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Ask HN: What is your failure story?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your failure story?

#41

Post by justinclift »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #23
tracer4201 wrote: post #20

Not a complete failure story, but I joined a FANG company as an entry level engineer. In about three and a half years, I’ve gone through two promotions. My most recent team where I got promoted to senior engineer is demoralizing to me and gives me anxiety even thinking about work. I’m feeling a mixture of burnout and just a general disinterest in my teams domain area. My current team has also grown in ways I didn’t e…

Thanks for your post. I am currently at a startup and have been here a few years. I came to really hate the environment, mostly because the people this company can hire are not what I would personally consider talented (due to a mix of non-exponential company growth and lower compensations than FAANG companies). The result of hiring low quality professionals is that the engineering standards are so low that it really…

Maybe make the move to a FAANG, just to get a real world idea of what that's like?

Your life journey is unlikely to be damaged by it, and the greater understanding of the world (etc) will likely be beneficial. Warts and all. ;)

Re: Ask HN: What is your failure story?

#42

Post by tracer4201 »

deanmoriarty wrote: post #23
tracer4201 wrote: post #20

Not a complete failure story, but I joined a FANG company as an entry level engineer. In about three and a half years, I’ve gone through two promotions. My most recent team where I got promoted to senior engineer is demoralizing to me and gives me anxiety even thinking about work. I’m feeling a mixture of burnout and just a general disinterest in my teams domain area. My current team has also grown in ways I didn’t e…

Thanks for your post. I am currently at a startup and have been here a few years. I came to really hate the environment, mostly because the people this company can hire are not what I would personally consider talented (due to a mix of non-exponential company growth and lower compensations than FAANG companies). The result of hiring low quality professionals is that the engineering standards are so low that it really…

There are significant pro's. I become 10x the engineer working at FAANG in 6 months vs. the 2 years at my previous company. I worked on impactful projects with huge visibility, both internally and externally. Also, the started off "meh" but over the years, it's increased decently (mostly as a result of increasing stock comp).

I don't want to ruin all of FAANG for you.

Re: Ask HN: What is your failure story?

#43

Post by crimsonalucard »

kadendogthing wrote: post #29
crimsonalucard wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also need to be a person worth fighting for. It goes both ways.

Presumably that's what the hiring process is for.

Right. Everyone knows that the hiring process is perfect and accurate and that if you're hired there's no need to prove yourself because you already did that in the interview are you kidding me?

Re: Ask HN: What is your failure story?

#45

Post by kadendogthing »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #43
kadendogthing wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably that's what the hiring process is for.

Right. Everyone knows that the hiring process is perfect and accurate and that if you're hired there's no need to prove yourself because you already did that in the interview are you kidding me?

I think you have a very maligned view of what managers should be if you agree with the thought that people need to prove themselves to managers to be "fought for." Especially over a mistake that multiple layers of the organization didn't catch and weren't equipped to handle.

No I'm not kidding you. That view point seems either very naive or nonconstructive. And considering you had to resort to a disingenuous straw man in order to respond to something I didn't say or imply, I'd say the latter is more likely.

Re: Ask HN: What is your failure story?

#46

Post by crimsonalucard »

kadendogthing wrote: post #45
crimsonalucard wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Everyone knows that the hiring process is perfect and accurate and that if you're hired there's no need to prove yourself because you already did that in the interview are you kidding me?

I think you have a very maligned view of what managers should be if you agree with the thought that people need to prove themselves to managers to be "fought for." Especially over a mistake that multiple layers of the organization didn't catch and weren't equipped to handle. No I'm not kidding you. That view point seems either very naive or nonconstructive. And considering you had to resort to a disingenuous straw ma…

You need to constantly prove yourself everyday. Lets put it this way. If I don't show up for work and I did well on the interview. I'm not proving myself aren't I? If I do horrible work, if my code is buggy and full of errors then what am I?

No manager will fight for that despite a strong interview. This is simple logic and common sense.

Obviously the person in the original posting proved himself.

Re: Ask HN: What is your failure story?

#47

Post by notafrog »

ideonexus wrote: post #8

I was responsible for a software bug that forced the entire United States Coast Guard to revert to using paper records to track all of their Aviation Logistics for an entire month. The bug was in an aircraft maintenance dashboard that had over a dozen filters on it. It passed a thorough round of QAing, but once in production it was found that a specific selection of filters would create an infinite loop in the report…

Wow...I can't even begin to imagine how awful you must have felt. But, in hindsight, it's really cool too, in a weird way.
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