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Ask HN: Who's not sucky to work for?

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Re: Ask HN: Who's not sucky to work for?

#13

Post by MuffinFlavored »

version_five wrote: post #6

One challenge is that even in sucky workplaces, there always seem to be champions that will tell you how great it is. In part because it's a hard life focusing on how your job sucks and many people get good at being outwardly optimistic. That said, it would be nice to see more authenticity than what mostly gets posted in the hiring thread, and on company websites. I'm sure we each have our own criteria of what kind o…

> that even in sucky workplaces,

I would say... if there is a company with 6,000 employees... it's going to depend way less on the company and more on the team. Your direct manager, your teammates, the other teams you work with, the other managers involved... that can all wildly vary even within the same company.

They are fluid too. People come and go. Circumstances change.

I don't know how much top-down leadership effect really has. If the CEO + board of a 20,000 person company feel a certain ideology, is it really passed down 10 layers lower to managers working on small projects?

Re: Ask HN: Who's not sucky to work for?

#14

Post by dmitrygr »

I've been having a great time at Apple. I joined a bit over two years ago (coming from a 7.5-year-long stint at google). The people are great, the work is very interesting. Highly recommended.

Google used to be a non-sucky place to work, but from what I hear from friends still there, it's not at all like it was in 2012

Re: Ask HN: Who's not sucky to work for?

#15

Post by rockostrich »

version_five wrote: post #6

One challenge is that even in sucky workplaces, there always seem to be champions that will tell you how great it is. In part because it's a hard life focusing on how your job sucks and many people get good at being outwardly optimistic. That said, it would be nice to see more authenticity than what mostly gets posted in the hiring thread, and on company websites. I'm sure we each have our own criteria of what kind o…

I don't know, I think it's pretty easy to ask questions for this during an interview process even if you have those "champions". Just ask "what are the current pain points and things that can be improved about the company?" If they give an honest answer then take it at face value. If they just bullshit you by talking around the question or flipping the question and talking about a "good problem to have" then you probably don't want to work there.

Re: Ask HN: Who's not sucky to work for?

#17

Post by maxshm »

IMHO: 1. Company should be small. I worked in a few small companies. One have grown to headcount above 200 and became a swamp full of unmotivated people. 2. There should be great team members. 3. Founders should be software people or engineers.

Re: Ask HN: Who's not sucky to work for?

#18

Post by dhosek »

hospadar wrote: post #10

I work for ITHAKA (parent of jstor.org) and I think they are decidedly non-suckey: https://www.ithaka.org/ - Great benefits - Very transparent leadership - Nonprofit (501c3) - long-term sustainability of the org & product are major goals which (IMO) makes for much better project/team/personal incentives - Remote work for any position, but also offices in Ann Arbor, NYC, and Princeton - Education-oriented mission

Do you get free jstor access?

Re: Ask HN: Who's not sucky to work for?

#19

Post by zwieback »

This may be hard to believe for the HN crowd but hp has been great for me (Corvallis, OR). Sure, we're not the company Bill & Dave started but current leadership has steered the boat out of the mess created by 10+ years of rocky times.
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