4 ms·
If Google isn't a prestigious employer, which companies are?
by jstx1 5y ago
If Google isn't a prestigious employer, which companies are?
- nostrademons 5y agoIt shifts over time - prestige has a shelf-life of about 3-5 years. It was Google from ~2005-2009, Facebook from ~2009-2012, being a startup founder from 2012-2014, US Digital Service from 2014-2016, making shitloads of money off cryptocurrency speculation in 2017, being a YouTube/Instagram/TikTok influencer from ~2017-2020, working on COVID tests or vaccines in 2020. I think it's now climate change - basically anything related to renewable energy, carbon capture, energy savings, etc. Other hot areas include real estate, cryptocurrency speculation, politics, and (still) being a YouTube/Instagram/TikTok star.
- jstx1 5y agoI don't think that anything you listed after Facebook was ever that prestigious, certainly not the cryptocurrency or influencer stuff. Prestigious places are prestigious mostly because they are selective in addition to the type of opportunities they offer. There's nothing selective about lucking out on crypto in a bull market or about having many followers on social media.
- drstewart 5y agoI'd say SpaceX or maybe Tesla are probably the current "prestige" companies.
- dyingkneepad 5y agoOr perhaps it's just that you got older and is not in tune with the hip 20's people anymore :) Sorry for the silly joke, I'll get off your lawn.
- nostrademons 5y agoI think another phenomena is that after (and perhaps because of) Facebook, the definition of "prestigious" fragmented. People today don't agree on what's prestigious, because they have different values and different subcultures. In some circles Google is still prestigious; in others, they are literally the devil. So you might be looking at a job for prestige, but for many younger people, the roles they hold prestigious are various forms of entrepreneurship or public service. Also, lucking out on crypto or having many followers on social media are absolutely "selective" processes in that the sense that not everybody who attempts them succeeds. Typically, the people who value those activities consider it "skill" when someone's selected, while other bystanders consider it "luck". But that goes for corporate hiring as well; a lot of people consider passing the Google interviews to be just a matter of luck.
- pyb 5y agoSpaceX is "it" this year
- thorin 5y agoI know quite a lot of people working in research relating to vaccines / viruses and in climate change e.g. glaciology, just because I happen to live near a large UK university. They are regularly quoted in journals and one friend is regularly interviewed by Sky / BBC etc. While I think it's kind of cool, I'm not sure they'd be viewed in that way by the general population. The probably get paid 10% of what people get at Google / Facebook. YouTube influencer would probably impress more people. That's just the way it is.
- MaxHoppersGhost 5y agoI would be more impressed meeting someone who works at Snowflake, MongoDB, or some other high flyer. Especially living in the Bay every other person I meet works at a FAANG company.
- fksadfji12 5y agoIn this day and age "working for someone else" is no longer prestigious, at least in my circle.