3 ms·
Used to be a high performer at Big Tech. Found out a coworker with less experience at the same level had $200k/year more in comp. I didn’t care about the money,
by bevekspldnw 3y ago
Used to be a high performer at Big Tech. Found out a coworker with less experience at the same level had $200k/year more in comp. I didn’t care about the money, I care about being taken for a fool.
There were additional factors, but I left and started my own company within three months and nobody in my old team has anywhere close to my experience.
- mupuff1234 3y agoWas it the result of them getting lucky with timing the RSU grant or was it just their original offer?
- bevekspldnw 3y agoI got fucked on my offer. Something of a phyrric victory for HR - lost a high performer and gained a competitor over a rounding error in the budget.
- bmitc 3y agoNot only is it an example of the idiotic decision making processes that companies use that are not effective in the long run, it demonstrates how they are happy to pit employees against one another. It is awkward for a person to know that they make substantially more than coworkers. It forms a feeling of guilt and other negative feelings. But what are they supposed to do? Negotiate lower salaries when starting or after working for a while? And it's definitely frustrating knowing other coworkers with the same or less experience and responsibilities as you make a whole lot more. It forms feelings of jealousy, not feeling valued, self worth, and other negative feelings. And all of this is caused by the company simply not caring about actually employing and managing humans. And it's always been insane to me that companies will let an experienced person leave because they won't raise their salary and then immediately put out a job requisition at a salary that would have kept the experienced person. It makes no sense, and yet, this happens constantly.
- peteradio 3y agoThe social order is fundamentally nepotistic. Family/Tribe/Caste matters more than experience/performance within the managerial bubble. Keeping the actual workers down helps to keep them desperate to put food on the table, but you better perform well enough to float the non-workers. Deloitte/Wipro/Infosys/et.al know how to play this game very well to discourage anyone not in the tribe from advancing.
- ironmanszombie 3y agoYep. It's not the clueless HR but systematic. I have yet to read anything specific about why this happens and the benefits of it.
- bmitc 3y agoOne of the reasons I have realized is that it's sometimes about control. A manager (people, project, product) will not have as much control over an experienced employee who has potentially been at the company a long time or just has a lot of experience in general in terms of getting what they want from the employee, despite the employee having the business' best interest in mind. So it's an implicit attrition that seems to sometimes be desired.
- bevekspldnw 3y agoShhhh…never mention caste in SV.
- fakedang 3y agoHonestly is it company culture, or is it just clueless HR teams who can't hire for shit? I'm not complaining though, stupid HR and hiring policies are the reason we're consistently getting some really good people from FAANG to join our tiny firm.
- JohnFen 3y ago> It is awkward This is why I don't discuss my salary, nor do I want to know what my coworkers make. It's not information that is terribly useful, but can make for very awkward situations. I do want to know whether or not I'm making a salary that is in line with the norms in my area, but I can easily find that information without knowing what any individual is making.
- shaneoh 3y agoMore curious about your story of starting your own company on a near-whim! I've been grinding out trying to do the same over a year or so without any traction at all and I'm finding myself almost back at Square 1 without any more solid ideas.
- technotony 3y agoDalton and Michael talk about folks pivoting too much and not fully learning/validating from each pivot in this recent video. Obviously I don't know anything about what you've been doing but perhaps there's some wisdom here: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/when-to-pivot-and-when-to-stick-with-it https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/when-to-pivot-and-when-to-s...
- pryelluw 3y agoThis just tells me you’re not well versed in sales and marketing. Learn those first (specially direct response) and the other pieces will glide into place with less effort.
- atrus 3y agoWhat are some good resources to learn this?
- mandmandam 3y agoI'm interested in developing in this area as well, but I can say for sure that "The Mom Test" is basically an essential read.
- soogwoog 3y agoUnfortunately, experience. A good dose of people skills help, but you need to know what makes real money move and get contacts in your area. Find someone who has succeeded in your area, and try to get into those circles.
- bevekspldnw 3y agoI’ve been working at the forefront of my speciality for many years. It doesn’t really matter where I am, I’m always working on solving the same challenges. Jobs and stuff are an annoying necessity, the business is really just a thing I had to build to keep working on my primary tasks. A lot of what looks like success on the outside is really just stubborn focus on a hard problem across many years. So I’ve had many prestigious jobs and titles, but it’s all just to allow me to do what I want.
- matheusmoreira 3y ago> I didn’t care about the money, I care about being taken for a fool. Truly one of the worst feelings there is... But I sure would have cared a lot about the 200kUSD/year too.
- bevekspldnw 3y agoThe money from big tech is dirty money, ironically the more one piles up the less they are aware of the stench.
- space_oddity 3y agoYou turned challenges into opportunities for growth!
- bevekspldnw 3y agoAlways. :-)
- mv4 3y agoHow did you find out?