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No one gets promoted for maintaining the timer widget on Google search. One of the most successful engineers I know in big tech told me this once - “thewarrio

No one gets promoted for maintaining the timer widget on Google search. One of the most successful engineers I know in big tech told me this once - “thewarrior you need to understand. In these companies everything happens mainly for one reason - does it get someone promoted or not ?” I’ll wait to see if this was an accident or not. But I suspect there are systems in place to prevent changes like these from being shipped by accident. This is one of those tragedy of the commons situations that has bedeviled the industry. Every org , team , project and task is a pawn in an elaborate multiplayer game of promo chess. Career success is defined not only by technical excellence but also in how well you can align and deliver your projects within the chess game that is currently in play. Fail to learn this and you will burn out or be forced to quit. What this does to the companies in the long term remains to be seen.

bhawks 4y ago
The way you get promoted for maintaining the timer widget is to create some platform which drastically minimizes search features maintenance costs and tooling that largely automigrates legacy features onto it. Easy path to Google fellow if you can do it.
- thewarrior 4y ago
  Sometimes I feel there are more platforms than products.
  - bhawks 4y ago
    The best platforms are those that build a single product. Then we can argue for days about whether it's the platform teams responsibility to do X or the product engineering teams responsibility. In close second are the platforms that are used for a fraction of a product and will never be wholely migrated onto because they are not fit for purpose. Third place goes to the platforms that never actually have any product built on top of them - a theme so exciting people love recreating it at there own workplace. We're all just temporarily embarrassed Linus Torvalds that want the world to build on our apis.
rootsudo 4y ago
"Every org , team , project and task is a pawn in an elaborate multiplayer game of promo chess. Career success is defined not only by technical excellence but also in how well you can align and deliver your projects within the chess game that is currently in play. Fail to learn this and you will burn out or be forced to quit." I guess so. I can relate to this 100%. So I guess so. Hate that it is like this, but it is 100% correct.
vbezhenar 4y ago
Why don't just work on current position? I'm working as a programmer for 15 years and I'm trying my best to evade any kinds of promotions because my salary suits me and additional responsibilities will detract me from writing code. Those people who don't get promoted are fired?
- thewarrior 4y ago
  It’s a very cultural thing. If you’re very experienced and still “only” a senior engineer you can almost sense people wondering “Why are you still here ?” Rachel Kroll explains it well here https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2018/12/29/age/ https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2018/12/29/age/ “ This particular example was about older folks in tech. As I remember it, the story goes like this: you're supposed to get into this business, get your money, and get out, meaning retire. You sell all your stuff and travel the world and write posts on Medium. You know, the whole pyramid thing, right? Therefore, if you are still here, and are visibly old, something must be going on. They seem to boil it down to two things. The first possibility is that the person is a badass. They are one of those people who already made their fortune and only hangs around at the job because they feel like it. They don't have to be there. The other possibility is that the person is the exact opposite of a badass, and has managed to not cash out despite being in the biz for a very long time. They've made no money, may be living paycheck to paycheck, and really need the job. Basically, the fact they're not "at the top" despite their age means they are crap.”
  - paganel 4y ago
    I think this must be a relatively “new-ish” thing. When I got into this industry, in the middle 2000s, there was still the image of the “old beard” inside the company that was getting things actually done, and that was fine, one needn’t be a “director of” or a VP, just “programmer” was enough. I now realize that worldview was on its last days, soon enough (I’d say 2007-2008) we started talking about “ninja” and “rockstar” programmers, first in the context of RoR but then it extended, gradually but surely, to almost all of the industry. And then lots and lots of money started becoming available via FAANG-like companies (I’d say starting around 2013-2014, something like that) and all this worldview was dialed up to one thousand.

bhawks 4y ago

The way you get promoted for maintaining the timer widget is to create some platform which drastically minimizes search features maintenance costs and tooling that largely automigrates legacy features onto it. Easy path to Google fellow if you can do it.

thewarrior 4y ago
Sometimes I feel there are more platforms than products.
- bhawks 4y ago
  The best platforms are those that build a single product. Then we can argue for days about whether it's the platform teams responsibility to do X or the product engineering teams responsibility. In close second are the platforms that are used for a fraction of a product and will never be wholely migrated onto because they are not fit for purpose. Third place goes to the platforms that never actually have any product built on top of them - a theme so exciting people love recreating it at there own workplace. We're all just temporarily embarrassed Linus Torvalds that want the world to build on our apis.

rootsudo 4y ago

"Every org , team , project and task is a pawn in an elaborate multiplayer game of promo chess. Career success is defined not only by technical excellence but also in how well you can align and deliver your projects within the chess game that is currently in play. Fail to learn this and you will burn out or be forced to quit." I guess so. I can relate to this 100%. So I guess so. Hate that it is like this, but it is 100% correct.

vbezhenar 4y ago

Why don't just work on current position? I'm working as a programmer for 15 years and I'm trying my best to evade any kinds of promotions because my salary suits me and additional responsibilities will detract me from writing code. Those people who don't get promoted are fired?

thewarrior 4y ago
It’s a very cultural thing. If you’re very experienced and still “only” a senior engineer you can almost sense people wondering “Why are you still here ?” Rachel Kroll explains it well here https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2018/12/29/age/ https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2018/12/29/age/ “ This particular example was about older folks in tech. As I remember it, the story goes like this: you're supposed to get into this business, get your money, and get out, meaning retire. You sell all your stuff and travel the world and write posts on Medium. You know, the whole pyramid thing, right? Therefore, if you are still here, and are visibly old, something must be going on. They seem to boil it down to two things. The first possibility is that the person is a badass. They are one of those people who already made their fortune and only hangs around at the job because they feel like it. They don't have to be there. The other possibility is that the person is the exact opposite of a badass, and has managed to not cash out despite being in the biz for a very long time. They've made no money, may be living paycheck to paycheck, and really need the job. Basically, the fact they're not "at the top" despite their age means they are crap.”
- paganel 4y ago
  I think this must be a relatively “new-ish” thing. When I got into this industry, in the middle 2000s, there was still the image of the “old beard” inside the company that was getting things actually done, and that was fine, one needn’t be a “director of” or a VP, just “programmer” was enough. I now realize that worldview was on its last days, soon enough (I’d say 2007-2008) we started talking about “ninja” and “rockstar” programmers, first in the context of RoR but then it extended, gradually but surely, to almost all of the industry. And then lots and lots of money started becoming available via FAANG-like companies (I’d say starting around 2013-2014, something like that) and all this worldview was dialed up to one thousand.