Are there any of these tips that stop being true if you substitute "Google" for any other large tech organization?
Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
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Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#12I love the ending line: > Finally, if you get fed up of working for a big company, consider joining a startup. This one posting probably did more damage to google hiring from the HN ranks than all the others that I've seen to date. With friends like that who needs enemies.
To be fair, Piaw sells a book all about how to get a job at a startup (http://books.piaw.net/guide/index.html). The progression he describes in the article ("fed up working for a big company" -> startup) is probably his own as well.
Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#13That must be the most depressing thing I read in quite a while.
Agreed... it's supposedly one of the few remaining companies that actually respect engineers, but this post pretty much comes out and says otherwise in bold, flashing letters.
"(Exception: War-room firefighting. Google loves those, and loves heroic performances from people in war-rooms)"
The whole "war room" concept in IT has always bothered me -- it's what managers do when they have a crisis that they don't know how to deal with. It's usually a crisis that they could have avoided if they'd actually done their own job in the first place. War rooms are also invariably where the worst of the developers end up -- at Disney the war room period was one of our most product weeks as a result. Of course, the folks who got rewarded were the ones in the war room, even though their primary contribution was to strut around in front of a bunch of executives while the rest of the team got project work done and the operations team had already figured out what went wrong.
Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#14So what is the effect of promotions? The article hints at one thing: Higher salary cap. Are there other things?
So far in my own career, I have recognized a few situations where I could choose to climb the career ladder. In all of those situations, I have chosen not to. The new responsibilities did not seem to be worth it. I believe I have a much more interesting job as a consequence, and as far as I can tell, my salary has not been hurt noticeably (I do fight for my pay rise).
Do you really have to add "flare" to your title in google to be successful? Makes me not want to work there.
Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#15Had to look up "SRE":
SRE: Site reliability engineer
SWE: Software engineer
Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#16I love the ending line: > Finally, if you get fed up of working for a big company, consider joining a startup. This one posting probably did more damage to google hiring from the HN ranks than all the others that I've seen to date. With friends like that who needs enemies.
I know several established engineers at Google. One recently invited me to tour the GooglePlex. My host did express some frustrations, but I don't believe that the blog post presents an unbiased view of life at Google.
Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#17[deleted]
Automate as much of the maintenance as you can.
Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#18Had to look up "SRE": SRE: Site reliability engineer SWE: Software engineer
It seems that I should have answered acronyms to the "Ask HN: What annoys you?" question[1].
Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#19This is good advice for any large company, not just Google. Tips #3 and #4 are key - I would prioritize those higher than #1 and #2. In short - make sure your manager/leader is capable of pushing you; make sure you get to work on visible projects; and optimize your time to make contributions to the more visible projects. One of the things I wish someone had told me a long time ago.
Yeah but I think most people see working at Google as all unicorns and rainbows. Its a bit disheartening to find out that in someways its not.
Re: Tips for Noogler Engineers (Noogler = New at Google)
#20It is worth noting that Piaw quit Google, and so is biased by that, and the experiences leading up to that. And internally lots of people have found lots of things to disagree with about specific items on his list. There are others that there have been pushes to improve on since. So take all of it with a grain of salt.
That said, he does have a lot of experience, so you shouldn't lightly disregard what he says either.
But, more fundamentally, ask yourself what your goal is. If your goal is to move up the ladder as efficiently as possible, his advice is probably pretty good. If your goal is to enjoy your job, everyone will like you better if you feel free to disregard whatever doesn't fit who you are.