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I’ve worked at 3-4 small companies (less than 30 employees) and I’ve never been happy. There is always 1 person that makes my life miserable (constantly rejecti

by itake 4y ago

I’ve worked at 3-4 small companies (less than 30 employees) and I’ve never been happy. There is always 1 person that makes my life miserable (constantly rejecting my ideas, ego is larger than their experience level, etc). I’ve worked at a 100, and two 1,000 engineer count companies and I never met any “coding princesses” in those roles. I think part of the problem that triggers this is in small companies, one engineer codes, a significant portion of the code base and has a strict vision in their mind about how that code should be structured. When new employees come in to bring new ideas, they become personally offended that their baby is no longer their baby. At large companies no one feels like they own 100% of the code, and each change is very collaborative.

electrondood 4y ago
200-400 is the sweet spot, I've found.
davidw 4y ago
Yeah I could see that. The place in question where I worked was developing some new products, so we didn't have that kind of situation where someone was gatekeeping or otherwise being unpleasant.
slaymaker1907 4y ago
Oh, I've definitely met princesses at large companies, though you are spot on about the ownership issues. The problem really isn't the size of the company but how siloed the code is.
- itake 4y ago
  Yeah, one of the 1000-person companies had a dev whole-own a critical microservice. Changing it was always a battle, because the owner was very critical of anyone touching 'his' service. Large companies aren't immune, but due to eng specs and collaboration baked into development, its less likely for this to happen.
  - theamk 4y ago
    It looks management was a problem too, as "wholly owned" is a double-edged sword, especially if it's a microservice. Make sure you have solid metrics on your side to record problems with that microservice, document any delays caused my missing features, and eventually even non-technical management should get your point and start to apply pressure.
    - itake 4y ago
      Problems were resolved and everyone was professional, but there certainly was more friction than necessary. Usually management doesn't want to participate in these discussions, because they are more careful about retention (and stepping on toes). 1 engineer quitting is a 10% reduction in their workforce.
jonas21 4y ago
> At large companies no one feels like they own 100% of the code, and each change is very collaborative. That's how you end up with endless process, design by committee, and having a dozen meetings with all "stakeholders" before actually writing any code. I'd much rather work at a place where individuals or small groups have a strong vision on the code and product and are capable on executing independently on that. It sounds like the OP would too. But I understand it's a personal preference.
- davidw 4y ago
  I read something about how a lot of 'super group' bands kind of don't do anything truly great because of this type of dynamic. They all know they're good, they know the others are good, and they all have a bit of an ego and don't want to stomp on the others, so they all tend to "go along with it" without getting too pushy. That leads to good, but not great music.
  - rintakumpu 4y ago
    Definitely. Though there are exceptions. Led Zeppelin comes to mind first.
    - davidw 4y ago
      I think part of the idea was that in an actual band that has been a band for a while, they usually find a way of working together that includes "difficult conversations" and saying no, and sometimes listening to one person's vision rather than tiptoeing around egos.
      - RHSman2 4y ago
        This is the long term way to greatness. In companies and life.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - 4y ago
madeofpalk 4y ago
> I’ve worked at 3-4 small companies (less than 30 employees) What I vastly prefer is the 500-ish size. You can realistically at least know of every other developer (and find those you prefer working with and can learn with), there's more resources than just a 30 person company, and you're just not a tiny insignificant cog in the machine at a 100k mega corp.
- roland35 4y ago
  It really depends what team you're on! My little corner of megacorp is fast, pretty lean, and I definitely feel like I am able to make an impact on our product (which is a smaller product in the company). I feel much better here than at some of the mid size companies where I felt there was a low ceiling on growth opportunities.
ricardobayes 4y ago
Are you ideas normally implementable in the next month or something far-fetched? Try to come up with ideas that are low hanging fruits, easy to do but have a high value. I don't think any company/management in their right mind would constantly reject "good" ideas that ultimately result in more revenue. The ideas I see being rejected are either too far out there or some "dev utopia"-kind of ideas that don't bring in more cash, just burn effort.
- ornornor 4y ago
  > I don't think any company/management in their right mind would constantly reject "good" ideas that ultimately result in more revenue. We must have worked at very different places.
- itake 4y ago
  The problem is there are many ways to implement a feature. Often one isn't objectively better or worse than the other (but subjectively it is). Everyone wants the problem solved, but how the problem is solved leads to frustration.
- krageon 4y ago
  > I don't think any company/management in their right mind would constantly reject "good" ideas that ultimately result in more revenue. This happens extremely frequently and is in fact entirely normal.

by itake 4y ago

electrondood 4y ago

200-400 is the sweet spot, I've found.

davidw 4y ago

Yeah I could see that. The place in question where I worked was developing some new products, so we didn't have that kind of situation where someone was gatekeeping or otherwise being unpleasant.

slaymaker1907 4y ago

Oh, I've definitely met princesses at large companies, though you are spot on about the ownership issues. The problem really isn't the size of the company but how siloed the code is.

itake 4y ago
Yeah, one of the 1000-person companies had a dev whole-own a critical microservice. Changing it was always a battle, because the owner was very critical of anyone touching 'his' service. Large companies aren't immune, but due to eng specs and collaboration baked into development, its less likely for this to happen.
- theamk 4y ago
  It looks management was a problem too, as "wholly owned" is a double-edged sword, especially if it's a microservice. Make sure you have solid metrics on your side to record problems with that microservice, document any delays caused my missing features, and eventually even non-technical management should get your point and start to apply pressure.
  - itake 4y ago
    Problems were resolved and everyone was professional, but there certainly was more friction than necessary. Usually management doesn't want to participate in these discussions, because they are more careful about retention (and stepping on toes). 1 engineer quitting is a 10% reduction in their workforce.

jonas21 4y ago

> At large companies no one feels like they own 100% of the code, and each change is very collaborative. That's how you end up with endless process, design by committee, and having a dozen meetings with all "stakeholders" before actually writing any code. I'd much rather work at a place where individuals or small groups have a strong vision on the code and product and are capable on executing independently on that. It sounds like the OP would too. But I understand it's a personal preference.

davidw 4y ago
I read something about how a lot of 'super group' bands kind of don't do anything truly great because of this type of dynamic. They all know they're good, they know the others are good, and they all have a bit of an ego and don't want to stomp on the others, so they all tend to "go along with it" without getting too pushy. That leads to good, but not great music.
- rintakumpu 4y ago
  Definitely. Though there are exceptions. Led Zeppelin comes to mind first.
  - davidw 4y ago
    I think part of the idea was that in an actual band that has been a band for a while, they usually find a way of working together that includes "difficult conversations" and saying no, and sometimes listening to one person's vision rather than tiptoeing around egos.
    - RHSman2 4y ago
      This is the long term way to greatness. In companies and life.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- 4y ago

madeofpalk 4y ago

> I’ve worked at 3-4 small companies (less than 30 employees) What I vastly prefer is the 500-ish size. You can realistically at least know of every other developer (and find those you prefer working with and can learn with), there's more resources than just a 30 person company, and you're just not a tiny insignificant cog in the machine at a 100k mega corp.

roland35 4y ago
It really depends what team you're on! My little corner of megacorp is fast, pretty lean, and I definitely feel like I am able to make an impact on our product (which is a smaller product in the company). I feel much better here than at some of the mid size companies where I felt there was a low ceiling on growth opportunities.

ricardobayes 4y ago

Are you ideas normally implementable in the next month or something far-fetched? Try to come up with ideas that are low hanging fruits, easy to do but have a high value. I don't think any company/management in their right mind would constantly reject "good" ideas that ultimately result in more revenue. The ideas I see being rejected are either too far out there or some "dev utopia"-kind of ideas that don't bring in more cash, just burn effort.

ornornor 4y ago
> I don't think any company/management in their right mind would constantly reject "good" ideas that ultimately result in more revenue. We must have worked at very different places.
itake 4y ago
The problem is there are many ways to implement a feature. Often one isn't objectively better or worse than the other (but subjectively it is). Everyone wants the problem solved, but how the problem is solved leads to frustration.
krageon 4y ago
> I don't think any company/management in their right mind would constantly reject "good" ideas that ultimately result in more revenue. This happens extremely frequently and is in fact entirely normal.