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The top 1% of SWEs in any FAANG are world-class engineers and are unique. I'm talking about the John Carmack's of the world who are top of their field. The top
by blindriver 4y ago
The top 1% of SWEs in any FAANG are world-class engineers and are unique. I'm talking about the John Carmack's of the world who are top of their field.
The top 10% at FAANGs are game changers, and having them in any company would probably accelerate them. I've worked with some really extra ordinary, high-output engineers that were brilliant.
The rest of the 89% are very, very ordinary. I'm at a FAANG and the vast majority are exactly like every other SWE I've worked with in my career. There's nothing special about them. I'm currently working with some of the laziest, dumbest SWEs in my career despite their employment at a FAANG.
So to those that think FAANG is some badge of honor, don't believe the hype, I don't think FAANG employment is a meaningful signal at all.
- monksy 4y ago> The top 1% of SWEs in any FAANG are world-class engineers and are unique. I'm talking about the John Carmack's of the world who are top of their field. How are Carmack's SRE/Devops skills?
- ornornor 4y agoHow are SRE/DevOps skill the measure of a world class software engineer? How good is Vint Serf at SRE/DevOps?
- Stratoscope 4y agoVint Cerf, but point well taken.
- monksy 4y agoMy point is that employers (esp Google/Facebook/Amazon) try to consolidate roles. The term "Full stack developer" encompasses a lot. That's a "10x"/rockstar dev. Carmack or Cerf probably would not make it through the levelling at Google. They are at a Distingushed engineer level.
- blindriver 4y agoHiring John Carmack to run your SRE team is like buying a Ferrari to only go shopping at Safeway with.
- wonderingyogi 4y ago> So to those that think FAANG is some badge of honor, don't believe the hype, I don't think FAANG employment is a meaningful signal at all. I honestly think FAANG employees sank their own boat. The constant bragging of how little work the do in a week on anonymous forums, and the "day in the life" videos that show everything but work. Despite their bragging about being 10x, I don't see any proof of it. The 1% of SWE though are very good (especially older employees with years of experience e.g. Rob Pike). The rest of the 89%, as you say, are mediocre at best. A Google employee in 2010 is not the same as a Google employee in 2020.
- andromeduck 4y agoThe 1% who brag are rarely SWEs IME - usually PMs and admins and the SWEs who do rarely do it for long generaly just a lull between projects or during research phase or just recovering from burnout. There's a lot of very bursty types here though - people who don't do much for a few weeks at a time then drop something massive in a marathon or something.
- BirdieNZ 4y agoIsn't an 11% chance to be hiring a really good to incredible employee good signal? I don't think you can have the same chance when hiring from most small companies, not based on company reputation alone.
- shagie 4y agoThat assumes that the 11% are on the job market at all. You're unlikely to see a resume of a distinguished engineer from Google cross your stack of resumes. For a bit of a blast from the past: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/09/06/finding-great-developers-2/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/09/06/finding-great-deve...