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I worked at Google from 2010 to 2012, just under two years, as an SRE. Google was a great company to work for and the people I worked with were all awesome. I

I worked at Google from 2010 to 2012, just under two years, as an SRE. Google was a great company to work for and the people I worked with were all awesome. I ultimately left Google because I felt bored working there. You admin systems and fill out resource request through web browsers and work with proprietary stacks all day. It didn't take long to feel my skills as a Linux professional start to atrophy. The longer I stayed the more concerned I became about passing interviews in the rest of the industry as I became a Google engineer. I often miss the tools I had at Google but it's exciting building those tools at smaller companies and working with industry best practices.

Yhippa 11y ago
Funny, I have this same concern working for a government organization.
- jwatte 11y ago
  Except for the "reasonable salary" part.
  - thearn4 11y ago
    The GS payscale is a bit unforgiving for very early career technical folks, but regular pay raises, step increases, and grade advancement catches up later on. Although congress has been pretty stingy with the "regular pay raises" over the last few years.
mkramlich 11y ago
ie. they have such an extreme scale that often what's best for them is also unique to them, so doesn't really work/apply/be-appreciated anywhere else. They want sharp folks. But because so many, and because folks at top are so sharp, and because their scale is so gigantic, they want sharp drones. Color inside the lines, just really really really fast and perfect. Getting something 1% wrong costs them millions more than otherwise. Which is different than the mindset of the vast majority of other companies where getting something even 91% right means making millions of dollars more for the shareholders, than otherwise. The rest is details.
- mkramlich 11y ago
  Google seems perfect for two kinds of programmers/engineers: 1. you are 20-something, white or Asian, fresh out of college, Jewish/Stanford/Ivy/otherwise-2nd-gen-pampered-background, male, maybe still in college or 1st startup AND you are willing to move anywhere they want, do anything they tell you, you have no spouse, no kids, no ill parents, no local geo investments, no major illnesses, not multi-careered, you're still impressed by Shiny/Words, etc. 2. you are 30/40-ish but now established as a Major Name (Linus, Vint, Guido, etc.) and/or owner of a company Google wants to buy, and therefore $M+ talks loudly if you don't fit (approximately) into one of those two boxes, then Google is a non-ideal fit for you META: downvote me all you want HN, I do not care what the GroupMind's Allowed Opinion algorithm here thinks anymore
  - S4M 11y ago
    How about category 3: 30+, has a family, wants a stable job with good pay, but not crazy hours?
    - mkramlich 11y ago
      good point. reasonable. the making of generalizations does not outlaw other generalized groups or categories. an entire side discussion about Bayes predictions could be entered here. where having a few rough rules would yield a 90% beneficial prediction. add a 2nd rule or exception boosts your yield to 95%. add a 3rd rule/exception boosts your yield to 97%. and so on...
    - QuercusMax 11y ago
      Ding ding ding! That's me to a T. I'm in my early 30s, with a family, and just started in MTV this past Monday. I spent 11 years at a small company in Cleveland, and had reached the top of the engineering ladder there. Had the opportunity to move out to Silicon Valley, where I have much more varied career prospects if I decide Google isn't for me after my shares vest. On my team are two very experienced engineers (one's been at Google for longer than all but 38 employees), and it will be a great opportunity to learn from some really great people and grow my skills, which had been stagnating due to lack of challenge at my last company. There was never any pressure at my last job to work crazy hours, so that wasn't really a factor in moving per se; but Google is big on work-life balance, which is super important to me.
amelius 11y ago
> I often miss the tools I had at Google but it's exciting building those tools at smaller companies Interesting. Could you tell a little more about these tools? Which ones do you miss most, and why?
- shapov 11y ago
  I agree. This seems like a great topic for a blog post.

Yhippa 11y ago

Funny, I have this same concern working for a government organization.

jwatte 11y ago
Except for the "reasonable salary" part.
- thearn4 11y ago
  The GS payscale is a bit unforgiving for very early career technical folks, but regular pay raises, step increases, and grade advancement catches up later on. Although congress has been pretty stingy with the "regular pay raises" over the last few years.

mkramlich 11y ago

ie. they have such an extreme scale that often what's best for them is also unique to them, so doesn't really work/apply/be-appreciated anywhere else. They want sharp folks. But because so many, and because folks at top are so sharp, and because their scale is so gigantic, they want sharp drones. Color inside the lines, just really really really fast and perfect. Getting something 1% wrong costs them millions more than otherwise. Which is different than the mindset of the vast majority of other companies where getting something even 91% right means making millions of dollars more for the shareholders, than otherwise. The rest is details.

mkramlich 11y ago
Google seems perfect for two kinds of programmers/engineers: 1. you are 20-something, white or Asian, fresh out of college, Jewish/Stanford/Ivy/otherwise-2nd-gen-pampered-background, male, maybe still in college or 1st startup AND you are willing to move anywhere they want, do anything they tell you, you have no spouse, no kids, no ill parents, no local geo investments, no major illnesses, not multi-careered, you're still impressed by Shiny/Words, etc. 2. you are 30/40-ish but now established as a Major Name (Linus, Vint, Guido, etc.) and/or owner of a company Google wants to buy, and therefore $M+ talks loudly if you don't fit (approximately) into one of those two boxes, then Google is a non-ideal fit for you META: downvote me all you want HN, I do not care what the GroupMind's Allowed Opinion algorithm here thinks anymore
- S4M 11y ago
  How about category 3: 30+, has a family, wants a stable job with good pay, but not crazy hours?
  - mkramlich 11y ago
    good point. reasonable. the making of generalizations does not outlaw other generalized groups or categories. an entire side discussion about Bayes predictions could be entered here. where having a few rough rules would yield a 90% beneficial prediction. add a 2nd rule or exception boosts your yield to 95%. add a 3rd rule/exception boosts your yield to 97%. and so on...
  - QuercusMax 11y ago
    Ding ding ding! That's me to a T. I'm in my early 30s, with a family, and just started in MTV this past Monday. I spent 11 years at a small company in Cleveland, and had reached the top of the engineering ladder there. Had the opportunity to move out to Silicon Valley, where I have much more varied career prospects if I decide Google isn't for me after my shares vest. On my team are two very experienced engineers (one's been at Google for longer than all but 38 employees), and it will be a great opportunity to learn from some really great people and grow my skills, which had been stagnating due to lack of challenge at my last company. There was never any pressure at my last job to work crazy hours, so that wasn't really a factor in moving per se; but Google is big on work-life balance, which is super important to me.

amelius 11y ago

> I often miss the tools I had at Google but it's exciting building those tools at smaller companies Interesting. Could you tell a little more about these tools? Which ones do you miss most, and why?

shapov 11y ago
I agree. This seems like a great topic for a blog post.