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Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
151–160 of 168 posts
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#152Here is what it means to work at a big company: * Things work slowly, so relax. There are many people that have a hand in every aspect of a product decision. * At a startup you are actively changing the world. That’s done now. Put that completely out of your head. You are cog in a machine. Instead focus on your assigned product, help your teammates, and just learn to relax. * You, the individual, are not important. T…
Why would I find it depressing if I’m risk averse? You sound like the only risk is getting fired for a random reason, which could also happen at a smaller corp.
I am so used to using the phrase risk adverse because is the more common phrase in my military side job. In the real world the common phrase is risk averse.
The first means a personality type that doesn’t perform risk analysis normally or does but simply disregards high risk concerns. For example it doesn’t make sense to jump out of an airplane or leap into combat. There is a preference for people who can weigh those risks and override the common sense factor that results in terror. In the business world this could mean investing your life savings into a start up idea knowing you might likely fail with nothing to show for it.
The second more common phrase refers to opposite personality types that cannot proceed in the face of uncertainty. These people are terrified to make a decision where the outcomes are unclear and thus hesitate waiting for increased certainty or for someone else to make that decision.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_aversion_(psychology)
My personal approach to these terms is to simply make a damn decision even with insufficient evidence, because then you are at least doing something. If you later discover your decision is wrong then simply shift direction in the face of new evidence. People who sit there waiting for clarity, feels like an eternity in hell, makes me sad.
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#153I worked in small company (50-100 employees) and lead team of 7 people before. After company went down, I joined as IC in big corps. Few things mentioned below might not be relevant to your position. But adding them for every one. Not all orgs are same, so take this with pinch of salt. - Relax, don't boil the ocean. (This is first advice given to me by one of the director after raising concerns over dev practices bei…
This is an accurate description of most of the negative aspects of BigCo.
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they meant risk-adverse, like able to tolerate risks well.
Both adverse and averse mean pretty much the same thing (thanks English language), but otherwise you are completely correct. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/adverse-or-ave...
I guess I was thinking of “well-versed”, thanks.
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that's not the way it works at big companies like AWS, Google, Microsoft (source: me, I've worked at all 3). A large company attracts various types of people. It's not homogeneous like what you describe. Also, there are plenty of opportunities to practice "intrapreneurship" within a large company with lots of resources to impact the world in a positive way.
“Intrepreneurship” is a nice euphemism for “here, you can work on your cute little side projects and then we will keep the IP and patents.”
“…and give you money”
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#156* Things move slowly. * You need to be able to play the game if you're going to move up, if you want to stay in the same role don't make waves. * Other people are playing the game. Sometimes if you're trying to make changes, even if they're going to be beneficial, you are going to run into people who have a vested interest in you not improving things. Don't let it get you down, pick your battles. * You are way easier…
I can tell that this is hard-earned wisdom from lived experiences as I nod my head in agreement. Thanks for sharing.
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that's not the way it works at big companies like AWS, Google, Microsoft (source: me, I've worked at all 3). A large company attracts various types of people. It's not homogeneous like what you describe. Also, there are plenty of opportunities to practice "intrapreneurship" within a large company with lots of resources to impact the world in a positive way.
“Intrepreneurship” is a nice euphemism for “here, you can work on your cute little side projects and then we will keep the IP and patents.”
You can always quit and bootstrap it yourself to capture all the upside. Just beware selling a software engineer salary’s worth of anything is fairly challenging.
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#158Well my journey was a bit different than yours. I was Lead Dev at a small startup ( I hope your experience is better. If you're going to a FAANG I imagine it will be. This place is much more buttoned up.
This rings a bell for me. Before I started at a big firm I assumed they'd be super optimised to get people going fast, as its a common occurrence for them. What I didn't realise was that you sitting waiting for equipment and logins for 2 weeks doesn't show up on anyones spreadsheet so its not a real loss as far as they're concerned. Plenty of time for self improvement though if you're just using it as a stepping ston…
Again I've never had less motivation at a job in my life. And yeah, no computer and no licenses waiting for me.
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having worked at Big Co and then on my own company for years, this is exactly what I was thinking. You'll lose professional autonomy in exchange for a good salary, job security, and resume bling. And you probably won't have to work as hard or as often (again, probably).
In my career, I've had almost the opposite experience. At $bigco, it was possible to beg/borrow for 100k to solve some problem, or hack together some tooling to solve a problem the team was running into. Need some servers and licenses, and it's near year end, partner with a program manager who hasn't used all his budget, help solve their problems, and get things done. I ended up spending something like $250k before t…
I agree with your overall message 100%. Big companies are like cities. There are "good" and "bad" areas and different people may draw that distinction differently. If you have mobility within the company it's not too difficult to move into what you consider a good area over time. As a consultant / contractor I didn't have that luxury and often got saddled with the teams that needed to change the most, but resisted every opportunity to do so. Had I been a full-time employee and participated in some politics I think I could have greatly improved my autonomy and satisfaction.
Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?
#160Remember when you used to ask your Mom / Dad, "Why?" and they'd respond with, "Because I said so." It's like that, but subtly more infuriating because it's never a single identifiable person saying "no" that could be spoken to, understood, and reasoned with. The answer that you'll get at a big company is, "because that's the way it is".
There will be plenty of this, and occasionally sub in "that's unprofessional". Requesting to work from home will be unprofessional. Taking PTO will be unprofessional. Coming in at 9:02am will be unprofessional. Requesting the 1-year raise that's in your signed employment agreement will be unprofessional.
I've had this exact argument:
Me: "I'm going to be working from home tomorrow."
Them: "What? First I'm hearing of this. We need everyone here tomorrow."
Me: "I'm confident that I can do the work from home. I have an obligation that I can't go back on. It's been on my calendar as well."
Them: "Not acceptable."
Me: "Alright. I'm taking PTO tomorrow."
Them: very mad "Fine. Work from home if you can."
Ended up winning this one pretty easily considering there were no expectations / limits set on work from home. The just enforced no-work-from-home against people ad hoc.