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I will say there are specifically some things my fellow Australians do have do in the USA that we would not in our home country. To my fellow Australians; when

I will say there are specifically some things my fellow Australians do have do in the USA that we would not in our home country. To my fellow Australians; when you go for the big tech job interview you often have to memorize the company mission statement and values. Yes it's a complete wank. You'll never use it internally. But i have seriously been asked about the companies mission statement for Meta, Google, Amazon in those respective interviews. Utterly insane from an Australian point of view - you'd get pass and a mark for directness for saying "i don't bloody well know". I have heard of mission statements being asked by international companies operating in Australia but again you'd pass if the interviewer themselves was Australian since it's 100% seen as bullshit by every level of Australians from management to employees on the ground. eg. Wtf is a mission statement and why am i being asked thread on the Australia subreddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/australian/comments/1f7srnw/what_is_the_logic_behind_company_mission/ https://old.reddit.com/r/australian/comments/1f7srnw/what_is...

antonvs 2y ago
Meta, Google, and Amazon are outliers, though. Part of their schtick originally was that they're trying to build a cult, although my sense is that may have relaxed a bit as they've grown. IBM used to do a similar thing back in the day. I've worked in tech in the US as an immigrant for over 40 years, and never been quizzed on a mission statement.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
liontwist 2y ago
Reading this thread I’m realizing maybe Americans better understand organizational politics, and this social technology is an unappreciated contributor to productivity. I agree this kind of thing is performative, but let’s steel man the other side. You are looking for a place to spend 8 hours a day doing your most skillful craft, and you don’t want to know what the organization is trying to achieve? Yes I understand it’s performative, but why wouldn’t you take 10 minutes to indicate you are doing that kind of serious thinking? It’s like asking a boss for guidance without doing groundwork to make a recommendation.
- AnotherGoodName 2y ago
  Company level mission statements tend to be too vague to be relevant or helpful and they really don't actually apply anyway. They may as well all say "we do good things" when the actual underlying goal is "make money". I do believe in the "When in Rome do as the Romans do" mindset though so i'll happily memorize it 2 mins before the interview. It's just that i 100% openly refuse to accept they are anything other than virtue signalling.
  - liontwist 2y ago
    All that might be true, and it’s still a bad political move to show up without preparation that indicates you did more than upload a resume. You’re basically saying “i don’t know how to present myself and I’m going to cause problems for your organization”. It’s like “why can’t I show up at 2 PM and work until 11. I get my work done”. You just have no awareness and are a liability for your boss.
    - soco 2y ago
      This very reason is why US company culture is mocked in all those US shows, yet ironically (and often not ironically) US workers still take offense and defend it. Because if memorizing the company's... uh, what was that text called... thing, is what makes you useful in a company, sorry I cannot continue without laughing so I'll stop here.
- tolciho 2y ago
  The Manhattan project, which by some accounts was a fairly large and complicated project, had no mission statement known to most people doing their daily work to who knows what end. Sure, you could go with "stick it to the nazis", and they did have some advertising spam to that effect, but that's down in the "like, duh?" (or less polite forms) as far as mission statements go. Put another way, how does reciting the mission statement differ from a loyalty dance for chairman Mao? I get that many have an economic (or life) imperative to go along with what the clownsuite orders, but these same people make fun of island savages in the Pacific for "cargo culting".
SoftTalker 2y ago
Must be an SV thing? I've never been asked to recite a mission statement for a company where I was interviewing (or even working at, for that matter). Most assume I don't know much about the company and a good part of the introductory chit-chat in an interview is them telling me about their history and what it is that they do.
- bink 2y ago
  I live in the bay area and have worked for several of the big tech companies and startups. The only time I can remember anyone discussing mission statements was when I interviewed at AirBnB. They had a full interview (30 mins IIRC) just about the company mission. The explained that it was very important to the CEO. I apparently failed that interview and they made me do another with a different person about the same topic. It was very awkward.
  - fakedang 2y ago
    What exactly is their mission? Spawning a marginally utilitarian industry by completely destroying the fabric of cities? /s
Ylpertnodi 2y ago
One of the US company’s I work for asks the questions about 'our' mission statement. It's used as a way to see if someone has checked out the website, page 1, bold, and in capitals.
com2kid 2y ago
In the 90s Microsoft's mission statement was to get a PC in every house. To accomplish this, and Microsoft did pull it off, they worked to commoditize every aspect of PCs, and they slowly drove the profits of PC OEMs down to almost zero. To ensure software existed on those PCs, Microsoft ran a massive training and certification program for engineers and IT. Google used to live by its mission statement to organize all the world's information. They started up a program to scan almost every book in the world! There wasn't even a profit motive for it, it was something they did because it aligned with their mission statement. Software company mission statements used to mean something.
RichardCA 2y ago
The concept of a mission / vision statement is an artifact of 1980's "Management Consulting" culture in the US, which had ties to the various "Human Potential" groups like est, Landmark Forum, etc. Other things like 360 degree feedback are also borrowed from that culture. There was a very old article in Fortune about this, it's preserved but there is no formatting. https://web.archive.org/web/20240415121234/https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1987/11/23/69878/index.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20240415121234/https://money.cnn...

antonvs 2y ago

Meta, Google, and Amazon are outliers, though. Part of their schtick originally was that they're trying to build a cult, although my sense is that may have relaxed a bit as they've grown. IBM used to do a similar thing back in the day. I've worked in tech in the US as an immigrant for over 40 years, and never been quizzed on a mission statement.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

liontwist 2y ago

Reading this thread I’m realizing maybe Americans better understand organizational politics, and this social technology is an unappreciated contributor to productivity. I agree this kind of thing is performative, but let’s steel man the other side. You are looking for a place to spend 8 hours a day doing your most skillful craft, and you don’t want to know what the organization is trying to achieve? Yes I understand it’s performative, but why wouldn’t you take 10 minutes to indicate you are doing that kind of serious thinking? It’s like asking a boss for guidance without doing groundwork to make a recommendation.

AnotherGoodName 2y ago
Company level mission statements tend to be too vague to be relevant or helpful and they really don't actually apply anyway. They may as well all say "we do good things" when the actual underlying goal is "make money". I do believe in the "When in Rome do as the Romans do" mindset though so i'll happily memorize it 2 mins before the interview. It's just that i 100% openly refuse to accept they are anything other than virtue signalling.
- liontwist 2y ago
  All that might be true, and it’s still a bad political move to show up without preparation that indicates you did more than upload a resume. You’re basically saying “i don’t know how to present myself and I’m going to cause problems for your organization”. It’s like “why can’t I show up at 2 PM and work until 11. I get my work done”. You just have no awareness and are a liability for your boss.
  - soco 2y ago
    This very reason is why US company culture is mocked in all those US shows, yet ironically (and often not ironically) US workers still take offense and defend it. Because if memorizing the company's... uh, what was that text called... thing, is what makes you useful in a company, sorry I cannot continue without laughing so I'll stop here.
tolciho 2y ago
The Manhattan project, which by some accounts was a fairly large and complicated project, had no mission statement known to most people doing their daily work to who knows what end. Sure, you could go with "stick it to the nazis", and they did have some advertising spam to that effect, but that's down in the "like, duh?" (or less polite forms) as far as mission statements go. Put another way, how does reciting the mission statement differ from a loyalty dance for chairman Mao? I get that many have an economic (or life) imperative to go along with what the clownsuite orders, but these same people make fun of island savages in the Pacific for "cargo culting".

SoftTalker 2y ago

Must be an SV thing? I've never been asked to recite a mission statement for a company where I was interviewing (or even working at, for that matter). Most assume I don't know much about the company and a good part of the introductory chit-chat in an interview is them telling me about their history and what it is that they do.

bink 2y ago
I live in the bay area and have worked for several of the big tech companies and startups. The only time I can remember anyone discussing mission statements was when I interviewed at AirBnB. They had a full interview (30 mins IIRC) just about the company mission. The explained that it was very important to the CEO. I apparently failed that interview and they made me do another with a different person about the same topic. It was very awkward.
- fakedang 2y ago
  What exactly is their mission? Spawning a marginally utilitarian industry by completely destroying the fabric of cities? /s

Ylpertnodi 2y ago

One of the US company’s I work for asks the questions about 'our' mission statement. It's used as a way to see if someone has checked out the website, page 1, bold, and in capitals.

com2kid 2y ago

In the 90s Microsoft's mission statement was to get a PC in every house. To accomplish this, and Microsoft did pull it off, they worked to commoditize every aspect of PCs, and they slowly drove the profits of PC OEMs down to almost zero. To ensure software existed on those PCs, Microsoft ran a massive training and certification program for engineers and IT. Google used to live by its mission statement to organize all the world's information. They started up a program to scan almost every book in the world! There wasn't even a profit motive for it, it was something they did because it aligned with their mission statement. Software company mission statements used to mean something.

RichardCA 2y ago

The concept of a mission / vision statement is an artifact of 1980's "Management Consulting" culture in the US, which had ties to the various "Human Potential" groups like est, Landmark Forum, etc. Other things like 360 degree feedback are also borrowed from that culture. There was a very old article in Fortune about this, it's preserved but there is no formatting. https://web.archive.org/web/20240415121234/https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1987/11/23/69878/index.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20240415121234/https://money.cnn...