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Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

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Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#41

Post by HillaryBriss »

shroom wrote: post #17

Stories I’ve hear from friends to my family who worked at Netflix made me cringe. Regular meetings where everyone at the meeting have to do presentations about their own recent work at the company and basically have to present why they should stay instead of the ”other guy” who will be fired. No rest with constant fear of being fired or the alternative if you ”make it” is constant preasure of performaning better than…

it's interesting to put this into the larger context of "the US needs more programmers and STEM grads." if that is true, how does Netflix find additional people to hire? how does it survive in a competitive labor market when it treats employees in this way?

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#42

Post by strangerlands »

akras14 wrote: post #36
claydavisss wrote: post #7

I had a Netflix offer this year I declined (yes, people decline Netflix now and then) The salary was eye-popping...$400k. That's just to be a senior developer. There were RSUs on top of this so total comp was probably $500k. That's crazy! I knew if I joined I would be terminated but that didn't bother me...the salary was crazy and apparently the goodbye package is also generous. I suppose it's sort of nuts to know yo…

400k??? This seems insanely high. Are you one of a kind specialist of sort? I find it hard to believe that regular engineer, even in the prime of his career can expect such high salary.

It is very common at Netflix.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#43

Post by akras14 »

mc32 wrote: post #38
akras14 wrote: post #22

On one hand this seem crazy. On another, every place I worked at was full of free-loaders who did nothing and never got fired. I wonder if things are different at Netflix.

Well, we have to come to terms with the realization that society has a percentage of freeloaders. They also need to make a living; somehow. So the better option is to assume a certain percentage of freeloaders and design work with them in mind. Instead of firing them, reassign them to places they will prove more useful. Something like where in Japan they relegate these people to the periphery of the company but don’t…

I would rather them do nothing or work on throw away code. I spend way too much of my time fixing other people’s bugs :(

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#44

Post by icebraining »

ashelmire wrote: post #33
CPLX wrote: post #4

The big question, of course, is does Netflix succeed because of, or in spite of, this policy.

They’ve been pushing the same product since inception; they could do nothing except maintain current tech and catalogue, which is what they’ve more or less been doing. So it’s in spite of. They could have any culture, hire a herd of thousands of cats and pay them half a million each, and they wouldn’t lose much. The only thing they need to do to survive is maintain rights to enough shows people are willing to pay for…

They’ve been pushing the same product since inception

I don't see how that's true at all. They were originally an American DVD mail order service that rented other people's movies.

They're now a global streaming service with a strong content production division.

They've change both the product, the business model, the customer base and the tech.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#45

Post by akras14 »

strangerlands wrote: post #42
akras14 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

400k??? This seems insanely high. Are you one of a kind specialist of sort? I find it hard to believe that regular engineer, even in the prime of his career can expect such high salary.

It is very common at Netflix.

That’s more than double average salary. Seems like worth going for it, even knowing that they will fire you eventually. Hold on for 6 months, make a yearly salary, take 6 months off :)

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#46

Post by strangerlands »

laixintao wrote: post #9
kakaorka wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Netflix's compensation to employees all cash?

No, I actually read an article saied that, you can choose how much do you want to stick your profit to the company, AKA, you can choose how many proportion do you want to get paied by cach or stock.

It is wrong and it is very unlikely that you read it in an article, since it is not a secret. There are no stocks, it is all cash for everybody, at least below the C-suite. You can use up to 100% of your salary to buy stock options at 40% of current value. The options are delivered each month and vest immediately.

There is a huge difference between shares and stock options.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#47

Post by austenallred »

SigmundA wrote: post #21

CEO Reed Hastings is described as a dedicated adherent to the culture and several former employees said he is “unencumbered by emotion”—in a good way. Is this not the definition of a psychopath? This really does sound like hell to me. Then again a lot of modern corporate culture especially in tech seems to be moving toward this type of hell. Basically a form of social Darwinism. Life and more specifically happiness i…

Or a Stoic?

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#48

Post by icebraining »

ymlaree wrote: post #3

Netflix is following FB tracks it seems, 1st degrade the user experience, then poor company ethics surface. Soon we'll need food like "humane" labels in tech.. [edit : user not customer]

FB has been accused of poor ethics since the start. They were barely three years old when they launched Beacon[1], to much criticism and even lawsuits.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Beacon

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#49

Post by strangerlands »

austenallred wrote: post #47
SigmundA wrote: post #21

CEO Reed Hastings is described as a dedicated adherent to the culture and several former employees said he is “unencumbered by emotion”—in a good way. Is this not the definition of a psychopath? This really does sound like hell to me. Then again a lot of modern corporate culture especially in tech seems to be moving toward this type of hell. Basically a form of social Darwinism. Life and more specifically happiness i…

Or a Stoic?

Stoic maybe if the same rules applied to him, but it is not the case, they apply to everyone except himself. Maybe it is just me, but I don't like when people apply harsh rules for everyone except themselves. Cult or dictatorship come to mind.

Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell

#50

Post by BeetleB »

Someone1234 wrote: post #34
akras14 wrote: post #22

On one hand this seem crazy. On another, every place I worked at was full of free-loaders who did nothing and never got fired. I wonder if things are different at Netflix.

Are they firing "free-loaders" or people who are just worse at playing politics/self-promoting? We have extremely quiet people at work, few know what they do, but they're actually extremely productive, rarely make waves (good or bad), and help keep longer term goals. The "Rockstar" types join, get all excitable, make a handful of rapid (often good) changes, burn out, and leave. Likely to start again at their next wor…

>Are they firing "free-loaders" or people who are just worse at playing politics/self-promoting?

Yes.

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