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You don't realize how good you have it: 1. you work for a company that is an excellent resume booster outside of the valley. I'm from central texas and most e

You don't realize how good you have it: 1. you work for a company that is an excellent resume booster outside of the valley. I'm from central texas and most everyone I know in tech has worked at Dell and once complained how boring it was to work at Dell. The moment they decided to move away from Austin their Dell experience made them very hot commodities to non-Austin tech companies. Every day you stay at Google the more valuable you become. 2.you presumably make enough money to not worry about your monthly Bills and probably have enough to save as well. At age 28 you are well ahead of the vast majority of 28 year olds from the last 100 years. Not saying you should be content but still... As others have said you have a great opportunity to do some new things, both in terms of mental and financial capacity. Nevermind learning more tech stuff...get a hobby. Try different things to make you the kind of person you've always wanted to be. Most people are not able to do that because of stress at work or stress about money. You seem to have neither.

bellme8947 7y ago
> Nevermind learning more tech stuff...get a hobby. 100% agree. A lot of young tech people seem to go directly from school to career level job without developing hobbies/interests outside of work. While that’s fine...you should at least see if activities outside of work/dating/breaking up appeal to you. Buy a mountain bike, get into woodworking, learn about bird watching, or anything else that interests you. Maybe getting more enjoyment outside of work will make having a chill job an asset instead of a source of stress.
- soulofmischief 7y ago
  Every programmer / tech person I know desperately tries to define themselves by the hobbies they pursue outside of work, myself included. My tinder bio is just a bunch of interests.
  - mc3 7y ago
    Not sure anyone has put k8s on their tinder bio though
    - notJim 7y ago
      Absolutely someone has.
      - swagonomixxx 7y ago
        k8s and chill?
flavor8 7y ago
> Every day you stay at Google the more valuable you become. Ehhh, to a point. Straight out of college and then (e.g.) 10 or 15 years at the same company says a lot about a person.
- astura 7y ago
  What do you mean?
  - tksb 7y ago
    I can only guess, but to my mind, if the individual hadn't progressed significantly in that period, they may appear as a "sucker" of sorts. "Naive" and "holding out forever for nothing."
    - joshuamorton 7y ago
      I mean, maybe if you aren't progressing, but an L6 who was hired from college and has been at Google for 12 years it's probably an asset.
      - solveit 7y ago
        Yeah but OP says they were only promoted once, so they're probably not on track to make L6 in six years.
  - OOPMan 7y ago
    It's pretty simple. He's saying OP worked at Google for 6 years but his career progression has been largely static.
- czbond 7y ago
  While I see what you're getting at, and don't disagree, I have also noticed that the people that stay put while everyone else jumps ship provide a line of consistency that can get them promoted up. They say the stupid ones stay, and the smart ones leave.... but it isn't always intelligence that gets one promoted in such cases.
agitator 7y ago
I think this highlights the fundamental problem with hiring at many large companies. They think they are getting the best, but are they? They sure are overpaying for their employees. I think if OP isn't motivated enough to learn, excel, and build cool things on the side while he has a catered life at google, I don't think she/he will put in much effort elsewhere? That intrinsic motivation isn't there. And it honestly doesn't make sense to leave, take a pay cut, and hope that you will be given responsibilities to do new things that require learning. If you haven't been learning new things on the fly, you missed years of practice trying new things, and they won't give those responsibilities to you.
- o-__-o 7y ago
  >That intrinsic motivation isn't there it took me leaving a job that i thought i was stuck in to find my inner musician, snowboard daily, and ultimately start my first business. sometimes being an employee is just a soul-sucking adventure
  - throw_this_one 7y ago
    Yeah just having to be at my office for 9 hours makes me sleep worse, and drains your spice for life that you would normally be able to parlay into diving into your interests. Did you just quit and spend a year or whatever with your interests and thinking of business ideas?
    - o-__-o 7y ago
      I took a new job in a new city. Moving to the new city made me focus on my interests, I think after realizing that I could leave work at 4pm and head straight to the mountain made me realize I have control of my life. I spent 2-3 months exploring this, then ideas just sort of came out of the woodworks. Taking control of my life was instrumental to pursuing the business idea. I wouldn't have put up $30k before then, and it took losing $30k in this venture to realize the freedom that owning your own business really provides. I ended up quitting the new job and for the next 6 months worked on a business plan and opened up shop. Today I am back to sitting in a strict 8-5 and spend all of my free time honing the next venture.
linza 7y ago
> 1. [...] Every day you stay at Google the more valuable you become. I'd argue that posts like these decrease the value of Google engineers (and Dell engineers) in my eyes. Maybe that's too shallow though. I'm involved in hiring a lot and interviewed potential candidates coming from Google and Amazon--none of them seemed like slackers, but also none of them were hired.

bellme8947 7y ago

> Nevermind learning more tech stuff...get a hobby. 100% agree. A lot of young tech people seem to go directly from school to career level job without developing hobbies/interests outside of work. While that’s fine...you should at least see if activities outside of work/dating/breaking up appeal to you. Buy a mountain bike, get into woodworking, learn about bird watching, or anything else that interests you. Maybe getting more enjoyment outside of work will make having a chill job an asset instead of a source of stress.

soulofmischief 7y ago
Every programmer / tech person I know desperately tries to define themselves by the hobbies they pursue outside of work, myself included. My tinder bio is just a bunch of interests.
- mc3 7y ago
  Not sure anyone has put k8s on their tinder bio though
  - notJim 7y ago
    Absolutely someone has.
    - swagonomixxx 7y ago
      k8s and chill?

flavor8 7y ago

> Every day you stay at Google the more valuable you become. Ehhh, to a point. Straight out of college and then (e.g.) 10 or 15 years at the same company says a lot about a person.

astura 7y ago
What do you mean?
- tksb 7y ago
  I can only guess, but to my mind, if the individual hadn't progressed significantly in that period, they may appear as a "sucker" of sorts. "Naive" and "holding out forever for nothing."
  - joshuamorton 7y ago
    I mean, maybe if you aren't progressing, but an L6 who was hired from college and has been at Google for 12 years it's probably an asset.
    - solveit 7y ago
      Yeah but OP says they were only promoted once, so they're probably not on track to make L6 in six years.
- OOPMan 7y ago
  It's pretty simple. He's saying OP worked at Google for 6 years but his career progression has been largely static.
czbond 7y ago
While I see what you're getting at, and don't disagree, I have also noticed that the people that stay put while everyone else jumps ship provide a line of consistency that can get them promoted up. They say the stupid ones stay, and the smart ones leave.... but it isn't always intelligence that gets one promoted in such cases.

agitator 7y ago

I think this highlights the fundamental problem with hiring at many large companies. They think they are getting the best, but are they? They sure are overpaying for their employees. I think if OP isn't motivated enough to learn, excel, and build cool things on the side while he has a catered life at google, I don't think she/he will put in much effort elsewhere? That intrinsic motivation isn't there. And it honestly doesn't make sense to leave, take a pay cut, and hope that you will be given responsibilities to do new things that require learning. If you haven't been learning new things on the fly, you missed years of practice trying new things, and they won't give those responsibilities to you.

o-__-o 7y ago
>That intrinsic motivation isn't there it took me leaving a job that i thought i was stuck in to find my inner musician, snowboard daily, and ultimately start my first business. sometimes being an employee is just a soul-sucking adventure
- throw_this_one 7y ago
  Yeah just having to be at my office for 9 hours makes me sleep worse, and drains your spice for life that you would normally be able to parlay into diving into your interests. Did you just quit and spend a year or whatever with your interests and thinking of business ideas?
  - o-__-o 7y ago
    I took a new job in a new city. Moving to the new city made me focus on my interests, I think after realizing that I could leave work at 4pm and head straight to the mountain made me realize I have control of my life. I spent 2-3 months exploring this, then ideas just sort of came out of the woodworks. Taking control of my life was instrumental to pursuing the business idea. I wouldn't have put up $30k before then, and it took losing $30k in this venture to realize the freedom that owning your own business really provides. I ended up quitting the new job and for the next 6 months worked on a business plan and opened up shop. Today I am back to sitting in a strict 8-5 and spend all of my free time honing the next venture.

linza 7y ago

> 1. [...] Every day you stay at Google the more valuable you become. I'd argue that posts like these decrease the value of Google engineers (and Dell engineers) in my eyes. Maybe that's too shallow though. I'm involved in hiring a lot and interviewed potential candidates coming from Google and Amazon--none of them seemed like slackers, but also none of them were hired.