Tech company career ladders • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech company career ladders

#31

Post by indemnity » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:26 AM UTC

Afforess wrote: post #13

wheresmyusern wrote: post #12

i hesitate to pursue a career of any kind, especially tech, because of all this. you have to have a pretty good personality and charisma in order to work well with your manager, or else you will make no progress which means you get fired. people are born with all kinds of quirks, peculiarities and qualities. while im a better programmer than most of the people who i went to college with, i have a special problem with…

> conversations with me are always like chewing sandpaper, unless they focus on some very narrow interests of mine. Basically, that's the problem. In order to establish a repertoire, you need to have more than dense interests. It's cool to be passionate about one or two hobbies. Lots of people have none, and this makes conversation dull. However, it is vital you can maintain ordinary conversation on lay topics too --…

I’m a little bit on the spectrum, but what’s helped a lot for me was to go on drinking sessions with people from widely different backgrounds (teacher, lawyer, businessman, trainers, other types of engineer, social workers).

I was lucky in that these were instigated by my more outgoing brother, but I picked up a lot of the patterns which smooth these interactions, to the extent I can have decent conversations. Helps to be able to code switch as well. You’re not necessarily going to have a deeply intellectual discussion every time, and that’s fine.

Re: Tech company career ladders

#32

Post by maxxxxx » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:31 AM UTC

sheepmullet wrote: post #27

maxxxxx wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. From my experience as contractor I think bigger companies are often better and more predictable places to work. There are some small companies that are great but a lot of them don't pay well and are run by people who care only about themselves.

> From my experience as contractor As a contractor you have essentially already taken a deal where you get paid a premium but have no expectation of career growth. If you have no expectations of career growth at work then big companies are fantastic.

This was not about my career as contractor. It's what I saw how employees were treated. As I said some small companies are great and offer great opportunities but there are plenty that work their people to death, miss payroll, pay low salaries in exchange for a big dream that in most cases will never come true for the regular employee.

Re: Tech company career ladders

#33

Post by tejasmanohar » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:33 AM UTC

tomerico wrote: post #28

For those looking to compare levels between the mentioned companies, I found http://levels.fyi useful

Can anyone attest to the accuracy of this? Levels have pay ranges, right? If so, does this site portray the lower or higher end of the range?

Also, are levels pretty translatable between big corps? Does level at one company have weight when interviewing at another?

Re: Tech company career ladders

#34

Post by chrisper » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:35 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #26

tejasmanohar wrote: post #24

Within a job ladder, you then have levels. They tend to map onto years of experience, *whether you have a degree or not*, what kind of degree it is, how well you do in your interviews, how much money you ask for or hint about, and possibly how well you did as an intern. I don't work at a big corp. Has anyone seen career growth stall directly because they lack a (bachelor's) degree (in CS)? This article doesn't direct…

In my experience a degree is worthless as soon as you are hired. From then on you will only be judged based on performance. I don't even know what degrees (if any) most of my coworkers have. Of course there can always be problems with skills or performance due to not having a relevant degree.

Not having a degree can also create issues with certain visas.

But I think with many years of experience this requirement can be replaced. But that's not "right after you get hired"

Re: Tech company career ladders

#35

Post by hugs » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:38 AM UTC

I wish I had this information before I took a job at Google 11 years ago. I probably would have still taken the job, but I would have realized I was really signing up for two jobs:

1) The job I was hired for;

  ... but *more importantly*...

2) The job of navigating the leveling and review systems, including managing your manager.

Re: Tech company career ladders

#36

Post by timv » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:38 AM UTC

tejasmanohar wrote: post #24

Within a job ladder, you then have levels. They tend to map onto years of experience, *whether you have a degree or not*, what kind of degree it is, how well you do in your interviews, how much money you ask for or hint about, and possibly how well you did as an intern. I don't work at a big corp. Has anyone seen career growth stall directly because they lack a (bachelor's) degree (in CS)? This article doesn't direct…

> Has anyone seen career growth stall directly because they lack a degree

Like @paxys (sibling comment), I've not seen it be a problem once you're in, but it does affect the ease with which you get job offers, and those can be a big part of career growth.

Sometimes you land a great job, in a great company, with a great manager and you work your way up, with the right opportunities at the right times with the right rewards.

But most people find that they run into a blocker somewhere along the way. Maybe the company isn't growing fast enough to create relevant oppportunities. Maybe you get a manager who sees you as irreplaceable and doesn't want you to move up. Maybe something stuffs up and the blame falls on you and your promotions get stalled for a while.

And in all those cases (and more) it helps to have a ticket out of there. Even with 5 to 10 years of experience, some % of hiring managers / recruiters will look at where you got your degree (and in what discipline) and take that into account when deciding whether to interview you. And fewer interviews leads to fewer offers, leads to fewer choices, leads to less control over your career path.

The lack of a degree is not a total blocker - once you get into that first role and prove yourself you've got good chances - but it will have some impact and could make it harder to meet your goals.

Re: Tech company career ladders

#37

Post by gthrow » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:47 AM UTC

tejasmanohar wrote: post #33

tomerico wrote: post #28

For those looking to compare levels between the mentioned companies, I found http://levels.fyi useful

Can anyone attest to the accuracy of this? Levels have pay ranges , right? If so, does this site portray the lower or higher end of the range? Also, are levels pretty translatable between big corps? Does level at one company have weight when interviewing at another?

For Google at least. Salary and Stock are low end of the range. Bonus numbers seem ridiculously high: 49k bonus for an L4, even with Superb you don't get that.

Re: Tech company career ladders

#38

Post by fjsolwmv » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:50 AM UTC

peterburkimsher wrote: post #30

"inhumane quasi-slavery visa situation that we do to our friends who happen to be born somewhere else" - thank you so much for this rant. I've spent the last 3 years in Taiwan sitting tight and waiting until I have enough work experience to qualify for the Skilled Migrant Category visa for New Zealand (Canada and Australia are also options, with similar requirements). Now I have those 3 years, I'm trying to get a job…

You don't have a country to call home?

Re: Tech company career ladders

#39

Post by fjsolwmv » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:52 AM UTC

mlazos wrote: post #2

I think this article unfairly paints small companies as some nirvana which is obviously not the case. I have plenty of friends at small companies who feel like their c-suite is filled with sociopaths and because the company is under the radar nobody cares how the employees of said company are treated.

It shard to trust someone whose thesis is that the thing they know intimately is inferior to the thing they are unfamiliar with. The seaweed is always greener...

Re: Tech company career ladders

#40

Post by fyfy18 » Tue, Apr 24, 2018, 4:53 AM UTC

Does anyone else feel really put off on the idea of working at a big tech corporation by articles like this? If I wanted to play the career game, I would have studyied something more business related and got a graduate job at somewhere like KPMG.