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What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

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Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#131

Post by jsemrau »

opportune wrote: post #116
alexcnwy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in Tokyo right now for work (my startup NumberBoost won an innovation competition with NTT Japan) and it’s so wild how simultaneously forward and backward things are here. On the one hand, there are so many things they do here that make me feel like they’re in the future. On the other hand, every fifth person has a flip phone, the WiFi sucks, you can’t buy a travel SIM card at the mall, and there are CD/DVD store…

I noticed this too, a lot of Japanese society feels like it's stuck in the 90's. Even the little things like the graphics made for ads. Probably has something to do with having a conservative culture and the demographics/economic issues that began becoming a problem around then

After living more than 7 years in Japan, I think it's that a lot of Tokyo's tech infrastructure is build around the persona of a 45 year old male office worker and his specific needs. For example, Pasmo cards can be used to buy drinks (and other things) at the train station in addition to paying for the tickets.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#132

Post by hawkice »

myhf wrote: post #127
jodrellblank wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.. so you're saying it would be an effective filter, for the suggested purpose?

It would be an effective way to commit illegal discrimination.

I mean, discussing your work with your coworkers is a pretty reasonable workplace responsibility. What's illegal about asking if someone was comfortable doing it?

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#133

Post by agf »

ztratar wrote: post #75
gringoDan wrote: post #27

Reading this post made me think that while many companies advertise an entrepreneurial environment and the ability to do impactful work, the true test of this culture is 1) the ability to hire former founders and 2) those former founders loving their work. Plenty of blue-chip startups have future founders working for them...yet it seems to me that having past founders is much more rare. An incredibly strong company e…

As a former founder who now works at Stripe... I am glad to see we are now explicitly mentioning the aspects of Stripe culture that make it founder friendly. - Huge transparency - Management optimizes for autonomy & distributed decision-making - Upwards review processes > downwards decision-making - Level obfuscation - Shipping culture - People who are of the quality you'd normally only find by hiring them yourself (…

Can you expand on level obfuscation?

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#134

Post by ascar »

andrewingram wrote: post #123
cyberferret wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Stripe's HR department is reading this thread, I think they can pinpoint one crucial interview question that will determine culture fit in their organisation for future hiring - and that is "do you like talking about your accomplishments with the rest of your team?". Seems to be a very polarising thing to be asked to do, judging by the replies on this particular comment. EDIT: Curious about the downvotes? This is…

Possibly that such a recruitment filter would exclude a lot of people with depression or anxiety-related mental illness. To clarify, I hate talking about my accomplishments, it makes me feel deeply anxious and uncomfortable, and will say as much if asked. But I’ll also do it if that’s what’s required of me.

And there are many companies that value humbleness.

I love sharing my accomplishments. I know what's socially expected from me, but not sharing feels really bad to me. It feels as all the work I've done and that cool accomplishment don't matter at all. Therefore I mostly share with friends, though most of them lack the necessary tech-knowledge to really understand it.

I also love hearing about others accomplishments in an easy to digest way. These shipped emails seem like great way to spread knowledge and a positive attitude of getting stuff done.

What I, and the comment you replied to want to say, everyone is different. Let me work at a company that encourages sharing accomplishments and go work for one that values humbleness. But at least please don't take it away from me, just because you don't like it, especially if it's optional.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#135

Post by matwood »

afarrell wrote: post #100
jklinger410 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't take it to mean that you are supposed to be the Atlas of the organization, but rather that when you see problems and issues that might arise, you don't ignore them because it's "not my job" or "not my problem" - you embrace it, escalate or forward it to the correct people, and then go back to what else you have to do. Trying to really educate around this at my workplace. I call it "throwing your hands up." I…

> on my shit list What would you tell a junior engineer who feels so overwhelmed with the tasks he is supposed to be focused on that he decides not to switch task to solving this other thing that may-or-may-not be a real problem? Also, are the phrases “Extreme Ownership” and “Question Behind the Question” from a US Navy SEAL book by Willink and Babin? Would you generally recommend that book?

I’ll second the Jocko book recommendation. His podcast is also good. Pick out the QA episodes if you want mostly leadership questions.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#136

Post by culturestate »

mistrial9 wrote: post #130
alexcnwy wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For example good luck getting mayonnaise with your fries at any of the fast food chains here. They have mayonnaise and they put it on burgers but they “CANNOT” give (or sell) it to you in a separate container for your fries.

mayonnaise has special properties regarding food spoilage, it can be legitimately poisonous when it turns bad.. which in food services, is a constant.

This isn’t the reason you can’t get mayo with fries in Japan, though. It’s a cultural barrier against deviating from the “rules,” no matter how small. Mayo isn’t on the menu as a condiment; sorry!

Example: I once had to fill out a form (as a designated corporate representative) authorizing myself to access our racks in an NTT data center and then fax it to the DC manager (who I knew personally) before he would let me in. During this entire process we were standing in the same room.

It used to annoy me when I first moved to Tokyo, but you eventually learn to live with it.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#137

Post by ianleeclark »

foldr wrote: post #76
spudlyo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was optional, but it was definitely encouraged. A manager a level above my manager would rub his hands together and say things like "really looking forward to reading that shipped email!" whenever I told him about what I was working on. They also made it fun. One manager conspiratorially told me were two schools of thought around what made a great shipped email; copious footnotes or funny gifs, and jokingly told m…

> A manager a level above my manager would rub his hands together and say things like "really looking forward to reading that shipped email!" whenever I told him about what I was working on. That doesn't sound optional at all. From my point of view, making things fun isn't fun. Watching a comedy routine is fun. Writing one isn't.

Agreed. This reminds me of office space when the waitress's has the appropriately listed amount of flair but is disparaged for not going above and beyond.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#138

Post by Pristina »

cyberferret wrote: post #101
spudlyo wrote: post #32

I left Stripe a little over 6 months ago to join an exciting startup with a number of my friends. What I miss most about working there is the culture of shipping. There are a number of 'shipped' email lists at Stripe where people can tout their accomplishments large and small. These lists are widely read and commented on, and folks put in a fair amount of effort making their "shipped" emails informative and entertain…

If Stripe's HR department is reading this thread, I think they can pinpoint one crucial interview question that will determine culture fit in their organisation for future hiring - and that is "do you like talking about your accomplishments with the rest of your team?". Seems to be a very polarising thing to be asked to do, judging by the replies on this particular comment. EDIT: Curious about the downvotes? This is…

Is this like those photos of apple store where the employees stand outside to high-five anybody who bought an item from the store?

I feel sad for those who are so insecure that they need constant approval from their peers.

Re: What Working at Stripe Has Been Like

#140

Post by cyberferret »

Pristina wrote: post #138
cyberferret wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Stripe's HR department is reading this thread, I think they can pinpoint one crucial interview question that will determine culture fit in their organisation for future hiring - and that is "do you like talking about your accomplishments with the rest of your team?". Seems to be a very polarising thing to be asked to do, judging by the replies on this particular comment. EDIT: Curious about the downvotes? This is…

Is this like those photos of apple store where the employees stand outside to high-five anybody who bought an item from the store? I feel sad for those who are so insecure that they need constant approval from their peers.

Absolutely nothing like it. I'm not sure that you actually read the top post on this thread. We are talking about a company's particular way of ensuring that changes are documented and shared with the rest of the team. Their method is to encourage team members to share their ship details in an internal mailing list.

It's an internal procedure that helps build company knowledge and information sharing. It has a side requirement for acknowledgement for peers, but it is nothing like an optional purchase being high fived...

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