5 ms·

This is not just normal, but this is "The Deal" that you are accepting when you join a large company. It's normal that a single developer is maybe 20% as effic

This is not just normal, but this is "The Deal" that you are accepting when you join a large company. It's normal that a single developer is maybe 20% as efficient at a big company compared to at a small company. What you used to accomplish in one day will now take you a week (after team processes, code reviews, deployment requests, etc, etc). But the trade-off is the big companies have figured out how to keep thousands of people productive. They might individually be less productive, but as a whole they accomplish more than a small company can accomplish. Some do it better than others, but no big company works like a small company. That's just how it is. It's easier to solve problems with small groups of people than large groups of people. If the problem takes a large group of people, it will be a lot less efficient. I would even say that working at a big company as essentially a different skillset than working at a start-up or small company. In a big company, your main job is to get other people to do things and you are successful based on how well you can do that. In a small company, your job is to do things yourself. If you really hate the big company world, you should consider moving back to a small company. It's never going to not be like that.

ghaff 4y ago
I've worked at both relatively large (thousands of employees) and small (less than 10) companies. When I transitioned from small back to large-ish about 10 years ago, a couple things struck me. (Really, I was reminded of because I had worked at a similar magnitude size company previously.) There was so much "machinery" to support me in various ways. But the internal communications to take advantage of that machinery (and to inform stakeholders, the field, etc.) was a huge ongoing effort.
- rsstack 4y ago
  Not all large companies have so much machinery! While people think of MAGMA, maybe Capital One, Clouflare, etc. - there are many huge companies that aren't tech-first that have the internal communication responsibilities but without better developer tooling than small startups. That _sucks_ if you're the kind of person who's used to high personal velocity.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    I was using machinery in a more general sense given I don't do development. For me, it's things like lots of marketing program people, public relations, analyst relations, competitive analysts, designers, editors, etc. They can offload a lot of work (and, in many cases, can do that work better than I could). But it's a lot of people to keep informed and coordinated.
    - rsstack 4y ago
      > marketing program people, public relations, analyst relations, competitive analysts, designers, editors I guess it depends on the role. I don't think startup developers do any of these (except maybe design) :)

ghaff 4y ago

I've worked at both relatively large (thousands of employees) and small (less than 10) companies. When I transitioned from small back to large-ish about 10 years ago, a couple things struck me. (Really, I was reminded of because I had worked at a similar magnitude size company previously.) There was so much "machinery" to support me in various ways. But the internal communications to take advantage of that machinery (and to inform stakeholders, the field, etc.) was a huge ongoing effort.

rsstack 4y ago
Not all large companies have so much machinery! While people think of MAGMA, maybe Capital One, Clouflare, etc. - there are many huge companies that aren't tech-first that have the internal communication responsibilities but without better developer tooling than small startups. That _sucks_ if you're the kind of person who's used to high personal velocity.
- ghaff 4y ago
  I was using machinery in a more general sense given I don't do development. For me, it's things like lots of marketing program people, public relations, analyst relations, competitive analysts, designers, editors, etc. They can offload a lot of work (and, in many cases, can do that work better than I could). But it's a lot of people to keep informed and coordinated.
  - rsstack 4y ago
    > marketing program people, public relations, analyst relations, competitive analysts, designers, editors I guess it depends on the role. I don't think startup developers do any of these (except maybe design) :)