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The README brings up a cultural reference I didn't understand. It says "Many people have received jobs from the big 4 after becoming a Rockstar" I hadn't heard
by dalke 11y ago
The README brings up a cultural reference I didn't understand. It says "Many people have received jobs from the big 4 after becoming a Rockstar"
I hadn't heard of "big 4" before. I thought it might refer to tech companies, like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. but couldn't figure out which 4. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-sanity-check/schmidt-calls-tech-a-4-way-race-google-apple-amazon-and-facebook/ http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-sanity-check/schmidt-c... says "Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook", are the big 4 category of 'platform companies' while http://battellemedia.com/archives/2011/12/the-internet-big-five.php http://battellemedia.com/archives/2011/12/the-internet-big-f... uses the phrase the big 5, which also includes Microsoft. Then again, the speaker in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZCUhxNCv8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZCUhxNCv8 comments about working at the "Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft - sometimes called the Big 4".
This suggests that the "big 4" is more a concept then an actual definition.
On the other hand, further search gives another possibility. The big 4 can refer to the audit firms of Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_%28audit_firms%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_%28audit_firms%29 ). It was "Big Eight", then "Big Six" and "Big Five", before ending up with 4. At http://www.narrowingthegaap.com/recruiting/how-to-get-hired-by-the-big-4-the-hiring-process-part-1/ http://www.narrowingthegaap.com/recruiting/how-to-get-hired-... you see "How To Get Hired By the Big 4: The Hiring Process (Part 1)" which starts "The Big 4 hire only the best and the brightest. This is only a partial truth at best. I know this because I have met some really dumb people working for the Big 4. So no, to get hired by a Big 4 you don’t need to have a 4.0 GPA with a double major in ..".
So does the github project mean the audit companies, or the tech companies? I think the tech companies are more likely to offer $200K jobs for programmers, but have little knowledge of the audit world.
I'll also hypothesize that the term "big 4" came from the audit world and was reused in the tech world by analogy.
- claudenm 11y agoYou're right -- the big 4 was stolen from the audit world. Depending where you look it's the Big 5 or Big 4 and will be some of Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft.
- JuanSoto 11y agoThe only place I hear "big 4" in regards to tech is Reddit's cscareerquestions. It really doesn't mean anything more than "top companies that are famous"—any combination of Google, Facebook. Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple will do. IMO they should just call it "top companies".
- kdeldycke 11y agoI recently noticed in Europe references to these "digital big 4" as the GAFA, i.e. Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon. Some also designate them as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse/Internet. I'm still looking for the guy who coined the term though...
- dalke 11y agoFrom February 5, 2012, Niraj Dawar, http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/gafa-the-new-face-of-marketing-2816 http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/gafa-the-new-fa... : > The four big boys Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon (or GAFA; ok, not quite Silicon Valley for Amazon which is based in Seattle, but you know what I mean) are all clearly in the marketing business. From January 11, 2012, Ken Doctor, http://www.outsellinc.com/b2b/products/1044-getting-it-right-with-gafa http://www.outsellinc.com/b2b/products/1044-getting-it-right... : > How will the next few years play out for GAFA? Will they go the way of CompuServe and Prodigy? In five years will we have a new acronym to replace GAFA, which replaced 2006’s GYM? GYM in turn is attested to at least 2005 , https://gigaom.com/2005/11/11/can-you-stay-gym-free/ https://gigaom.com/2005/11/11/can-you-stay-gym-free/ .