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Why I Don’t Work At Google

sarahmei.com

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Re: Why I Don’t Work At Google

#71

Post by studer »

Tichy wrote: post #68
shadowsun7 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It seems as if she's taking whatever she's experienced in Microsoft (which is one company) and applying that to any other company with multidisciplinary teams and a large bureaucratic layer. She should, at least, give working in Google a chance (maybe a couple years or so?) before writing something like this.

I am struggling with the decision to accept a job offer at the moment, and I keep hearing this: "why don't you just try it (for a couple of years)". And I don't understand it. Granted, I could quit after 3 months, but it would probably invoke bad feelings. So I assume for employment I would be looking into at least one year. That is HUGE investment of time. It is 3% of my officially remaining time in the work force (…

So what's your alternative?

Re: Why I Don’t Work At Google

#72

Post by studer »

olliesaunders wrote: post #58
shadowsun7 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. It seems as if she's taking whatever she's experienced in Microsoft (which is one company) and applying that to any other company with multidisciplinary teams and a large bureaucratic layer. She should, at least, give working in Google a chance (maybe a couple years or so?) before writing something like this.

Your statement isn't really refuting her argument though. Sure, any sufficiently inexperienced individual might be wrong, but inexperience does not guarantee wrongness.

Generalizing from a single example often does guarantee that you're missing a whole lot, though. It's almost as bad as generalizing from no examples, even when the single example is a good one. Which it wasn't, in this case.

Re: Why I Don’t Work At Google

#73

Post by babycakes »

dangrossman wrote: post #53
tensor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree on the less signal part of your comment. To me, it looks like more and more signal. Since search, we've seen maps, mail, reader, chrome, android, app engine, big table, google docs, wave, google voice, a google branded phone, google fibre to the home for those lucky enough, prediction api, charts, dns services, @font-face directory, google home page, and others many others. Sure, some of those have been bu…

Some? Only one or two things in that entire list originated at G.

[citation needed]

Re: Why I Don’t Work At Google

#74

Post by xenomachina »

dangrossman wrote: post #53
tensor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree on the less signal part of your comment. To me, it looks like more and more signal. Since search, we've seen maps, mail, reader, chrome, android, app engine, big table, google docs, wave, google voice, a google branded phone, google fibre to the home for those lucky enough, prediction api, charts, dns services, @font-face directory, google home page, and others many others. Sure, some of those have been bu…

Some? Only one or two things in that entire list originated at G.

First, why does it matter what "originated" there? Many of the projects that didn't originate at Google wouldn't have seen the light of day if Google or someone with comparative capital hadn't acquired them. And actually, it's a bit ironic that you make this complaint here given the subject of the article, since acquiring startups is a way to hire people who are both smart and get things done.

"Originated" is also somewhat ambiguous. There are at least a couple of examples where Google was working on a project internally and saw a similar external project that they decided to acquire and merge with the internal project. Did the resulting project "originate" at Google? Even if you answer no, I think at least half of the items at that list still "originated" at Google.

Re: Why I Don’t Work At Google

#75

Post by Tichy »

studer wrote: post #71
Tichy wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am struggling with the decision to accept a job offer at the moment, and I keep hearing this: "why don't you just try it (for a couple of years)". And I don't understand it. Granted, I could quit after 3 months, but it would probably invoke bad feelings. So I assume for employment I would be looking into at least one year. That is HUGE investment of time. It is 3% of my officially remaining time in the work force (…

So what's your alternative?

Freelancing, selecting projects with shorter durations. Saving enough money to be able to bootstrap a startup and determine one's own working conditions.

Though I might be unique in feeling uneasy about quitting a job after a short amount of time (like a month). Maybe for other people it is not as much of an issue.

Re: Why I Don’t Work At Google

#76

Post by matwood »

Tichy wrote: post #75
studer wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's your alternative?

Freelancing, selecting projects with shorter durations. Saving enough money to be able to bootstrap a startup and determine one's own working conditions. Though I might be unique in feeling uneasy about quitting a job after a short amount of time (like a month). Maybe for other people it is not as much of an issue.

You shouldn't feel uneasy about quitting within 90 days. Most employes have the 90 day provision to fire you if you don't work out, so just use the same logic.
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