5 ms·

Ask HN: What is your dream company?

4 points by apranam2 12y ago

If you could work anywhere you wanted, where would it be and why?

enilsen16 12y ago
Twitch. Its an amazing platform with a lot of potential. If only they focused on discoverability issues...
kull 12y ago
Isn't google the correct answer?
hashtag 12y ago
If I had to choose from existing companies and ones that I know of that exist, probably Google. Mainly because there are insanely smart people there I feel I could learn from. The added perks and good pay is also nice.
codeonfire 12y ago
My own company. You all know the reasons if you work as a developer at any sort of company, so I won't go into it. I need to not work under other people. "Other people" seems to not like this idea.
- lifeisstillgood 12y ago
  You always work under other people - even when you own the company, you work under your clients. Which means that if you are employeed in a cubicle, you can choose the mindset of an independant company - make your estimates as if money rested on them, meet your commitments as if the next contract depended on it, and be a peer not a servant. Just do it. Then when you have the soft skills to run your own business, run your own business
  - codeonfire 12y ago
    I don't intend to work on products for individual clients. Soft skills? The only soft skill a developer needs to know is to not let on that he/she is a developer. That changes the business dynamic. A developer is someone who has something that a client wants. That makes the client and developer adversaries in a way. They have to bargain to each get what they want. An executive of a firm is someone who can get the client what the client wants. That makes them both partners in trying to find a developer to get the thing they now both want. Obviously the developer needs to be seen as a partner and not an adversary. All we then have to do is lie about who will be doing the actual work and maybe hire a few people to make it seem authentic. Developers can never be peers with clients unless they stop being developers or lie about it. It's just not a matter of soft skills.
    - lifeisstillgood 12y ago
      I have read this but still don't get it - are you saying you should be an executive as an employee and then hire some people but do the coding yourself? Why are you lying - and to whom?
      - codeonfire 12y ago
        No, I'm saying that its not possible for non-developer employees to see developers as their peers and that your idea of pretending its your own business is not going to make it happen either.
bluerail 12y ago
Facebook.. Yeah..
lily2014 12y ago
Of course, Google is the priority.
stripe 12y ago
I have no idea if such company exists: - No politics. If the whole team agrees that something benefits their work then we will try it out. I do not have any respect for managers sabotaging team decisions because of gut feelings. Hard facts count. I can help getting those, just ask. - Working fully remotely from Europe. - No BS. No, your video serving backend written in Ruby which does 3k requests/min isn't something to brag about. No, you do not need to brag about your Sales guy who brought in 200$ more revenue this month. Let me fix this bug for you in production and save a few servers of your AWS bill. - I don't care if it's Ruby/Java/Scala/Go/Erlang/Self Invented Foo - No Perl. - No quizzes during interviews. - Even though I am only a software engineer everyone around me says that I get stuff done. Ownership does not stop at QA/OPS/PROD/Customer Support. I love finished products, not pushing lines of code to git. Empower me. - Smart colleagues Looking at these few criterias I should start paying people to find such companies.
yasmina 12y ago
Google. Not to mention the free lunch at their office café, a wide variety of indoor gaming options and a lounge seating instead of traditional desk and chair as Google's workspace... I also love the idea, that they have a weekly Thank God it’s Friday (TGIF) meeting where any employees can communicate freely and openly. They also have an annual satisfaction survey and I believe that transparency are a huge part of their success.

4 points by apranam2 12y ago

If you could work anywhere you wanted, where would it be and why?

enilsen16 12y ago

Twitch. Its an amazing platform with a lot of potential. If only they focused on discoverability issues...

kull 12y ago

Isn't google the correct answer?

hashtag 12y ago

If I had to choose from existing companies and ones that I know of that exist, probably Google. Mainly because there are insanely smart people there I feel I could learn from. The added perks and good pay is also nice.

codeonfire 12y ago

My own company. You all know the reasons if you work as a developer at any sort of company, so I won't go into it. I need to not work under other people. "Other people" seems to not like this idea.

lifeisstillgood 12y ago
You always work under other people - even when you own the company, you work under your clients. Which means that if you are employeed in a cubicle, you can choose the mindset of an independant company - make your estimates as if money rested on them, meet your commitments as if the next contract depended on it, and be a peer not a servant. Just do it. Then when you have the soft skills to run your own business, run your own business
- codeonfire 12y ago
  I don't intend to work on products for individual clients. Soft skills? The only soft skill a developer needs to know is to not let on that he/she is a developer. That changes the business dynamic. A developer is someone who has something that a client wants. That makes the client and developer adversaries in a way. They have to bargain to each get what they want. An executive of a firm is someone who can get the client what the client wants. That makes them both partners in trying to find a developer to get the thing they now both want. Obviously the developer needs to be seen as a partner and not an adversary. All we then have to do is lie about who will be doing the actual work and maybe hire a few people to make it seem authentic. Developers can never be peers with clients unless they stop being developers or lie about it. It's just not a matter of soft skills.
  - lifeisstillgood 12y ago
    I have read this but still don't get it - are you saying you should be an executive as an employee and then hire some people but do the coding yourself? Why are you lying - and to whom?
    - codeonfire 12y ago
      No, I'm saying that its not possible for non-developer employees to see developers as their peers and that your idea of pretending its your own business is not going to make it happen either.

bluerail 12y ago

Facebook.. Yeah..

lily2014 12y ago

Of course, Google is the priority.

stripe 12y ago

I have no idea if such company exists: - No politics. If the whole team agrees that something benefits their work then we will try it out. I do not have any respect for managers sabotaging team decisions because of gut feelings. Hard facts count. I can help getting those, just ask. - Working fully remotely from Europe. - No BS. No, your video serving backend written in Ruby which does 3k requests/min isn't something to brag about. No, you do not need to brag about your Sales guy who brought in 200$ more revenue this month. Let me fix this bug for you in production and save a few servers of your AWS bill. - I don't care if it's Ruby/Java/Scala/Go/Erlang/Self Invented Foo - No Perl. - No quizzes during interviews. - Even though I am only a software engineer everyone around me says that I get stuff done. Ownership does not stop at QA/OPS/PROD/Customer Support. I love finished products, not pushing lines of code to git. Empower me. - Smart colleagues Looking at these few criterias I should start paying people to find such companies.

yasmina 12y ago

Google. Not to mention the free lunch at their office café, a wide variety of indoor gaming options and a lounge seating instead of traditional desk and chair as Google's workspace... I also love the idea, that they have a weekly Thank God it’s Friday (TGIF) meeting where any employees can communicate freely and openly. They also have an annual satisfaction survey and I believe that transparency are a huge part of their success.