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Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

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Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#141
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IQ is kind of a weird metric to measure people by. Do they get their shit done?

Why is it a weird metric?

Because there are many forms of intelligence. He may be over indexing on mathematical intelligence and under indexing on the intelligence required to work within constraints, ambiguity, difficult people, adversity, and unreasonable leadership direction and expectations.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are confusing IQ and intelligence. It would have been better to say "my co-workers do not seem to be highly intelligent".

I'm tired of the semantics, my co workers are dumb. They passed these interviews by memorizing the answers to questions, and they cant come up with useful software architecture. Everything they code is a one off solution to a one off problem.

Are they better with people than you are? Does that make you dumb as well? If you were “smart” you would have figured out how to work with your leadership team to optimize a solution for all parties. But you don’t know how to, and therefore from my perspective, could also be considered “dumb”.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#143

I’ve been at a couple FANG companies in my career. Generally I worked with extremely intelligent people, but I did sometimes work with people who didn’t care… not that this makes it any better. Are you able to switch teams? Can you find or take ownership of a specific part of a project that’ll keep you sane and motivated? Are you able to fix the specific tooling on your team or for your project that you don’t like? I…

This!

I've also worked with people at both FAANG and non-FAANG where the issue is motivation and not "intelligence", so I would frame it to myself as that.

Depending on the company, you might be able to switch sooner once you have your first performance rating. Most FAANG companies try to have managers support what's going to give you lasting longevity at the company, not necessarily on the team.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#144

Quit your whining and fix the damn problems. You sound like an entitled brat. If you're so smart compared to everyone else on your team, then you should have no problems fixing things. Why do you have to work nights and weekends? Are they asking you to? If not, then why put that on yourself? And even you work occasional nights and weekends, so what? Part of the joy of software development is the positive feedback loo…

Probably not entitled, just disillusioned. They thought working for the best meant working with the best.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are confusing IQ and intelligence. It would have been better to say "my co-workers do not seem to be highly intelligent".

I'm tired of the semantics, my co workers are dumb. They passed these interviews by memorizing the answers to questions, and they cant come up with useful software architecture. Everything they code is a one off solution to a one off problem.

> Everything they code is a one off solution to a one off problem.

To me, this is more indicative of the company culture than your coworkers' IQ.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#146
post #14

"staffed with below-average IQ people" I'm not sure why your co-workers' IQ is your concern. To come out of the gate with a comment like this sounds like you have a strong disdain for them. Part of your reason for joining the company was the paycheck. I assume the checks aren't bouncing. My advice is the same advice I would give to many people: Learn from your coworkers. Understand the problems that the team and the…

I seem to be getting a lot of heat for this comment - fair enough, but I will expand on that. Before joining this company, I hired and managed teams across various startups. I don't think I would be speaking out of turn to say in every company we looked for aptitude and intelligence. I don't know what my previous or current colleagues literal IQs are, but you know a highly intelligent person when you meet and work wi…

I'm sorry that your thread is getting completely derailed because everyone here seems to offended by your IQ comment.

FWIW, I agree with you and am in the same boat. I joined a FAANG so that I could work alongside and learn from truly impressive people. So far, after a few years of working at my FAANG, I have not worked alongside one single person who I would consider impressive. I won't go so far as to say they're "low IQ" or dumb or anything like that. I enjoy them as people and I like working with them, but they certainly don't inspire me and I do not feel like I am learning things from them that further my career. All of them, even the ones at higher levels than me, seem just as clueless and lost as I am. And that's an awful environment to be in.

It's frustrating, disappointing, feels like you were lied to, etc. My only advice to you is to just quit. Don't stick around searching for something that you already know isn't here. It's very unlikely to get better.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#147
post #14

"staffed with below-average IQ people" I'm not sure why your co-workers' IQ is your concern. To come out of the gate with a comment like this sounds like you have a strong disdain for them. Part of your reason for joining the company was the paycheck. I assume the checks aren't bouncing. My advice is the same advice I would give to many people: Learn from your coworkers. Understand the problems that the team and the…

I seem to be getting a lot of heat for this comment - fair enough, but I will expand on that. Before joining this company, I hired and managed teams across various startups. I don't think I would be speaking out of turn to say in every company we looked for aptitude and intelligence. I don't know what my previous or current colleagues literal IQs are, but you know a highly intelligent person when you meet and work wi…

Having worked for FAANG, I do tend to agree that there are not a lot of exceptionally smart people. However to say that they are below average intelligence is very dismissive. Its not exactly a breeze to get a job at FAANG, and you do have to know a good bit of stuff to get in.

That being said, if you consider yourself intelligent, and wanted to work amongst "smart" people, you would have asked questions about the team and the process, and made your decision on that. And also not equate IQ and intelligence when talking about people.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#148
Welcome to big tech corp paranoia. Enjoy your stay!

But seriously don't hold on to something that makes no sense to you whatsoever. I'm pretty sure management won't turn the boat for you especially at the scale of your complaints so think about your exit strategy.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#150
post #39

> below-average IQ people. .. > Any advice is appreciated. Not shitting on your colleagues with this generation's phrenology would be a great start. More generally, it sounds like you are starting with the idea that you're better and smarter than everyone you work with and only you can see the problems, as opposed to everyone you work with being (by and large) decent and hard working people who are making the best of…

Everyone needs to be mindful of Chesterstons fence when marching in with a strong sense of confidence with little knowledge of history.
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