Outside of the startup bubble, this is how 90% of software engineering jobs work. If I had a dime for every product I worked on that I didn't go on to use, I wo

Outside of the startup bubble, this is how 90% of software engineering jobs work. If I had a dime for every product I worked on that I didn't go on to use, I would have one dime for every place I've worked at. Honestly, your gripes with Meta and Google sound like they could be fixed by cleaning out management and making them engineering-led again. All of these companies hire plenty of talent, but your issue seems to be that they're applying it to useless walled-garden products. It is indeed a problem, but only regulation and worsening market conditions can compel them to stop; engineers don't call all the shots in any of these businesses. > Software engineers will be judged by the quality of product they produce. This hasn't felt true for as long as managers have run performance reviews.