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Basically if you read between the lines of OP's story, he was a B player, but then the fear of no safety net made him an A player. Anyone touring the halls of
by TheMagicHorsey 12y ago
Basically if you read between the lines of OP's story, he was a B player, but then the fear of no safety net made him an A player.
Anyone touring the halls of Google, HP, Microsoft, or Intel, knows for a fact that large, years-old organizations gather lots of dead weight. That is just the nature of human organizations.
The alternative is either start-ups where the fear of death is ever present. Or companies like Facebook (where allegedly you get fired in 12 months if you don't deliver tangible value).
There are many people that deliver A level work without the fear of death. But you can't assume you can fill your large organization with such people. They are rare. Its hard enough to fill a small start up with such people, but at least that is in the realm of possibility.
Google is never going to find 5000 self-motivated stars. Just look at how far behind AWS Google Cloud is. Google is the nice, comfortable work environment we all want to be in. Amazon is the scary environment with the sword of damocles over our shoulder at all times.
- adamc 12y agoI would put it differently. I agree with the author's point that people are not A or B players -- but you can meaningfully rate them so in particular roles. The author is an A player in the right role. I don't think this should be news; you can see it in coaching of sports teams. Success often comes from matching people to the right role. The whole "A's hire A's" thing is a bit trite, but it's probably true that if you are not a good fit to your current role, it's even less likely that you will be able to determine whether someone else is a good fit. (There are exceptions. There are non-technical people who are good at hiring technical people. They're just rare.) As far as organizations gathering dead weight -- while mis-hires are propbably a big cause, people aren't immutably A, B, or C players. Life happens, priorities change, people sometimes shift roles over time as well.
- TheMagicHorsey 12y agoI agree with everything you say. BTW, A's hire A's is bullshit. A's hire B's all the time. Hiring is a specific skillset, and A managers suck at being A recruiters.
- judk 12y agoIts not "As hire As". It's "Bs hire Cs, so As must be careful to not hire Bs" Anyway it's a trite face not supported by research.
- judk 12y agoDid you just call Amazon a startup on the brink of extinction? Amazon is a giant old company like Google
- TheMagicHorsey 12y agoSorry. I was not clear. Amazon is a more brutal environment, and not as cozy, for engineers. Or so I hear. I don't have first hand experience, but I hear that they ride you pretty hard there.