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I think the author had unrealistic expectations from working at a large company. He expected doing something meaningful that will change the world. He expected

I think the author had unrealistic expectations from working at a large company. He expected doing something meaningful that will change the world. He expected to be applauded like a hero for his efforts. But things don't work like that. If you work your ass out, don't expect more than a pat on the back. Managers won't care about your efforts, your mental state or your sleepless nights. They care about looking good in front of their superiors. So it's better to do just that is expected for you, enough to get a good evaluation. If you come out with a brilliant idea that might help the company a lot don't just do it. Find some allies in the higher hierarchy, explain to them what is their advantage, do a POC or MVP, then let the top management know in a public meeting. That way you get a lot of credits and applause for doing great things for the company and fighting the good fight.

lmm 2y ago
The flip side of that is that if companies make "passion" a hiring criterion, they'll end up hiring people who care about making a difference, which may serve them poorly if the position doesn't actually fit that.
- Aeolun 2y ago
  Of course not. They got 4 years of fantastic work out of the guy before he burned out. That serves them just fine. The only requirement is that you have no morals.
  - stitched2gethr 2y ago
    I don't see it that way. He wanted to work there. They paid him for his time and from his account all of the passion was his own. I'm not speaking against those who just want to do what's required, but is it really wrong to hire someone who is passionate about the work?
    - Aeolun 2y ago
      Sorta, yeah. Working for a largeish enterprise I actively select against too much passion. Those people will come in, go WTF constantly for about half a year, spend another half year doing less and less, before eventually leaving for greener pastures. I mean, I get them, as I went through the same thing.
varispeed 2y ago
> a brilliant idea that might help the company a lot don't just do it. Never do it. It will never end up benefitting you, even if you find "allies" - who might even stab you in the back and take credit for the idea and then let you go once they get a promotion. If you have a brilliant idea, keep it to yourself, try to think of a way it could be used outside of the company and if it is strong enough start your own business based on the idea. Otherwise forget it. Never do more than you are asked to do.
- Aeolun 2y ago
  I mean, brilliant ideas can still be fun to work on. Who cares if you don’t get appropriately rewarded for saving the company $50k/month, it was time well spent. As opposed to working on that pointless crud thing your boss likes.
  - whstl 2y ago
    I'd say work on brilliant ideas if they're good for your resume. Yeah, I know this annoys the senior devs, but after 20 years on this grind I totally get why people do it.
  - margalabargala 2y ago
    I agree with you. But not everyone will. Some people have jobs to pay for their lives outside of work, and that's it. And that's fine. I take the stance of, the job I do for 8 hours 5 days a week might as well be something I actually enjoy doing above and beyond the financial incentive. Working on something I think is really neat is enjoyable, and I'm lucky to work in an industry doing things not so far from what I would spend my time doing anyway if I were retired.
  - varispeed 2y ago
    > Who cares if you don’t get appropriately rewarded for saving the company $50k/month, it was time well spent. If you are that great, it is much better to contribute to Open Source projects than to someone's already fat pockets.
ta_1138 2y ago
This story of his would have fir just fine in a much smaller Stripe, back when you could actually know everyone, and Patrick interviewed every programmer. A time where making a difference wasn't all that hard, as everyone fit in one cafeteria in the Mission. It was always a pretty competitive place, with a lot of smart people working a lot of hours, and a culture of attention to detail that left many people with impostor syndrome. There were pretty good expectations of being nice to each other: No infrastructure team giving your request the cold shoulder, because that was just not OK. So people working really hard and burning out to try to meet every growing expectations was common. The post also had the other weakness of the culture: A lot of management changes, along with a culture of performance among managers that would be fit for Amazon. So a manager might change teams, and the person that used to get exceed expectations would end up with a PIP with the next manager, often by surprise. You can imagine what it does to morale to tell someone how they are the most helpful person they've worked with, and then see them gone two weeks later. It was a great place to work in many ways, but the negative parts took their toll. So, if anything, the story showed me that even though it's been many years, a lot of Stripe is still recognizable.
d0gsg0w00f 2y ago
My big company strategy is to troll internal chats/forums for things that seem like interesting problems. Do something to fix them or make them suck a little less. Always be building solid, interesting things and make sure that if someone, for some reason finds them, that they would say "wow, this is cool, who made this?" Then I casually share links to those things in the right context. If I get a 10% hit rate then I'm happy. Do this all day every day between assigned projects 9-5 and you'd be amazed at the network you can build outside your own team. Keeps the options open for lateral movement.
- underdeserver 2y ago
  I tried that for a while. Makes some of your peers happier, but almost never gets you any credit. I'm not smart or quick enough to consistently do that and my job without it taking a toll, so it ends up not being worth it most of the time.
- tdeck 2y ago
  This reminds me of a side project that got me multiple peer bonuses from strangers at Google. At some point the company decided to switch software for the performance eval system, and decided that everyone would have to copy their past review manually, piece by piece, into all the form fields of the new tool. In the FAQ they said that people asked if they could do this automatically and it wasn't practical to automate this process. So I took a few hours one day and made a Chrome extension that did it for you. Wasn't hard to write. Saved people maybe 5 minutes. Some folks appreciated that so much they spent the 5 minutes nominating me for a peer bonus! I never really capitalized on that in any lasting way though.
  - d0gsg0w00f 2y ago
    Yeah, but you left an impression and if you had something you needed from their department you could reach out cold and get a warm welcome.
nkg 2y ago
a hundred percent.

lmm 2y ago

The flip side of that is that if companies make "passion" a hiring criterion, they'll end up hiring people who care about making a difference, which may serve them poorly if the position doesn't actually fit that.

Aeolun 2y ago
Of course not. They got 4 years of fantastic work out of the guy before he burned out. That serves them just fine. The only requirement is that you have no morals.
- stitched2gethr 2y ago
  I don't see it that way. He wanted to work there. They paid him for his time and from his account all of the passion was his own. I'm not speaking against those who just want to do what's required, but is it really wrong to hire someone who is passionate about the work?
  - Aeolun 2y ago
    Sorta, yeah. Working for a largeish enterprise I actively select against too much passion. Those people will come in, go WTF constantly for about half a year, spend another half year doing less and less, before eventually leaving for greener pastures. I mean, I get them, as I went through the same thing.

varispeed 2y ago

> a brilliant idea that might help the company a lot don't just do it. Never do it. It will never end up benefitting you, even if you find "allies" - who might even stab you in the back and take credit for the idea and then let you go once they get a promotion. If you have a brilliant idea, keep it to yourself, try to think of a way it could be used outside of the company and if it is strong enough start your own business based on the idea. Otherwise forget it. Never do more than you are asked to do.

Aeolun 2y ago
I mean, brilliant ideas can still be fun to work on. Who cares if you don’t get appropriately rewarded for saving the company $50k/month, it was time well spent. As opposed to working on that pointless crud thing your boss likes.
- whstl 2y ago
  I'd say work on brilliant ideas if they're good for your resume. Yeah, I know this annoys the senior devs, but after 20 years on this grind I totally get why people do it.
- margalabargala 2y ago
  I agree with you. But not everyone will. Some people have jobs to pay for their lives outside of work, and that's it. And that's fine. I take the stance of, the job I do for 8 hours 5 days a week might as well be something I actually enjoy doing above and beyond the financial incentive. Working on something I think is really neat is enjoyable, and I'm lucky to work in an industry doing things not so far from what I would spend my time doing anyway if I were retired.
- varispeed 2y ago
  > Who cares if you don’t get appropriately rewarded for saving the company $50k/month, it was time well spent. If you are that great, it is much better to contribute to Open Source projects than to someone's already fat pockets.

ta_1138 2y ago

This story of his would have fir just fine in a much smaller Stripe, back when you could actually know everyone, and Patrick interviewed every programmer. A time where making a difference wasn't all that hard, as everyone fit in one cafeteria in the Mission. It was always a pretty competitive place, with a lot of smart people working a lot of hours, and a culture of attention to detail that left many people with impostor syndrome. There were pretty good expectations of being nice to each other: No infrastructure team giving your request the cold shoulder, because that was just not OK. So people working really hard and burning out to try to meet every growing expectations was common. The post also had the other weakness of the culture: A lot of management changes, along with a culture of performance among managers that would be fit for Amazon. So a manager might change teams, and the person that used to get exceed expectations would end up with a PIP with the next manager, often by surprise. You can imagine what it does to morale to tell someone how they are the most helpful person they've worked with, and then see them gone two weeks later. It was a great place to work in many ways, but the negative parts took their toll. So, if anything, the story showed me that even though it's been many years, a lot of Stripe is still recognizable.

d0gsg0w00f 2y ago

My big company strategy is to troll internal chats/forums for things that seem like interesting problems. Do something to fix them or make them suck a little less. Always be building solid, interesting things and make sure that if someone, for some reason finds them, that they would say "wow, this is cool, who made this?" Then I casually share links to those things in the right context. If I get a 10% hit rate then I'm happy. Do this all day every day between assigned projects 9-5 and you'd be amazed at the network you can build outside your own team. Keeps the options open for lateral movement.

underdeserver 2y ago
I tried that for a while. Makes some of your peers happier, but almost never gets you any credit. I'm not smart or quick enough to consistently do that and my job without it taking a toll, so it ends up not being worth it most of the time.
tdeck 2y ago
This reminds me of a side project that got me multiple peer bonuses from strangers at Google. At some point the company decided to switch software for the performance eval system, and decided that everyone would have to copy their past review manually, piece by piece, into all the form fields of the new tool. In the FAQ they said that people asked if they could do this automatically and it wasn't practical to automate this process. So I took a few hours one day and made a Chrome extension that did it for you. Wasn't hard to write. Saved people maybe 5 minutes. Some folks appreciated that so much they spent the 5 minutes nominating me for a peer bonus! I never really capitalized on that in any lasting way though.
- d0gsg0w00f 2y ago
  Yeah, but you left an impression and if you had something you needed from their department you could reach out cold and get a warm welcome.

nkg 2y ago

a hundred percent.