Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you think other large tech companies are like this? If so, which ones?
I don’t have firsthand experience but my understanding is that Facebook shares a similar culture. No idea about others though.
Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
71–80 of 224 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe a higher ratio overall?
I see. Do you think people at Amazon are inferior?
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Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is also a very good learning opportunity; there is lots of training available to employees, you will be working with very talented people, and will get to see how the planet-scale dogfood is made first hand.
> you will be working with very talented people Do you think they are more talented than other companies, like, say, Amazon?
Amazon isn't really particularly good at any of these, so you'll tend to find more talent at places that do better. Facebook and Google both have better compensation and from what I've heard from friends (who've also had experience with Amazon), both also have a better working environment.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It will not only open doors for you for all your future jobs Is this true though? I guess it might help with the first contact, but I've heard from x-googlers that they still had to prepare and pass all those whiteboard CS-riddle based interviews again, for next endeavors.
Sample size of one: my company tends to ding candidates from Google if they have any whiff of the kind of status- or compensation-driven thinking displayed in this comment section. Can sometimes indicate limited independent thinking and low concern for others. Definitely can close doors.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Put another way, you'll learn much more about how to identify and work with talented people on difficult projects at Google than at a startup. At a startup you're worried about how you'll pack a bologna sandwich for lunch tomorrow, at Google you're a sous chef for a 5 star banquet hall in NYC.
I think it goes both ways. There are plenty mundane things at BigCo for people to do.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sample size of one: my company tends to ding candidates from Google if they have any whiff of the kind of status- or compensation-driven thinking displayed in this comment section. Can sometimes indicate limited independent thinking and low concern for others. Definitely can close doors.
What's compensation driven thinking ? There's a difference between only caring about money vs asking for what you deem fair. Startups always abuse the naivete of new grads and low ball them by saying they are working for a grander cause. That is BS too.
Startups can't pay BigCo wages because they don't have the money to. They have to leverage other, harder-to-value benefits which BigCo generally can't offer.
Increased responsibility, fewer "rules" on how to execute, more tightly focused mission are a few.
Naturally this differs company to company and there are always bad actors.
The compensation equation works out differently for each individual. Not everyone should work at a startup.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is also a very good learning opportunity; there is lots of training available to employees, you will be working with very talented people, and will get to see how the planet-scale dogfood is made first hand.
I've heard that many things are arcane in-house proprietary stuff, not easily transferable knowledge/experience.
Borg is Kubernetes, flume is externally available as Google Cloud Dataflow (it's basically Apache Beam), Tensorflow is open source, many of Google's internal java libraries and tools are available externally (Guava, Guice, Dagger), and absl (c++ common libraries) are also available externally.
More importantly, assuming you land on a team with strong software engineering culture (this is likely, but admittedly not guaranteed, even at Google), the general skills you pick up for software design, planning, testing, etc. are transferable anywhere.
That said, all of this applies mostly to software engineers. If you're applying for an SRE position, then I've heard the experience is less transferable, but it's not something I could comment on first hand.
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#78Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#79Are you happy with the moral downside of working for a company that sells its users’ privacy for profit? A company that values automation more than customer service?
Re: Ask HN: How do I choose between a job offer from Google and a promising startup?
#80I am bias as worked at Google but left for startup world and would never go back. The Google name can open pretty much any doors