4 ms·

I say Yes. This represents an attractive opportunity to get in on an artificial ground floor of a large business who’s demise is (very) likely overhyped.

by whall6 4y ago

_jcrossley 4y ago
Interesting. I still firmly wouldn't work there, but you have a point
echelon 4y ago
What's the comp? Is it a typical FAANG range? Do you get a lot of stock options for a hypothetical future (re-)IPO? If there aren't outsized benefits, then the only compelling reasons left are that you either really love the product or the leadership against the opportunity cost of all other jobs. The work culture is admittedly "sleep under the desk" intense. Typical startup vibes, and it's unclear at this point with what autonomy/product ownership that comes with. Taking this job either needs to come from a place of really loving what you do or being compensated extremely well.
- ne0flex 4y ago
  I'm wondering what the value of having "Twitter" on your resume when job searching will have. After all the press on this, I'm wondering if potential employers would look favorably as you being "resilient" or capable of handling high stress situations if you choose to stay for another 2 years or so.
- Karrot_Kream 4y ago
  Quickly changing corporate situations offer huge growth opportunities to folks who otherwise would be stuck grinding away at the corporate ladder. Instead of being stuck on a team managing a button in some flow, you might end up navigating into a team that works on core caching, or something else you've been interested in but never had the opportunity to work on. Some folks will be willing to take a slight pay cut if they can leverage it for huge future career growth. That's a big If though, with the way the optics around Musk's situation is right now.
memish 4y ago
That's how I see it too. It'd be fun and it's a high alpha opportunity. It's like a startup that already has network effects.
epistasis 4y ago
In what sense do you mean "ground floor"? Financially this can't be true, due to massive debt financing of a ridiculous overvaluation. Technologically and careee skill wise doesn't make much sense either. I agree that the demise is overhyped, which is also why there's not really much of a ground floor, it's falling from heights down to the ground, or already high.
andrewstuart2 4y ago
At another point in my life I would have said yes. I think I agree with this assessment of the company vs perception overall, but at this point in my life/career I would rather that if I'm going to be working 12+ hours a day to push products out, that I would be on more even footing as a cofounder or super early employee than a Musk vision factory that's just reimagining a 15 year old product.
rtp4me 4y ago
...agreed. Contrary to the HN bias, it might be interesting to work for a high energy/high demand place. After you rebuild the staff with people who have not been involved in the recent leadership change, it could turn out to be a fantastic place to work with engineering folks focused on a singular mission. Who knows, but it's worth a shot. That said, not sure how long I might last :-)
- slipheen 4y ago
  I've worked at a lot of startups, and I love that energy. But part of what I enjoy about it is that I can make a make a real difference in building something new and setting direction, and the sense that all of us are in this together. That's a totally different vibe than when I'm doing maintenance on a 15 year old codebase, with a billionaire second guessing everything I do
  - rtp4me 4y ago
    Appreciate the point of view, but I am a systems/infra engineer - not coder. It would be pretty cool to learn how Twitter keeps its infrastructure running all the time. Even though I have been doing my speciality for a long time, I would certainly like to see how others run infrastructure at scale.

I say Yes. This represents an attractive opportunity to get in on an artificial ground floor of a large business who’s demise is (very) likely overhyped.

by whall6 4y ago

I say Yes. This represents an attractive opportunity to get in on an artificial ground floor of a large business who’s demise is (very) likely overhyped.

_jcrossley 4y ago

Interesting. I still firmly wouldn't work there, but you have a point

echelon 4y ago

What's the comp? Is it a typical FAANG range? Do you get a lot of stock options for a hypothetical future (re-)IPO? If there aren't outsized benefits, then the only compelling reasons left are that you either really love the product or the leadership against the opportunity cost of all other jobs. The work culture is admittedly "sleep under the desk" intense. Typical startup vibes, and it's unclear at this point with what autonomy/product ownership that comes with. Taking this job either needs to come from a place of really loving what you do or being compensated extremely well.

ne0flex 4y ago
I'm wondering what the value of having "Twitter" on your resume when job searching will have. After all the press on this, I'm wondering if potential employers would look favorably as you being "resilient" or capable of handling high stress situations if you choose to stay for another 2 years or so.
Karrot_Kream 4y ago
Quickly changing corporate situations offer huge growth opportunities to folks who otherwise would be stuck grinding away at the corporate ladder. Instead of being stuck on a team managing a button in some flow, you might end up navigating into a team that works on core caching, or something else you've been interested in but never had the opportunity to work on. Some folks will be willing to take a slight pay cut if they can leverage it for huge future career growth. That's a big If though, with the way the optics around Musk's situation is right now.

memish 4y ago

That's how I see it too. It'd be fun and it's a high alpha opportunity. It's like a startup that already has network effects.

epistasis 4y ago

In what sense do you mean "ground floor"? Financially this can't be true, due to massive debt financing of a ridiculous overvaluation. Technologically and careee skill wise doesn't make much sense either. I agree that the demise is overhyped, which is also why there's not really much of a ground floor, it's falling from heights down to the ground, or already high.

andrewstuart2 4y ago

At another point in my life I would have said yes. I think I agree with this assessment of the company vs perception overall, but at this point in my life/career I would rather that if I'm going to be working 12+ hours a day to push products out, that I would be on more even footing as a cofounder or super early employee than a Musk vision factory that's just reimagining a 15 year old product.

rtp4me 4y ago

...agreed. Contrary to the HN bias, it might be interesting to work for a high energy/high demand place. After you rebuild the staff with people who have not been involved in the recent leadership change, it could turn out to be a fantastic place to work with engineering folks focused on a singular mission. Who knows, but it's worth a shot. That said, not sure how long I might last :-)

slipheen 4y ago
I've worked at a lot of startups, and I love that energy. But part of what I enjoy about it is that I can make a make a real difference in building something new and setting direction, and the sense that all of us are in this together. That's a totally different vibe than when I'm doing maintenance on a 15 year old codebase, with a billionaire second guessing everything I do
- rtp4me 4y ago
  Appreciate the point of view, but I am a systems/infra engineer - not coder. It would be pretty cool to learn how Twitter keeps its infrastructure running all the time. Even though I have been doing my speciality for a long time, I would certainly like to see how others run infrastructure at scale.