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Working at Netflix 2017

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Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#101

Post by phamilton »

ryandrake wrote: post #95
kzisme wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source?

LOL, you won't find one, because if true that's got to be an outlier by several standard deviations. Whenever a salary discussion comes up on HN, someone always comes out of the woodwork to let us all know that his brother's niece's room-mate's boyfriend makes $300K+ at BIG_TECH_CO, so therefore that must be what tech companies pay.

I don't know why people are so adamant about this being an outlier. Yes, not all tech companies pay $300k+ for senior engineers. But Netflix/Google/Facebook do. I don't know why that should be a problem for people. Denying it, and mocking anyone who brings it up, just depresses wages for engineers across the board.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#102

Post by runT1ME »

ryandrake wrote: post #95
kzisme wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source?

LOL, you won't find one, because if true that's got to be an outlier by several standard deviations. Whenever a salary discussion comes up on HN, someone always comes out of the woodwork to let us all know that his brother's niece's room-mate's boyfriend makes $300K+ at BIG_TECH_CO, so therefore that must be what tech companies pay.

Netflix has an employee stock purchase program that let's them purchase stock at a discount. Netflix's stock went from 80 to 160 in the last year, so I think it's not too far fetched to assume some of the less risk averse Netflix employees did fantastic in the last couple years.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#103

Post by conanbatt »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #58
conanbatt wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source? Glassdoor shows 200k https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Netflix-Senior-Software-Eng...

Glassdoor would be completely wrong.

H1b visa for next flix doesnt show almost* anything above 200k either. Biased sample, but still. Im sure some make that amount, but i gotta wonder about how many.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#104

Post by sqeaky »

jclardy wrote: post #97
sqeaky wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I must have missed the part of Netflix ToS that gives me ownership of all their content for $9.99 a month. I do agree with you for purchases that have DRM, but this is a subscription service - you watch when you pay, not when you don't.

I was answering in the general sense about what was wrong with DRM not anything specifically about Netflix, I even prefaced my comment with "It hasn't happened with Netflix on any large scale, yet".

But why can't I use their service on a device of my choosing at a resolution of my choice? Why is my perfectly capable Ubuntu machine limited to 720p and a windows machine isn't?

Having some kind of standardized access where I didn't have to put up with their BS would go a long way towards making that easier for me to deal with.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#105

Post by toomuchtodo »

phamilton wrote: post #98
toomuchtodo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Supplying sufficient video to be responsible for 25% of consumer internet bandwidth is a different story.

Can you be more specific? Do you mean producing their original content? Or rendering renditions for each bitrate, and then pushing those renditions out to their custom CDN appliances? (OpenConnect)

I can most definitely get behind original content production being hard. But pushing a couple hundred TB (or even low double digit PB) of data out to CDNs doesn't require a fleet of devs.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#106

Post by tigershark »

zimzam wrote: post #71
pmiller2 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 un…

those programs are just a justification to fire people more easily most of the time. Have you got a different first hand experience in the company that you mentioned?

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#108

Post by arielweisberg »

ryandrake wrote: post #90
bmwe30is wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would venture to say that our family-friendliness, stability, and benefits are on par (if not better) than other large companies. Everyone takes whatever time off they need. There's no guilt associated - we always shun folks that check email and chat channels when they take vacation. I personally appreciate cash directly in my pocket versus a gym, yoga rooms, and toys scattered about in the office. I come to the of…

> I also appreciate the sense of mobility in my career. I don't have to wait four+ years for stock options to vest. Four years is a very long time in any tech company. On the flip side, you also don't want to be faced with a massive drop in your take-home pay after the 4th year (once salary+RSU becomes just salary), forcing you to jump ship. I've been to a few "vesting parties" for co-workers where they quit after ex…

I am surprised to hear there is any company that just quits you on stock cold turkey.

The expectation everywhere I have been is that you will get refresher grants not just at the end of year four but earlier than that. Anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.

Either way I don't care what they do. If my compensation changes for the worse for the worse (knock on wood has never happened) or my stock isn't performing then I deal with it then.

I value options from every company that gave me them at zero and 2/2 I was right. Hell they had negative value at one since I exercised and I really think I will be lucky if I even get that money back. Getting crammed at every financing event sucks. Live and learn I guess.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#109

Post by user5994461 »

phamilton wrote: post #98
toomuchtodo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Supplying sufficient video to be responsible for 25% of consumer internet bandwidth is a different story.

Akamai can do that for you just fine.

Re: Working at Netflix 2017

#110

Post by user5994461 »

conanbatt wrote: post #103
pfarnsworth wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glassdoor would be completely wrong.

H1b visa for next flix doesnt show almost* anything above 200k either. Biased sample, but still. Im sure some make that amount, but i gotta wonder about how many.

H1B is biased against high salaries. Immigrants are not aware of local salaries and can't change companies.
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