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I don't really think these are compelling arguments, since at least for me, the only better thing than working for a megacorp as far as finances and QOL would b
by opportune 6y ago
I don't really think these are compelling arguments, since at least for me, the only better thing than working for a megacorp as far as finances and QOL would be running my own company and succeeding which is substantially riskier.
>If you quit, remember that they will have forced you to sign an NDA and a non-compete.
Not really likely considering there is a huge revolving door between all the major tech companies. There is also a risk I get hit by a car on the way to work.
>You will probably be much happier at a small to mid-size company. The “dream job” megacorps have sold you on is just good marketing.
Actually I've worked on interesting, highly used stuff at megacorps in mature work environments, and was paid much more than most random small companies would. The concept of a "dream job" doesn't exist, neither in big companies or small companies, IMO.
>They could hurt you, and they could make you hurt others.
I could just leave and get another job at any time. I don't understand why this author is so paranoid.
- ssklash 6y agoI feel like you skipped the most compelling reason. I posted it in this thread already, but it's the abhorrent behavior that these companies routinely engage in and the harm they cause, enabled by well-meaning engineers who just want to solve problems and do interesting work.
- opportune 6y agoYeah, the issue with that is that for most megacorps only one or two of those criticisms are valid. I've definitely refused to work at companies (like Facebook) on the grounds that I think they are doing much more harm than good in the world. But there are also megacorps which I consider to be doing less harm per capita than other technology businesses which I would work for. Part of the issue is that media companies have darlings and enemies that they don't really cover proportionately to their offenses, IMO (for example if Google even considers doing any business in China - uproar. But Bing actively sells out Chinese users to the Chinese government and nobody cars, because right now Microsoft is a media darling). And the media doesn't write about smaller companies doing bad things usually, unless they are particularly bad, because they fail the "who cares" test. There is also an inherent chaos that comes with companies with hundreds of thousands of employees - bad people will get through hiring and do bad things, people will make very high impact mistakes, things become uncoordinated. So for me personally I try to think of companies in terms of badness-per-capita and whether the rot is coming from the top (Facebook) or is seemingly "random".
- Youden 6y agoI have a couple of objections to that: - These companies aren't monolithic. If you object to say Google's monopoly on advertising, you can take a job on a team that has nothing to do with it, like image compression. - If you disagree with the company's practices, you might have more impact by changing the company from within than trying to compete with it.
- ddevault 6y agoAuthor here. This post wasn't written for you. People who have already drunk the kool-aid need a much different approach to break their cognative dissonance.
- opportune 6y agoOk. To be more blunt I think many of the things you have written are simply not true, or are at least not broadly applicable.
- ddevault 6y agoAre you unable to recognize that you're a fish telling the birds that there's no such thing as the ocean? You have a biased perspective.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rossjudson 6y agoYour response, like your article, is essentially useless. You have massively overgeneralized, telling an elementary schoolchild's story. Is a city bad or good? It is both. Complexity is unavoidable. Different experiences in a large corporation happen. I've personally seen counterexamples to every single point you've made, and they are not isolated. Your failure to acknowledge that points directly at the most obvious bias -- your own.
- WJW 6y agoYour own viewpoint is pretty biased too Drew. Your entire software philosophy is based on your own model of ethics and admitting that the software megacorps might not be the very epitome of evil would invalidate most of the reasons for the existence of sourcehut and your other projects. I hope you continue to explore other places in the design space, but calling people evil because you disagree with them makes people disengage. It makes you look like just another zealot screaming his viewpoint into the uncaring masses.
- abdabab 6y ago> ... and they could make you hurt others This is the part you missed. You can’t easily walk away from that.
- opportune 6y agoI don't see how that's possible. I could just quit if I felt I was doing something unethical. It is easy to get hired as a software engineer, though if you are on a restrictive work visa "just quitting" becomes a much harder decision.
- ddevault 6y agoYou are doing something unethical. You are directly supporting an unethical business and generating at least as much revenue for them as the salary you take home. You have sold your soul, quite literally. You don't believe this because questioning it would call into question your own self-image as an upstanding person, it's a basic human bias that prevents you from confronting it. I'm not saying you aren't an upstanding person in general. I am saying that you are doing something wrong, and bias prevents you from recognizing or admitting it, even to yourself. You can't just quit, because quitting would be admitting that you're wrong. And that's hard to do!
- edmundsauto 6y agoYour perspective requires agreeing with a specific interpretation that is just your opinion, then is wrapped into an accusatory tone that is unlikely to be particularly effective at getting OP to consider any changes that you think they should make.
- throwaway3699 6y agoBy working in a supermarket, you're directly supporting an unethical business which relies on modern slavery in China, Africa, etc... along with being damaging to the environment (single use plastics, animal farming) and pushing wage slavery onto you and your colleagues. You have sold your soul, quite literally. Reductio ad absurdum.