Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#421

Post by codeviking » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:44 PM UTC

khazhoux wrote: post #346

This thread is seriously in need of some tough love. @faang0722, you're being a slacker, and not doing right by either your company or yourself. You're at one of the top companies in the world, and are safe from the jobs disaster that's gripping the entire country. Millions of people are desperate to receive $600-1600 from the government this month because they are unable to work. Millions are putting on shitty facem…

This seems like good advice, but is presented poorly.

You're meeting expectations, which is great, but don't stop there. You recognize that you (and your teammates) could be doing more, so make it happen. You're entirely capable and empowered to do so:

- Fix that technical debt. - Identify better tooling and demonstrate it's value to your teammates. - Proactively find things your software could do better and write about them. Don't be discouraged if people don't bite on the first few, you'll find one eventually that's too good to not pursue.

Sure, you could accept the status quo and coast like some of your teammates, but you'll be unhappy (and bored). Do what makes you happy -- identify, evangelize, prototype and build.

All of this doesn't mean you're lazy for having posted this -- just that you need encouragement to make the things happen that'll make you happier and more fulfilled at the end of the day.

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#422

Post by sharadov » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

Work the other 5 days on a side project - open source, personal project, satisfy your passion there. Or, leave and work for a startup. You will have plenty of problems to solve, but no stability.

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#423

Post by turing_complete » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

Ericson2314 wrote: post #353

khazhoux wrote: post #346

This thread is seriously in need of some tough love. @faang0722, you're being a slacker, and not doing right by either your company or yourself. You're at one of the top companies in the world, and are safe from the jobs disaster that's gripping the entire country. Millions of people are desperate to receive $600-1600 from the government this month because they are unable to work. Millions are putting on shitty facem…

OP is a freeloader at a rent seaker. Your simplistic morals fail to account for the bigger picture.

Come on, Amazon is not a rent seeker. It's quite the opposite.

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#424

Post by neutronicus » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

dnautics wrote: post #358

whoisjuan wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the fallacy of modern tech-based capitalism and I hate it. The job that I enjoyed the least and where I also did the least amount of work was the best salary I ever had. The value that I added through that job was nominal at best. Other jobs that paid less felt more challenging and exponentially more interesting. Needless to say that happiness was proportional as well. I came to terms with the idea of lowerin…

> This is the fallacy of modern tech-based capitalism and I hate it I hate to break it to you but no capitalism (and for that matter no non-capitalism) has ever been structured in a way that would satisfy you. For labor to be compensated for its "true worth" there needs to be a way to accurately judge what the "true worth" of the labor is, and honestly, the person to whom it matters the most is the laborer. This suff…

I do think "do what you love" and its cousin "shoot for the stars" get a lot of people in trouble.

Personally, "doing" in all its myriad forms isn't something I'm really capable of "loving." Similarly, "dreams" are more of a crushing anxiety-burden than a source of joy.

I think about this a lot because my younger sister, whose personality was similar to mine, but with more conscientiousness thrown in, took her own life in 2014, while enrolled in a top-14 law school and after graduating from Stanford. I get a lot of the mental-illness platitudes re: that, amounting to the idea that if only society had done a better job of ensuring that she got herself to the brain-mechanic and providing better brain-mechanics she'd be a high-achieving lawyer, passionate about the causes she's representing, today.

I wonder, though. She was not ambitious as a kid, and maybe if people had treated this as her personality and not a pathology, she'd have gone to a worse school, taken an easier path, and been happy and alive today.

Me, I have like, some ambitions, and I enjoy my job at times, but it's all in service of the comfort and security of my family and self. And honestly I think this "slacker" personality is on balance an asset for fatherhood.

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#425

Post by quicklime » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

vayeate wrote: post #279

cactus2093 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Microsoft generally pay software engineers as much as Netflix though? My impression is no.

Also my impression. FAANG isn't necessarily about market cap, it's about the highest paying and sexiest jobs you can get for a large employer

The term FANG (and FAANG) was coined and popularized by stock market investors, not tech workers/job hunters. So it's about the highest growth large-cap tech stocks, not the absolute largest market caps or most well-paid/prestigious jobs.

It was coined in the Ballmer days, when MSFT's stock price had been stagnant for about a decade, so no surprise that it got left out. Things are different today though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Tech#FAANG

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#426

Post by icedchai » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

Godel_unicode wrote: post #366

khazhoux wrote: post #346

This thread is seriously in need of some tough love. @faang0722, you're being a slacker, and not doing right by either your company or yourself. You're at one of the top companies in the world, and are safe from the jobs disaster that's gripping the entire country. Millions of people are desperate to receive $600-1600 from the government this month because they are unable to work. Millions are putting on shitty facem…

I have a subtly different take on this; op is cheating themselves. They work in a field famous for people deriving immense satisfaction from their job, but they aren't because they are living down to the expectations of others.

Seriously? I don't know anyone in this field who derives immense satisfaction from their job. Maybe if they're less than 5 years out of school and reality still hasn't hit yet...

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#427

Post by ipnon » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

fennecfoxen wrote: post #143

itsmeamario wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending where you're based this isn't true. At my country in Europe I could earn 1000€ / month cleaning offices and common Programmer salaries' are 1200 - 1500€ / month

Programmers in Europe are underpaid as a group. I moved from London to New York and literally doubled my salary (almost exactly 2x). And London is at the high end for Europe.

Corollary, toilet cleaners in America are underpaid as a group. I don't want to get into a heated political debate, I just want to suggest an alternative view point that I find compelling when discussing American vs. European software salaries. Don't toilet cleaners in Germany have better lives than toiler cleaners in Kentucky?

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#428

Post by JackFr » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:48 PM UTC

qqj wrote: post #373

yelloweyes wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why are "tough love" people always douchebags?

because they don't have solutions or useful advise. They don't think anything is wrong but the person who's presenting the actual problem. It's sometimes useful to consider the possibility you're wrong, but what OP describes is clearly not unique to his team or company. Many of us are in the same boat. So at least in this particular case, the "toughlover" is indeed, a "douchebag".

Because the tough love solution is always "Take responsibility for improving your own situation."

The complainer says "It's not my fault!" The tough-lover responds, "Yes, it's not your fault. But it's still your problem."

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#429

Post by qntty » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

khazhoux wrote: post #386

qntty wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AKA, please work harder for your corporate masters because poor people are suffering. What's that? You want your corporate masters to pay a fair share of tax so poor will suffer less? No, just work harder and that extra work won't benefit people who need it.

Yes, he should work harder -- he admits to working only one day a week, and then actively pretends (by "trickling out" work) that it took longer. Let's please not pretend that it's normal or OK to have 6-day weekends every single week. He is being compensated (I infer) very well for a safe and comfortable job, except he doesn't like the tooling and he's realized that people trust him and he doesn't need to be honest…

Reflectively pointing to imperatives like "normal or OK" when someone is having a moment of questioning imperatives that have got them this far is unhelpful. Why does it matter what's normal or OK? Maybe the thing that OP should be doing is something that's considered by many to be abnormal or not OK. If you want to convince OP that they should be working harder then fine. I'm not saying that's the wrong conclusion, but at least give a reason that's more useful than (a) other people are suffering therefore work (makes no sense) or (b) do what's normal or OK (why?) or even (c) you have a moral duty because you're being paid well (unconvincing as an argument and psychologically unmotivating).

Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

#430

Post by baccheion » Thu, Jul 23, 2020, 4:49 PM UTC

Sounds like Google 2010. You'll never receive a promotion. Have you been through a performance cycle to see what you're rated?

I was in the same position many years ago, but they used the lack of output to try sabotaging.

Money is all that measures these jobs. Even if able to do something at a startup, the company/product will likely be shuttered within a short period of time. That is, there'll never really be an opportunity for it to shine or be used. You could've just done that at home. Further, the shuttered company lives on as a technicality to still own everything you did with them.

If able to also work stable/normal hours and only 5 days/week, that is another positive step. I spent hours day on night working on that nothing. Set hours leaves time outside of work. Waste not, eh?

Definitely save. At least 50% of take-home salary. To a high-yield investment account, even if just buying into the S&P 500. Avoid debt. Always pay cash, even for a house.

You may have problems finding another job with nothing to represent your time. On the other hand, supply and demand. Beggars and choosers. More importantly, most just lie on their resume anyway.