5 ms·

Is there a company that pays well and has a reasonable work life balance where that's not the case? Asking for a friend.

andrew_ 4y ago
They don't pay like Google (most of the time, I hear ML is wild with salaries) but smaller startups under 20 people have, in my experience, excellent pay with excellent work life balance.
- roflyear 4y ago
  ML as in Machine Learning...?
  - andrew_ 4y ago
    Indeed
- adave 4y ago
  Under 20 people you are half a department, if pay is high dont think there would be wlb. Most of these want you onsite almost everyday even though they might say its hybrid.
  - anony23 4y ago
    I think remote work suits small companies best. There are not too many cooks in the kitchen, and meetings aren't overly crowded. That's to say... my experience does not align with your comment, but maybe I'm just lucky.
  - andrew_ 4y ago
    That isn't even remotely a universal truth. I've been working remote for 14 years and of the companies I've worked for in that time, 2 were hybrid and the rest fully distributed.
oofbey 4y ago
Amazon's pretty reasonable really most of the time. Certain teams work people like dogs, and junior engineers are too-often treated like shit. But if you're Sr. SDE or higher, it's usually quite reasonable.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- adave 4y ago
  Yeah they are reasonable until you come under the layoff quote and you manager cannot defend your work.
dominotw 4y ago
shopify
- a_bonobo 4y ago
  I wouldn't work for Shopify for ethical reasons. They continue to help far-right sites like Breitbart or Daily Wire make their money. Quote: https://twitter.com/gvwilson/status/1552090373283090432 https://twitter.com/gvwilson/status/1552090373283090432 >Reminder: every single one of the sources cited by the neo-Nazi responsible for the Christchurch massacre had a store on @Shopify, and the company refused to deplatform any of them.
  - prottog 4y ago
    I'm glad Shopify isn't deplatforming entities that haven't been convicted in a court of law of a crime. The tweet you linked to is doubly funny, since it was in response to Dan Price, who is under investigation for rape and physical abuse. Should Gravity Payments deplatform itself in today's guilt-by-association world?
    - a_bonobo 4y ago
      You shouldn't base your ethics on what the law is - lots of unethical things are or were legal.
      - nervlord 4y ago
    - TomSwirly 4y ago
      "Not convicted" is not the gold standard of ethics, you know.
    - kjeetgill 4y ago
      I think in this case OP isn't referring to a criminal act nor are they speculating to the possible guilt of a crime so of course there's no need for a a court of law to determine the facts. Presuming t the facts that OP has concerns about are undisputed they're not alleging a crimes. But crimes have never needed to be the basis for boycotting something. Moral opposite has always been sufficient.
woodruffw 4y ago
There are plenty of small-to-medium sized companies that will pay well (albeit not FAANG well). I work for one. HN has a very strange employment bubble: there's an extreme distribution towards FAANG-tier companies, a decently sized tail for startups, and then virtually no representation of the places where 90% of people are actually doing software research and engineering: consultancies, contractors, teams within non-software companies, and so forth. Not all of them are well playing (and some are downright terrible), but plenty are.
- snoopy_telex 4y ago
  I'm looking to make the jump from FAANG to exactly what you're describing. How do I find one? They don't seem to be easily found on LinkedIn or hacker news jobs boards.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    Yeah, they're definitely harder to discover. I think the first step is probably identifying what exactly you'd like to do: smaller companies generally mean specialized roles (even if the engineers are themselves generalists). From that, there are probably local meetups and conferences in your area that are hosted or attended by smaller companies, consultancies, etc.
  - davidgerard 4y ago
    Work in a tech role at a non-tech company. You get, like working conditions.
- GianFabien 4y ago
  The 90% you refer to do not have time to browse HN at work. By the time they get home, they have more urgent things to do. Like cook, eat, wash-up, sleep, etc.
mission_failed 4y ago
I moved from a financial software company to a government railway. 40% pay increase, heavily unionised, no expectations of working beyond paid hours, serious policies on bullying and harassment. One of the better parts is that because everything is a safety first mindset and engineering takes months to years to plan and implement projects, it severely limits the ability of managers from blowing up in progress projects with dumb ideas on the latest fad they saw in a tedtalk.

andrew_ 4y ago

They don't pay like Google (most of the time, I hear ML is wild with salaries) but smaller startups under 20 people have, in my experience, excellent pay with excellent work life balance.

roflyear 4y ago
ML as in Machine Learning...?
- andrew_ 4y ago
  Indeed
adave 4y ago
Under 20 people you are half a department, if pay is high dont think there would be wlb. Most of these want you onsite almost everyday even though they might say its hybrid.
- anony23 4y ago
  I think remote work suits small companies best. There are not too many cooks in the kitchen, and meetings aren't overly crowded. That's to say... my experience does not align with your comment, but maybe I'm just lucky.
- andrew_ 4y ago
  That isn't even remotely a universal truth. I've been working remote for 14 years and of the companies I've worked for in that time, 2 were hybrid and the rest fully distributed.

oofbey 4y ago

Amazon's pretty reasonable really most of the time. Certain teams work people like dogs, and junior engineers are too-often treated like shit. But if you're Sr. SDE or higher, it's usually quite reasonable.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
adave 4y ago
Yeah they are reasonable until you come under the layoff quote and you manager cannot defend your work.

dominotw 4y ago

shopify

a_bonobo 4y ago
I wouldn't work for Shopify for ethical reasons. They continue to help far-right sites like Breitbart or Daily Wire make their money. Quote: https://twitter.com/gvwilson/status/1552090373283090432 https://twitter.com/gvwilson/status/1552090373283090432 >Reminder: every single one of the sources cited by the neo-Nazi responsible for the Christchurch massacre had a store on @Shopify, and the company refused to deplatform any of them.
- prottog 4y ago
  I'm glad Shopify isn't deplatforming entities that haven't been convicted in a court of law of a crime. The tweet you linked to is doubly funny, since it was in response to Dan Price, who is under investigation for rape and physical abuse. Should Gravity Payments deplatform itself in today's guilt-by-association world?
  - a_bonobo 4y ago
    You shouldn't base your ethics on what the law is - lots of unethical things are or were legal.
    - nervlord 4y ago
  - TomSwirly 4y ago
    "Not convicted" is not the gold standard of ethics, you know.
  - kjeetgill 4y ago
    I think in this case OP isn't referring to a criminal act nor are they speculating to the possible guilt of a crime so of course there's no need for a a court of law to determine the facts. Presuming t the facts that OP has concerns about are undisputed they're not alleging a crimes. But crimes have never needed to be the basis for boycotting something. Moral opposite has always been sufficient.

woodruffw 4y ago

There are plenty of small-to-medium sized companies that will pay well (albeit not FAANG well). I work for one. HN has a very strange employment bubble: there's an extreme distribution towards FAANG-tier companies, a decently sized tail for startups, and then virtually no representation of the places where 90% of people are actually doing software research and engineering: consultancies, contractors, teams within non-software companies, and so forth. Not all of them are well playing (and some are downright terrible), but plenty are.

snoopy_telex 4y ago
I'm looking to make the jump from FAANG to exactly what you're describing. How do I find one? They don't seem to be easily found on LinkedIn or hacker news jobs boards.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  Yeah, they're definitely harder to discover. I think the first step is probably identifying what exactly you'd like to do: smaller companies generally mean specialized roles (even if the engineers are themselves generalists). From that, there are probably local meetups and conferences in your area that are hosted or attended by smaller companies, consultancies, etc.
- davidgerard 4y ago
  Work in a tech role at a non-tech company. You get, like working conditions.
GianFabien 4y ago
The 90% you refer to do not have time to browse HN at work. By the time they get home, they have more urgent things to do. Like cook, eat, wash-up, sleep, etc.

mission_failed 4y ago

I moved from a financial software company to a government railway. 40% pay increase, heavily unionised, no expectations of working beyond paid hours, serious policies on bullying and harassment. One of the better parts is that because everything is a safety first mindset and engineering takes months to years to plan and implement projects, it severely limits the ability of managers from blowing up in progress projects with dumb ideas on the latest fad they saw in a tedtalk.