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Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#21

Post by yitchelle »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #13
mav3rick wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FAANG don't share the same engineering culture.

Yes they do. In all these places except Amazon, the engineering culture is essentially identical. I’ve worked at 2 FAANG companies and a few startups that had a big influx of ex-Google engineers. In fact it’s a whole process that startups go through to copy Google: monorepo + misguided in-house tooling for it, homebrewed canary deployment strategies, naming things “mon” like “altermon” or “datamon”, etc. It’s a very…

The engineering culture among FAANG companies is pretty much the same because of the industry that they operating in and the location of the HQ. Expand that to military or automotive, aerospace, in non-US companies and you might start seeing different engineering cultures.

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#22

Post by lazyant »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #16

8 years; what I've learned -- working in absolutely huge code bases, good C++ style, good code review culture, intellectual humility. What I haven't learned: how to thrive in a huge organization with people more bureaucratically ambitious/motivated than you. How to turn a blind eye to broken waterfall method dysfunction. Starting to get to me. Probably looking for the door soon; p.s. entertaining offers for remote (C…

> entertaining offers for remote (Canada) work.

want to add an email or something to your HN profile :-)

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#23

Post by wyclif »

octocode wrote: post #10

Not Google but similar. I learned that my motivation is proportional to the quality and amount of free food I receive. This includes willingness to participate in pointless meetings. Note: this is not something I'm particularly proud of or anything. Just an observation.

The food isn't truly free.

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#24

Post by octocode »

wyclif wrote: post #23
octocode wrote: post #10

Not Google but similar. I learned that my motivation is proportional to the quality and amount of free food I receive. This includes willingness to participate in pointless meetings. Note: this is not something I'm particularly proud of or anything. Just an observation.

The food isn't truly free.

I mean, nothing is truly free, but I'm not the one paying for it in this situation, so for me it is free.

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#25

Post by skizm »

Zach_the_Lizard wrote: post #12

Not Google, but another Big Tech company. Visibility is very important to getting a promotion at a large company. Selling your work is important. To move up, you must be playing the "choose a good project or team" game for at least 6 months before you try to get promoted. Preferably for a year or more to hit the right checkboxes for multiple cycles. If you fail to do so, you can do absolutely amazing work but rigid p…

What does "promoted" look like for an software engineer at large tech companies? In my company you're either an individual contributor or tech lead. There aren't really any other rungs on the ladder without going to manager.

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#26

Post by yibg »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #13
mav3rick wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FAANG don't share the same engineering culture.

Yes they do. In all these places except Amazon, the engineering culture is essentially identical. I’ve worked at 2 FAANG companies and a few startups that had a big influx of ex-Google engineers. In fact it’s a whole process that startups go through to copy Google: monorepo + misguided in-house tooling for it, homebrewed canary deployment strategies, naming things “mon” like “altermon” or “datamon”, etc. It’s a very…

I assume the two FAANG you are referring to are the F and G. The rest of the letters aren’t like that. At least no monorepo.

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#27

Post by nessunodoro »

justicezyx wrote: post #15

Google showed me the fine engineering at large scale. And the key is the people as they are behind everything. That’s why I changed my view on who was the key person for google success. I used to believe Larry and Sergei, then urs, now I put on Laszlo Bock.

honorable mention: Guidooo!

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#28

Post by generatorguy »

Zach_the_Lizard wrote: post #12

Not Google, but another Big Tech company. Visibility is very important to getting a promotion at a large company. Selling your work is important. To move up, you must be playing the "choose a good project or team" game for at least 6 months before you try to get promoted. Preferably for a year or more to hit the right checkboxes for multiple cycles. If you fail to do so, you can do absolutely amazing work but rigid p…

A simple solution to a complex problem is what I strive for every day as an electrical power engineer. It makes it easier for my co-workers, customers, and anyone responsible for keeping the power on in the next 50 years to understand how something works and be able to fix it if it breaks or build off of it if more capacity is required or it can be reused on a different project.

I am sad that top tier software engineering environments have lost sight of the value of simplicity. Perhaps it is doomed to become the dismal engineering, like economics is the dismal science, that never quite seems to have the answers for economics, or never supplies software that is finished and bug free for software engineering.

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#29

Post by bt848 »

skizm wrote: post #25
Zach_the_Lizard wrote: post #12

Not Google, but another Big Tech company. Visibility is very important to getting a promotion at a large company. Selling your work is important. To move up, you must be playing the "choose a good project or team" game for at least 6 months before you try to get promoted. Preferably for a year or more to hit the right checkboxes for multiple cycles. If you fail to do so, you can do absolutely amazing work but rigid p…

What does "promoted" look like for an software engineer at large tech companies? In my company you're either an individual contributor or tech lead. There aren't really any other rungs on the ladder without going to manager.

At Google there’s an IC ladder from level 3 (new grads) to 11 (Jeff and Sanjay). Basically it’s a pay scale. Half of engineers are below 5, and 90% are below 6.

Edit: pretty sure I was off by one originally. But you get the idea: it’s a triangular organization with a lot of people at the base.

Re: Ask HN: What Have You Learned at Google as a Software Engineer?

#30

Post by lerie »

Zach_the_Lizard wrote: post #12

Not Google, but another Big Tech company. Visibility is very important to getting a promotion at a large company. Selling your work is important. To move up, you must be playing the "choose a good project or team" game for at least 6 months before you try to get promoted. Preferably for a year or more to hit the right checkboxes for multiple cycles. If you fail to do so, you can do absolutely amazing work but rigid p…

he didn't ask for advice on getting a promotion.
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