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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?

#291

Post by the_only_law »

wbh1 wrote: post #51

I've really enjoyed working for Linode. We're a smaller company (~250 people total), but work on a global scale. I've found the work to be challenging but rewarding, leadership to be approachable and willing to listen, and the benefits to be great. Coming from a large higher education environment (where the "Information Services" department was 600+ people) it's remarkable how much better the culture is here.

What’s their interview process like? I saw a really interesting role with them a couple months back. They seemed to pay a little less than similar companies, but a lot of the work looked cool. I’ve also had people tell me they had negative experiences interviewing with them.

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

#292

Post by scrapcode »

andychase wrote: post #278

I have have enjoyed working at the EPA (US Government) as an IT Specialist. The good parts are working with people passionate about their jobs, on things that truly matter. Work life balance and management trust is very high. The bad parts are there as well: outdated technology, lots of committees, long processes to do certain things. Pay is less then I could get in industry. Mixed bag: Not a "fast to fire" environme…

I have many of the same experiences within an agency of the USDA. It's certainly not fast paced, and you really have to have some experience to what different "IT Specialist" positions do at this branch vs. this other branch, etc... but I really do enjoy my current position as an IT Specialist / Systems Analyst and it has a very modern feel versus my previous gig with a different govt component. One of the unsung benefits to government work is the ability to network and get experience with entirely different 'fields,' so to speak, and potentially pivot (e.g. Development to Networking or Cybersecurity) without necessarily undertaking a new degree program etc.

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

#293

Post by stickfigure »

drzoltar wrote: post #208
jedberg wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started a startup a few days after I left. Also had a baby a few months before leaving and really liked the schedule flexibility when I was on paternity leave.

Can you speak about your experience building a startup with a newborn nearby?

Not the parent, but I have some experience here - my cofounder and I both had kids a month apart (four years ago). It switches you to playing the startup game in "hard mode", but it is doable with the right spouse(s).

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

#294

Post by rsj_hn »

tway35 wrote: post #284

Koch Industries Truly unique culture (go read Good Profit). Shockingly flexible organization, willing to do what’s best in the long run, and is investing tens of billions dollars in technology across numerous industries (Infor and Molex at one end of the spectrum and Flint Hills resources and Georgia Pacific at the other). https://jobs.kochcareers.com/search/information-systems-and-...

They make the softest toilet paper. There was one of those ersatz progressive boycotts of Koch Industries where they listed all the Koch owned brands and which brands were politically acceptable alternatives, and out of curiosity I bought some of the alternatives in my own ideological litmus test, if you will.

I have to say the progressive toilet paper (Cottonelle) was inferior to the conservative toilet paper (State Street owned Charmin and Koch owned Angel Soft & Quilted Northern). Not sure why that's the case - you'd think this would be a commodity - but that's how it is.

Just goes to show that even if your heart is progressive, your bum is reactionary.

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

#295

Post by bradly »

I worked at Apple and Intuit and were all great for me to work at, but both also had teams that were not great.

When I interview I make sure the interview is for a specific team with a specific manager and that the interview is with the manager or someone else directly on the team I will be working with. I've had to request and it hasn't been a problem yet.

> Management don't know what they want the product to be. Project managers don't know anything about technology.

Spicy take: These are things you should get used to if you are want to be a great engineer. You'll get varying degrees of this everywhere depending on your own personal views and knowledge.

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

#296

Post by the_only_law »

x3n0ph3n3 wrote: post #27

VMware has a lot of different teams working on very different and interesting problems. It's not listed with the FAANG companies, but it pays well and you won't feel like you're making the world worse off than it is. You'll probably see some complaints about some teams in VMware, but it's been mostly a great place to work.

I thought about applying to some positions with them a couple months back, but it was hard to get a good idea if I was gonna miserable or not.

Also the team I was looking at worked on a type of product that while technically intriguing to me, makes me want to rip my hair out as a user lol.

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

#297

Post by dahart »

advice_thrwawy9 wrote: post #97

I want to preface this by saying I would strongly heed the advice of version_five. All of the most toxic work places I've been at had cheerleaders that would tell you it was amazing. I have struggled with this issue for years and my approach was to build some heuristics based on where I've been happiest. I fundamentally believe the job landscape now for developers is just systemically worse than it was a decade ago,…

> I fundamentally believe the job landscape now for developers is just systemically worse than it was a decade ago

What aspects are you thinking of, and what reasons do you suspect?

The single biggest change between now and 10/20/30 years ago is the number of developers, and my gut reaction is that this could explain all of the problems you listed and more. It’s not like there haven’t always been some crappy software companies, but in my lifetime we’ve gone from only a few niche companies doing primarily software to hundreds of thousands. The number of devs has grown more than an order of magnitude since I started coding.

The growth of the field means that the trends in business practices combined with the law of averages will result in more people have bad and mediocre experiences. But it also means that there’s a larger pool of excellent top-10% or top-1% places to work, we just have to find them.

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

#298

Post by xiphias2 »

AnonHP wrote: post #285
xiphias2 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

,, The business model is refreshingly simple: people pay to watch shows they'll enjoy'' I believe that this is true, but I also have a feeling that the main goal for netflix is maximizing views, and not maximizing the experience per supscriber weighted by user spend. In other words I would prefer less, but very well thought out and executed movies that focus on having a great story (like House of Cards until the main…

>> ,, The business model is refreshingly simple: people pay to watch shows they'll enjoy'' > I believe that this is true, but I also have a feeling that the main goal for netflix is maximizing views, and not maximizing the experience per supscriber weighted by user spend. Not GP, but I believe Netflix has patterns to keep the subscriber in the app for as long as possible, including browsing through the list, adding t…

> making sure the person isn’t using another streaming service for longer.

Thanks, as I just pay for all available streaming services, I forgot that most people don't view them as orthogonal services...now the whole strategy makes so much more sense.

About the Netflix Original comment: it's again only about maximizing viewing time, but at least now I understand the reason. It means ,,not available on other streaming services, stay here''

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

#299

Post by tagawa »

I recently left DuckDuckGo (personal reasons) and would recommend it as an ethical but growth-oriented place to work. Lovely bunch of people with aligned values, a clear company strategy, and respect for individual freedom and personal situations.
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