Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#31

Post by burlesona » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:46 PM UTC

totalZero wrote: post #17

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. Happy to answer any questions about the post or about my experience at Google.

Nice. Do you think large companies would benefit from a different scheme that rewards employees who "think like an owner"? (pardon the oft-used phrase)

At risk of stating the obvious, not all the medium/large tech companies work as described in this article. At Atlassian, for example, the direct managers are the ones who make promotion recommendations, it’s very much driven by your contributions on your team, whether accompanied by shiny metrics or not.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#32

Post by mtlynch » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:46 PM UTC

shatteredvisage wrote: post #4

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. Happy to answer any questions about the post or about my experience at Google.

I'm going to be applying there soon, 4 years into my career. It'll involve a loong move and big changes: what advice can you give someone who wants to spend a couple years (or more?) with the big G? Also, any chance of submitting a referral? :)

I recommend applying for a promotion early, even if you don't think you're actually ready. It's valuable just to go through the experience end-to-end.

My other suggestion would be to learn from my mistake and be realistic about your relationship with the company. It's filled with a lot of great people and they build a sense of community, but at the end of the day it's a business relationship, so you should decide what you want out of it and work towards getting that.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#33

Post by czbond » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:47 PM UTC

kristianc wrote: post #5

This covers a lot of the same ground as Brendan Reid's "Stealing the Corner Office"[1], which gives a playbook for helping stuff like this work in your favour, rather than against you. You fit the profile of what Reid calls the "Smart but Stationary Manager" - a guy who is a lot smarter than a lot of the people who do get promoted, but who doesn't optimize for the right factors. Reid's point is that a lot of these gu…

Thank you for posting that - always interested in new approaches. =0

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#34

Post by smcl » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:47 PM UTC

mtlynch wrote: post #2

Author here. Happy to answer any questions about the post or about my experience at Google.

Early on in the article you describe the excitement your younger self had a the prospect of working with the "best engineers in the world". However further down you describe your difficulties with some products - undocumented code with no unit tests and silent failures which are hard-to-diagnose.

Has your opinion changed about this at all? I am not sure how indicative these descriptions are to overall quality at Google ... but if they are indicative I'd be furious at the situation as a Google employee, where my (otherwise very smart) fellow Googlers are delivering what sounds like very poor products.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#35

Post by xtrapolate » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:47 PM UTC

As a business person, you're going to have to sell yourself/your services to other people. Perhaps that's not too different from pitching yourself to an "anonymous promotions committee"?

Interesting and insightful read. Thanks for sharing, and good luck with your future endeavours!

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#36

Post by totalZero » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:48 PM UTC

> If I ever made a mistake at Google that cost the company $10 million, I would suffer no consequences. I’d be asked to write a post-mortem, and everyone would celebrate the learning opportunity. For most of these founders, a $10 million mistake would mean the end of their business and several lifetimes of debt.

This is not as insightful as it seems....risk tolerance should be a function of percentages, not square numbers.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#37

Post by joshuamorton » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:48 PM UTC

Nicksil wrote: post #30

jpm_sd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Stock Unit, internal term for RSU

I'm guessing RSU stands for Restructured Scientific Umbilical?

Restricted stock unit.

Stock compensation in the form of actual shares (not options) that vest over some time period.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#38

Post by mtlynch » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:48 PM UTC

jpm_sd wrote: post #7

Because you made enough money that it was an affordable risk? Yes, perf is garbage and management is chaos, but let's be honest with ourselves. Four years' worth of GSUs oughta be enough for anybody. "Devoted employee" followed by "expert at gaming the perf system" followed by "project cancelled and adrift" is, sadly, the normal progression for a Googler, from what I've seen.

The compensation made it both easier and harder to leave. Easier because I had a giant safety net squirreled away, harder because they kept offering more.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#39

Post by rhacker » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:49 PM UTC

jimmy1 wrote: post #16

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess my question is: Can you get job satisfaction from promotion-focused work? I'm proud of what I've done . When I make someone else's life easier, that makes me feel good/satisfied with my work. I can't fathom satisfaction from impressing a promotion committee and tacking on a bigger title.

I don't give a shit about titles I just want to be paid appropriate to the value I create, and unfortunately in most companies, the best way to get a big salary bump is to get an upwards title change.

I remember one company I told them flat out - I'm going remote. Love it or leave it. They let me do it, but told me because - state has a lower salary in general, you may see some kind of 5% pay decrease at some point.

A month after I left to become a remote employee by boss called and said my salary raised 20K. No title change, just plain old doing what I wanted to do.

Re: Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

#40

Post by Quarrelsome » Wed, Feb 28, 2018, 3:49 PM UTC

This is why its healthier to always run with the premise that you're leaving at some point and its the employer's responsibility to keep you there and give you interesting and rewarding work. If you're asking them to promote you then its the wrong way round, they should be asking on you about whether you're staying there. That's how the market is today.