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Working at Netflix 2017

brendangregg.com

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Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#71

Post by zimzam »

pmiller2 wrote: post #14
zerr wrote: post #4

Are they still proud of high turn-over rate and the "culture of fear"?

By "culture of fear," do you mean the way they stated their willingness to let anyone go if doing so better meets the company's needs than retaining them? That's just what all large companies do; they're just making it explicit.

Nope: some companies, such as Chase, have programs to retain employees and find them other roles within the company when there are layoffs. Chase specifically gives their employees 6 months notice before eliminating the position to give people time to move around.

Netflix's culture involved letting people go when they were away on short-term disability: that's not business as usual, that's a particularly harsh and unforgiving culture.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#72

Post by sqeaky »

paulddraper wrote: post #64
EpicEng wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically, what's their option here? Take a stance on an issue not everyone agrees upon (and which most people don't care about) which could potentially shut them down in the long run?

> which could potentially shut them down in the long run Yes, if we ever possessed the technology to pirate movies, everyone would watch them and the industry couldn't survive.

I think he meant hollywood could withhold license to big name movies.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#73

Post by bmoyles »

foepys wrote: post #55

This might be a bit off-topic but I heard that Netflix pays pretty well, even compared to other SV tech firms. Why does the author only have a pretty small desk directly at a (what I assume) small recreational area? Is this considered a normal desk at a top SV tech firm? I'd probably go nuts after a few days because people are constantly passing by and are talking while I want to concentrate on work. I'm from Germany…

It's not a high-traffic area at all (I'm at the other end of his row, and I've got a high-traffic seat w/ high walls to block visual "noise"). While I would prefer an office (solo or shared with a few), we're given enough options that in general, it's not bad at all.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#74

Post by abritinthebay »

btym wrote: post #37
scarface74 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see anything controversial about encrypting media you rent. The whole canard about DRM is that you don't own the media. You're not paying for ownership of Netflix videos. You're paying for access.

I've always thought that streaming services' main goal should be to be more convenient than digital piracy. That's when they win- when the service provides such a clear advantage over piracy that people are happy to pay money for it. At the moment, aside from ethical qualms, it is often more convenient for Linux, FF, and Chrome users to pirate Netflix's content. DRM, ironically, promotes piracy.

> streaming services' main goal should be to be more convenient than digital piracy

That's a sensible goal. But Netflix is more convenient and has DRM.

They aren't mutually exclusive. They probably are for purchases of media (in fact... I'd say certainly are) but for streaming it's not.

The big thing with streaming is speed of access to the content and Netflix/et al are much better than piracy at that (it's instant vs waiting, even a short while, for a BT download... once you find it).

Streaming services main downside vs piracy is the catalog - piracy wins there, but by less in practical terms than you might expect.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#75

Post by cavanasm »

scarface74 wrote: post #59
helthanatos wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Netflix's library is incredibly small compared to the amount of shows people actually watch. Netflix now blocks rooted Android devices. Netflix's originals are mostly terrible. So piracy vs $10/month for so much less is just painful. They don't allow anything more than 720p on chrome quite ironic considering the widevine deal. So yes, it seems Netflix is much more inconvenient than piracy.

Netflix's originals are mostly terrible. http://fortune.com/2016/09/16/emmys-preview-netflix/

While I also strongly disagree that Netflix's originals are "mostly terrible", I also think that awards shows are not as objective a judge of quality as I (and I imagine many others) would like.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#76

Post by abritinthebay »

helthanatos wrote: post #46
btym wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always thought that streaming services' main goal should be to be more convenient than digital piracy. That's when they win- when the service provides such a clear advantage over piracy that people are happy to pay money for it. At the moment, aside from ethical qualms, it is often more convenient for Linux, FF, and Chrome users to pirate Netflix's content. DRM, ironically, promotes piracy.

Also, Netflix's library is incredibly small compared to the amount of shows people actually watch. Netflix now blocks rooted Android devices. Netflix's originals are mostly terrible. So piracy vs $10/month for so much less is just painful. They don't allow anything more than 720p on chrome quite ironic considering the widevine deal. So yes, it seems Netflix is much more inconvenient than piracy.

> originals are mostly terrible.

... are you from some kind of parallel universe? They're incredibly successful from an awards and audience perspective.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#77

Post by brendangregg »

Cieplak wrote: post #57

@brendangregg You mentioned FreeBSD; what are your thoughts on the state of DTrace on Linux vs FreeBSD? ps: I love your DTrace book! It's sitting on my desk now.

Linux caught up last year: http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2016-10-27/dtrace-for-linux...

Thanks for getting the book! DTrace is invaluable for solving a set of needs, and we're using it on our FreeBSD CDN. Over time, Linux has been adding capabilities that can solve the same set of needs, although using different technologies.

Right now, the Linux kernel (4.9+) can do the same things as DTrace, but the interface we're using (bcc/BPF) is currently 10+ times more verbose and much more difficult to use. Who does that hurt the most? At Netflix, me, as it's my job to add advanced observability to our analysis GUIs, and actually write the bcc/BPF.

So far I've given conference talks on bcc/BPF at Performance@Scale, USENIX LISA, linux.conf.au, BSidesSF, and SCALE. Next is Velocity Conf.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#78

Post by sqeaky »

overcast wrote: post #70
paulddraper wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which could potentially shut them down in the long run Yes, if we ever possessed the technology to pirate movies, everyone would watch them and the industry couldn't survive.

Right, so we'll make it stupid simple for people to do. A giant, unencrypted library of movies, that can be saved and redistributed. Pirating exists, but if I asked most people how to do it, they still wouldn't know how to download a torrent client, find the torrent, unpack the movie, get a movie player, etc.. You know how locks on your front door keeps the honest thieves out? Same idea. I've never understood the com…

The point where things break because of it.

It hasn't happened with Netflix on any large scale, yet. But it has happened in the past. There are videos games that are single player and can't be played without an active connection back to the publisher. What happens when the publisher doesn't like you or mislabels you as a pirate? What if you just want to play the video game you bought and payed fro without an Internet connection?

There were music stores that only played music through special software after getting decryption keys from an active connection to the Internet, and some of those stores shut down. What happened with the millions of dollars paid into those stores? What about the songs? Did you know that decrypting a song you bought and paid for is a crime?

Consider: https://xkcd.com/488/

I would rather get out in front of this entirely artificial problem before I have to support my friends and family who don't understand the nature of this problem.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#79

Post by toomuchtodo »

bmwe30is wrote: post #50
zerr wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could understand this if interviews were broken (in a different way) at Netflix - is this the case? i.e. is it ridiculously easy to get a job there?

I wouldn't say it's easy to get a job here. I've been working here for nearly 2 years now. The interview process is as challenging as it needs to be to find the right people for the job. This varies from team to team. We don't follow a corporate set of rules to hire engineers. This company is more adamant about letting folks go whom don't get the work done or aren't able to perform. They want good engineers to solve…

> They want good engineers to solve challenging problems.

Serve bits. Suggest movies based on coarse signals. Is there much left?

Netflix is not SpaceX nor Tesla; its an online Blockbuster Video. Serving video in 2017 is not complicated.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#80

Post by openmosix »

jedberg wrote: post #47
blazespin wrote: post #41

Netflix has a 3.4 rating on Glassdoor. Yikes. I wouldn't consider working at a company unless it had 4 or more.

I would never use Glassdoor for evaluating a company. It skews towards people who are upset, they don't verify that you actually worked there, and they combine hourly workers with salary workers, which could be two very different experiences.

Not to mention that most of the experiences are team-based. In any medium/large size company, you can end up in a terrible team and your view of the company is very negative. You can end up with a brilliant manager and great team, and you love the company.
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