Dark side of a Valley software engineer
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Dark side of a Valley software engineer
1–10 of 89 posts
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#2So basically the place that everybody knows that is _the_ place where you have to work 170h/week gets now negative feedback for working that much?
Oh well...
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#3So basically the place that everybody knows that is _the_ place where you have to work 170h/week gets now negative feedback for working that much? Oh well...
It reminds me of the pre-crash stories about corporate lawyers and then investment banking working mad work weeks. The difference at least in the case of SV that more people seem to enjoy their work.
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#4One of the quotes in this article was written by me on Quora. At the time of typing my response was intentended to be more of a semi serious rant.
Just thought this would be worth mentioning.
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#5While a lot of the stories are pretty much "this insane thing is considered normal around here", there's some that I feel are due to management and should be changed - long hours or not.
> harsh deadlines, huge backlog of tasks, fear to fail
This happens everywhere. Deadlines exist because customers exist. All backlogs grow until they're silly. Companies may have a fear to fail. But if you have multiple engineers and they're afraid of failure, that's on the management.
> If I get a page on the road I need to pull over and get on the system in 5 mins to start debugging.
That's just terrible planning. Why are people on call when they're traveling? Even some basic rule like adjusting working hours +/-1h for different people on call to account for commute would help. And we're talking about google who could just do 8h support in 3+ countries and get rid of on call apart from n-th tier "the world is on fire" specialists.
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#6Add to that the mental burnout of having to violate the natural project hopping progression.
The job does not care that you won't be able to get interested in their stuff for unknown amount of months. It must be done, and now.
Reading these stories - do people actually get paid more for doing more over there?
Here it's a fixed monthly salary, regardless of how much you do (as long as the deadlines are met).
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#7If working in the SV for such big companies (Google in primis I guess) why do so many people want to work there? Is it just the "brand" effect or it's really worth it (salary and perks aside)?
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#8Doesn't this describe most jobs that require some kind of technical expertise and creativity? I guess the silicon valley mystique/propaganda really works if people expect it to be vastly different from other jobs.
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#9While a lot of the stories are pretty much "this insane thing is considered normal around here", there's some that I feel are due to management and should be changed - long hours or not. > harsh deadlines, huge backlog of tasks, fear to fail This happens everywhere. Deadlines exist because customers exist. All backlogs grow until they're silly. Companies may have a fear to fail. But if you have multiple engineers and…
Could it be it's just how it works in USA? I'm a software engineer in London and in the last 2 years I haven't done a single minute of overtime.
Re: Dark side of a Valley software engineer
#10>>If your manager is not a software engineer himself you will have even more stress.
Someone should do something about this. Certain other professions, such as the law, protect workers from incompetent management, in many jurisdictions.
It might also attract more people to the profession if you knew your boss had done something similar.