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Engineers at Google can get a job anywhere. They choose to work for Google despite building and maintaining a substandard product. Google engineers have a lot

Engineers at Google can get a job anywhere. They choose to work for Google despite building and maintaining a substandard product. Google engineers have a lot of leverage. I refuse to pretend that they can't influence product quality.

thinkingemote 5y ago
Google and other trendy tech companies have a concept called Human Ops. Human ops is designed to improve and keep safe the mental health of its engineers. They do this by using machines to do all the dirty stuff as possible. Classic example is evil image flagging problems causing genuine psychological trauma, but it's extended now to everything engineers hate like drudge work, customer support etc. You'd need to convince the engineers that Human Ops is wrong first. Engineers like the shield and the corporation likes the cost cut.
- notreallyserio 5y ago
  They're choosing to use machines to maintain their mental health by creating a product that impacts the mental health of their customers who get to deal with their revenue streams being cut off entirely, arbitrarily, often with no know reason or recourse. This argument makes the engineers look monstrous, not just mildly shitty.
Nextgrid 5y ago
Google engineers potentially can get a job anywhere but may not want to for multiple reasons: 1) The pay, plain and simple. 2) Google-scale problems are a very specific kind of problem that may not apply to other companies. I'm sure most of the engineers would be competent at dealing with smaller companies' problems, but maybe they don't want to? The interviewing process already selects for low-level LeetCode-style problems and I guess the ones who make it through must enjoy it. You're unlikely to have a need for those kinds of problems in smaller businesses where most of the work is CRUD and connecting APIs together. 3) At such a large company you could lay back, chill and most likely still fly under the radar while enjoying the money. This might be more difficult in smaller companies who are more demanding.

thinkingemote 5y ago

Google and other trendy tech companies have a concept called Human Ops. Human ops is designed to improve and keep safe the mental health of its engineers. They do this by using machines to do all the dirty stuff as possible. Classic example is evil image flagging problems causing genuine psychological trauma, but it's extended now to everything engineers hate like drudge work, customer support etc. You'd need to convince the engineers that Human Ops is wrong first. Engineers like the shield and the corporation likes the cost cut.

notreallyserio 5y ago
They're choosing to use machines to maintain their mental health by creating a product that impacts the mental health of their customers who get to deal with their revenue streams being cut off entirely, arbitrarily, often with no know reason or recourse. This argument makes the engineers look monstrous, not just mildly shitty.

Nextgrid 5y ago

Google engineers potentially can get a job anywhere but may not want to for multiple reasons: 1) The pay, plain and simple. 2) Google-scale problems are a very specific kind of problem that may not apply to other companies. I'm sure most of the engineers would be competent at dealing with smaller companies' problems, but maybe they don't want to? The interviewing process already selects for low-level LeetCode-style problems and I guess the ones who make it through must enjoy it. You're unlikely to have a need for those kinds of problems in smaller businesses where most of the work is CRUD and connecting APIs together. 3) At such a large company you could lay back, chill and most likely still fly under the radar while enjoying the money. This might be more difficult in smaller companies who are more demanding.