recommend you take it; If you don't like it and you leave after a few years, it will make it a lot easier to interview at smaller places.

themoat 8y ago

Ask lots of questions in those interviews. There are medium sized companies try to emulate giants. You can wind up with a company that's not going to pay you as well as a giant, but tries to implement all the rigid, bureaucratic policies of a giant. Speaking from my own mistake.

lapitopi 8y ago

Always take other people’s experience with a grain of salt. You don’t know their motivations or their biases or even their situation. Even if what you just read is 100% true, it’s from someone else's perspective. So you don’t know what you are missing. I have worked in both big companies and small. Politics abound in all of them. In my opinion company culture plays a large role in how toxic the place really is. Another factor is your manager. Sometimes they can even compensate for toxic culture by shielding you from it and having a pleasant environment to work in. Unfortunately I have not been able to come up with a great set of questions to divine whether someone is a good manager or not. It totally depends on how much they believe in having your back vs having their own backs. Don’t let experiences like these discourage you. There are plenty of big companies where you can have a sizeable impact because team sizes are small and the work is challenging. And there are plenty of small to mid size companies that are just surviving from one round of funding to the next on the whims of their investors. Only way to find out is ask a lot of questions and try a few of them.

lsc 8y ago

so, just a datapoint, but I personally am much more consistently happy with my situation at large companies. Smaller companies tend to be dominated by how good your boss is (or isn't) - and even when you get a good boss, the small companies just don't have the resources, usually, to treat you as well. There's also the other side of impact. Sure, it's easier to have a larger impact the smaller the company is. But... the other side of that is that there is a lot of pressure. At least on the ops side of things, a lot of my happiness has to do with how often the pager goes off. I mean, I don't mind being on pager; I can stay sober. But... if the pager goes off too often? we've got a problem, because my performance degrades as my sleep does. You can wake me up once a week. Maybe twice. More than that? and yeah, I'm not going to be so useful. Larger companies have a lot more bureaucracy, sure, but that's good in some ways. For me? the biggest way that the bureaucracy is good is that it makes my relationship with my immediate supervisor (and those up the chain) feel a lot less feudal. It feels like it's a lot less dependent on my personal relationship with this person. (I mean, sure, your supervisor and your personal relationship with them is still important... just not as important) But... a lot of people like smaller companies, too. It's a good idea to try both. But if you do get the chance to try working at a FANG company, I recommend you take it; If you don't like it and you leave after a few years, it will make it a lot easier to interview at smaller places.