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Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

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Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#51

Post by danpalmer »

sjtgraham wrote: post #43
United857 wrote: post #22

I'm biased, but I'd say out of all the "big" tech companies, FB has the best engineering culture. * With few exceptions, engineers aren't hired for a specific team; they go through bootcamp where they get exposure to all parts of the stack and tasks from different teams. * Ideas usually come from engineers. Managers are there to be a sounding board/connect you with people resources as needed. * Moving fast is valued…

> * With only very few exceptions, every engineer has access to the near-entirety of source code at FB (Oculus, Whatsapp, Instagram...). What are the exceptions?

I think the author meant that the exceptions were Oculus, WhatsApp and Instagram. This would make sense given that they are acquisitions and appear to have separate offices, deployments, datacenters, etc in some cases.

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#52

Post by exfacebook »

dasmoth wrote: post #50
exfacebook wrote: post #32

Facebook --- far and away the best engineering culture I've ever seen, and I've been programming for 20 years. Other companies aren't even in the same league. Facebook has an incredibly high hiring bar. I never once met someone who I didn't feel was qualified to be there. I was seldom the smartest person in the room. The high average engineer quality allows the company to give developers almost complete autonomy. At…

As someone who generally wouldn't look at large companies, that does make FB sound kind-of interesting. One question: how much emphasis is placed on day-to-day visibility? Is it legitimate to hide in a corner for a few weeks trying something out?

> Is it legitimate to hide in a corner for a few weeks trying something out?

Yes.

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#53

Post by [deleted] »

dasmoth wrote: post #50
exfacebook wrote: post #32

Facebook --- far and away the best engineering culture I've ever seen, and I've been programming for 20 years. Other companies aren't even in the same league. Facebook has an incredibly high hiring bar. I never once met someone who I didn't feel was qualified to be there. I was seldom the smartest person in the room. The high average engineer quality allows the company to give developers almost complete autonomy. At…

As someone who generally wouldn't look at large companies, that does make FB sound kind-of interesting. One question: how much emphasis is placed on day-to-day visibility? Is it legitimate to hide in a corner for a few weeks trying something out?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#54

Post by [deleted] »

FlorianRappl wrote: post #49

I am surprised that no one mentioned Microsoft so far. These days they are professional, innovation-driven, and do not bring in much of the unnecessary cult that comes with companies like Google. They are more open than Apple. Also from a personal experience I think their interviews / hiring methods are better than all of the other big players.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#55

Post by fdsfsaa »

jacalata wrote: post #27
sargun wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it true that pivots have to be in the office at a specific time?

Yes, because they do 100% pair programming. When you rely on someone else being there at the same time as you, you need predictable hours. It's possible they don't need to be as fixed as they are, but that's how they've chosen to do it.

> 100% pair programming

I don't think there's a faster way to send me running away screaming. I'd actually take "100% Visual Basic" over "100% Pair Programming" if I had to choose one at gunpoint.

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#56

Post by 8a »

singingfish wrote: post #39
JOURNEYSA wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google python coding style looks like java...

I've always maintained that python is perl for bureaucrats, so that makes total sense :)

Can you expand on this?

Also, what do you prefer over Python?

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#57

Post by fdsfsaa »

Vinnl wrote: post #36

Reading the Netflix engineering blog now and then, I do appreciate how many of their engineering decisions also take into account the effect it will have on their colleagues, i.e. "does this change affect how quickly/independently our engineers can do stuff"?

Netflix's stack ranking is a huge turnoff though. Netflix's philosophy is that it has no loyalty to employees and expects none in return. Regardless of Netflix's other attributes, this policy is a huge turn-off.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3056662/the-future-of-work/she-c...

If I wanted great pay and cutthroat competition, why wouldn't I just work in finance? The finance industry isn't stupid. They have developer efficiency teams too.

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#58

Post by meunclealf »

Valve's dev culture is quite good. Teams are very small and each developer can get a lot done. You decide which team you're on and what work you do. There's no manager on a dev team; there's a team lead but the role is taken on as more of a service to organize discussion rather than dictate the team's focus.

It's a very collaborative environment and requires that each person is good at figuring out what's important to work on. For those suited to it, it's a hard place to beat.

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#59

Post by pyb »

exfacebook wrote: post #32

Facebook --- far and away the best engineering culture I've ever seen, and I've been programming for 20 years. Other companies aren't even in the same league. Facebook has an incredibly high hiring bar. I never once met someone who I didn't feel was qualified to be there. I was seldom the smartest person in the room. The high average engineer quality allows the company to give developers almost complete autonomy. At…

That sounds great ! This said, as an outsider, I can't quite tell what FB engineers are working on these days ? (apart from the Oculus team)

Re: Ask HN: What current companies have the best software engineering culture?

#60

Post by traviscj »

danpalmer wrote: post #51
sjtgraham wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * With only very few exceptions, every engineer has access to the near-entirety of source code at FB (Oculus, Whatsapp, Instagram...). What are the exceptions?

I think the author meant that the exceptions were Oculus, WhatsApp and Instagram. This would make sense given that they are acquisitions and appear to have separate offices, deployments, datacenters, etc in some cases.

Data point: I read it the other way, that all employees could look at all of those things, and that the exceptions were un-named.

I'd imagine the exceptions are some small black boxes that try to catch abuse/spam/etc in various ways & places, or are closed off to prevent a code leak from exploiting a loophole in said software. Defense in depth, and all...

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