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Google (at least circa 2014 when I graduated) has slowly taken on the image of a “retirement home” (i.e. where you go to turn your brain off and clock in to get

by omeze 4y ago

Google (at least circa 2014 when I graduated) has slowly taken on the image of a “retirement home” (i.e. where you go to turn your brain off and clock in to get paid) in elite STEM undergrad programs. Oracle had solidified their spot, but at least at Google it used to be easy to find interesting teams if you knew people there to navigate the team matching process. Now it’s decline is in full swing, its sad but seems inevitable for behemoths of human capital.

naikrovek 4y ago
once you're a publicly traded company for a while, the company will always eventually go down this spiral. completely independent of success, the company will go from a great place to work to a soulless corporate machine, and it is ALWAYS the people who are in charge of the money who cause this. every freaking time it is the love of profit over nearly all else and the fear of wasting money in any way which are responsible for this.
- chmod600 4y ago
  Can you explain more? I would have guessed any great collection of people is bound to slowly unravel for all kinds of reasons. Why would you place so much of the blame on money people?
  - goalieca 4y ago
    Either you’re growing or finding efficiencies.
    - tapatio 4y ago
      So true!!!
gedy 4y ago
No connection to Google, but I'd be cautious about ageism in this type of thinking. Been at places before where young guys mostly burn themselves into the ground "working hard" coding all sorts of stuff that really didn't matter, or sacrificing their personal time and life for code. The older guys were considered "unmotivated" because they didn't overwork when they knew it wouldn't matter.
- omeze 4y ago
  Yes, didnt mean to be ageist. Its a mindset thing- 22 y/os would go to Oracle knowing they could clock in 25 hours a week. I’ve worked with 40+ y/o engineers who still show up fresh everyday and work a standard 40 hours, but were efficient, great teammates and leaders.
- _nalply 4y ago
  Playing the devil's advocate: How would the older guys know that their work didn't matter? My personal experience: 2001 I got assigned to an internal project to keep me busy. When planning and getting feedback from the internal stakeholders I realized that they weren't interested in the project. I slacked off, because there was nothing else to do. I got laid off six months later.
  - gedy 4y ago
    I guess I was referring to more optional type work like inventing their own frameworks and abstractions, refactors for code style, major rework of some in-house blob of code that could easily be done with an off the shelf library, etc.
xyst 4y ago
you described the work environment at pretty much any Fortune 500 company (tech or not)
- omeze 4y ago
  Sure, but timing matters. Google circa 2008 was (from what I hear) still amazing despite being public.
tennisflyi 4y ago
Easily product life-cycle management from marketing, i.e., introduction > growth > maturity > decline.

by omeze 4y ago

naikrovek 4y ago

once you're a publicly traded company for a while, the company will always eventually go down this spiral. completely independent of success, the company will go from a great place to work to a soulless corporate machine, and it is ALWAYS the people who are in charge of the money who cause this. every freaking time it is the love of profit over nearly all else and the fear of wasting money in any way which are responsible for this.

chmod600 4y ago
Can you explain more? I would have guessed any great collection of people is bound to slowly unravel for all kinds of reasons. Why would you place so much of the blame on money people?
- goalieca 4y ago
  Either you’re growing or finding efficiencies.
  - tapatio 4y ago
    So true!!!

gedy 4y ago

No connection to Google, but I'd be cautious about ageism in this type of thinking. Been at places before where young guys mostly burn themselves into the ground "working hard" coding all sorts of stuff that really didn't matter, or sacrificing their personal time and life for code. The older guys were considered "unmotivated" because they didn't overwork when they knew it wouldn't matter.

omeze 4y ago
Yes, didnt mean to be ageist. Its a mindset thing- 22 y/os would go to Oracle knowing they could clock in 25 hours a week. I’ve worked with 40+ y/o engineers who still show up fresh everyday and work a standard 40 hours, but were efficient, great teammates and leaders.
_nalply 4y ago
Playing the devil's advocate: How would the older guys know that their work didn't matter? My personal experience: 2001 I got assigned to an internal project to keep me busy. When planning and getting feedback from the internal stakeholders I realized that they weren't interested in the project. I slacked off, because there was nothing else to do. I got laid off six months later.
- gedy 4y ago
  I guess I was referring to more optional type work like inventing their own frameworks and abstractions, refactors for code style, major rework of some in-house blob of code that could easily be done with an off the shelf library, etc.

xyst 4y ago

you described the work environment at pretty much any Fortune 500 company (tech or not)

omeze 4y ago
Sure, but timing matters. Google circa 2008 was (from what I hear) still amazing despite being public.

tennisflyi 4y ago

Easily product life-cycle management from marketing, i.e., introduction > growth > maturity > decline.