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Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

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Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

#161

Post by lunias »

mliker wrote: post #102
lunias wrote: post #72

Remember 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".

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.

You are correct. Companies of a certain size are most always extremely heterogenous. There are good and bad places to be in a company and everyone has a different opinion on where those places are.

It also seems that you have experience working at big tech companies. It's not always so diverse and you can't always operate as autonomously as a team at a big company that just needs technology to operate, but doesn't claim to be in the business of producing it.

Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

#162

Post by lunias »

katzgrau wrote: post #82
lunias wrote: post #72

Remember 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".

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).

Tip top real estate on the Dead Sea. ;)

http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/11/the-wetware-crisis-the-d...

Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

#163

Post by doopy1 »

soared wrote: post #18
austincheney wrote: post #5

Here 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…

* Things work slowly, so relax. The extent of this is hard to grasp outside of bigco. At oracle we had layoffs/reorg - no real work was done for ~7 days, and it took 3 months to figure out our new roles/responsibilities. Some people were paid $40k+ in that time period and did very little work. Things occasionally move very very slow. Twiddle your thumbs and be happy about your huge salary, don't quit like I did!

They say "Oracle is where startups go to die" for a reason.

Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

#164

Post by gonational »

nullandvoid wrote: post #143
gonational wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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.”

Still sounds better than being a feature factory for someone else's vision.

I think you may have read the first word in my comment as “entrepreneurship”; or do I misunderstand what you mean?

Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

#165

Post by 0xEFF »

nnoitra wrote: post #149
throwaway9191a wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to echo this, along with the "relax" sentiment from other comments. I worked incredibly hard to open source a project at a faang. I was even given a customer obsession award for it. No promo.. and no promo level projects for the next year or so... and now this open source project is "too old" for promo consideration. I've learned to relax and give just enough to not be marked LE. I now have a lot of time to…

LE?

Low Energy I think.

Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

#166

Post by foogazi »

throwaway9191a wrote: post #103
bobbytherobot wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"you probably won't have to work as hard" For me, it was a question of: do I put in 40% to get 90% completed, or do I put in 150% to get 99% completed?

I'd like to echo this, along with the "relax" sentiment from other comments. I worked incredibly hard to open source a project at a faang. I was even given a customer obsession award for it. No promo.. and no promo level projects for the next year or so... and now this open source project is "too old" for promo consideration. I've learned to relax and give just enough to not be marked LE. I now have a lot of time to…

How was business impact measured when deciding to open source the project?

Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

#167

Post by Frank93 »

A large company provides lots of opportunities to acquire diplomacy and political skills. Large companies do not move at such a reckless pace so you have time to learn and reflect. Large companies tend to move in a slow, consensual way without taking risks. Sometimes this is actually a good thing

Re: Ask HN: Moving from a startup to a big co, what should I be aware of?

#168

Post by throwaway9191a »

foogazi wrote: post #166
throwaway9191a wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to echo this, along with the "relax" sentiment from other comments. I worked incredibly hard to open source a project at a faang. I was even given a customer obsession award for it. No promo.. and no promo level projects for the next year or so... and now this open source project is "too old" for promo consideration. I've learned to relax and give just enough to not be marked LE. I now have a lot of time to…

How was business impact measured when deciding to open source the project?

Probably too late to respond, but just in case.

We were measuring the number of similar support requests that came to the team. Our library would allow customers to resolve these problems on their own. We had a good estimate of reduced requests, but not a good estimate increased time to maintain the open source library.

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