What’s it like working at a large tech company? • Hacker News Board

Re: What’s it like working at a large tech company?

#11

Post by senordevnyc » Fri, Dec 20, 2019, 9:14 PM UTC

rayhendricks wrote: post #8

senordevnyc wrote: post #2

I can't speak to the actual work yet as I haven't started, but I just accepted an offer as a senior / staff level engineer at one of the smaller public tech companies (think Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Snap, etc) after 10+ years of being self-employed. I had two startups offer me $170k plus some (probably worthless) options. When the offer I ultimately accepted came in, I had several more startup interviews lined up an…

That is a lot of money. But it is not unreasonable, as you have to think of how much the large publicly traded tech companies pay for talent which is in the same level as a startup founder. Also that work life balance seems decent. Are you worried that you will find enough of a challenge at the position?

I'm not really worried. I'm both bored with self-employment and a little burned out. I think this will be a different kind of challenge but I also want a bit of a rest tbh. I'm also interested in transitioning to engineering management, which would be a whole new world for me.

Re: What’s it like working at a large tech company?

#12

Post by melbournegrad » Sat, Dec 21, 2019, 2:59 AM UTC

senordevnyc wrote: post #9

highhedgehog wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$420k. Holy. Fucking. Shit. Here in Italy, to get that money, you need to be the CEO of a huge company.

I know, it's insane. It seems like the only other clearly defined paths to that kind of money in your 30s are medicine, law, consulting, finance, etc., and all of them come with pretty significant downsides in terms of required education and/or work-life balance. The idea that I could never go to college (I did, but not for software) and somehow wind up getting paid a half million dollars a year working 40 hours a we…

What was ypour path to get to that? I knew software paid well, but not that well

Re: What’s it like working at a large tech company?

#13

Post by PMalhotra » Sat, Dec 21, 2019, 9:45 AM UTC

Startups are very difficult but if the business idea is good then you can earn a lot of money and grow your business. You just have to do the right thing first by registering your business under the startup company registration https://www.taxolawgy.com/startup-registration/. You can know more from the link.

Re: What’s it like working at a large tech company?

#14

Post by johnjungles » Sat, Dec 21, 2019, 12:58 PM UTC

username90 wrote: post #4

> Is job security at a larger company real? It varies greatly from company to company. At Google (where I work) yes. At Facebook no. > What’s the pace like I often work less than 40 hours a week and nobody even mentions it, but if I work more they tell me to work less. > Is there really a lot of process that get in your way? This depends entirely on what you want to do. Do you want to redesign GMail? Do you want to r…

Thanks for a real insight into this, this all sounds wonderful and all, can I ask what you would honestly miss if you were working at a smaller company or a high growth startup?

Why are there people working at large tech companies looking to leave their positions? Is it because it’s so boring? Is it because they’re not getting promoted fast enough? Do they not like the people they’re working with? Can you transfer to another team easily?

Re: What’s it like working at a large tech company?

#15

Post by adreamingsoul » Sat, Dec 21, 2019, 1:18 PM UTC

Is the grass greener? Yes and no.

Startups and big tech are two very different environments. The environment that is best for you depends on many things. Suffice to say, it’s best to understand your goals and motivations for the next 5 to 10 years.

You can learn a lot at either big tech or a startip if you surround yourself with the right people. Big tech has more people, which means your chances of finding excellent mentors is higher, but the risk of having toxic people around you is also high.

Compensation is usually good at big tech, after the stock vesting starts to kick in ( Which can take a couple years). If you look at the base salary that isn’t stock based, then it’s not that different from a startup. However, this is also something that is highly depemdemt on what you are doing and who you are working for.

Is the grass greener? I think we are biased humans who are always looking for something better. It’s human nature. So yes, the grass is probably greener on the other side. But how’s the grass where you are currently standing?

Re: What’s it like working at a large tech company?

#16

Post by senordevnyc » Sat, Dec 21, 2019, 7:20 PM UTC

melbournegrad wrote: post #12

senordevnyc wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know, it's insane. It seems like the only other clearly defined paths to that kind of money in your 30s are medicine, law, consulting, finance, etc., and all of them come with pretty significant downsides in terms of required education and/or work-life balance. The idea that I could never go to college (I did, but not for software) and somehow wind up getting paid a half million dollars a year working 40 hours a we…

What was ypour path to get to that? I knew software paid well, but not that well

Got my undergrad at a no-name state school in international business and worked for about a year as a jr product mgr at a tech company in SF, but I've been programming since I was 12 or so, and I left that job to freelance. Did that for over a decade, mostly focused on iOS dev. I've done a few apps for larger companies that you'd recognize, but most of my work is for early stage startups that no longer exist. Still, I guess iOS is in enough demand that it was enough to open doors at these companies, and from there it's a matter of passing the interviews. I've been really successful as a freelancer, so the non-technical parts of the interview process were really easy, just like selling yourself to potential clients, basically.

Re: What’s it like working at a large tech company?

#17

Post by johnjungles » Sun, Dec 22, 2019, 12:29 PM UTC

senordevnyc wrote: post #16

melbournegrad wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was ypour path to get to that? I knew software paid well, but not that well

Got my undergrad at a no-name state school in international business and worked for about a year as a jr product mgr at a tech company in SF, but I've been programming since I was 12 or so, and I left that job to freelance. Did that for over a decade, mostly focused on iOS dev. I've done a few apps for larger companies that you'd recognize, but most of my work is for early stage startups that no longer exist. Still,…

Your story is certainly inspiring. Few follow up questions:

How did you do on the technical interviews?

Can you give us examples of “sell yourself” as a potential client?

Any interesting interview tips?

I’ve been freelancing/self-employed/raised money etc... about 8+ years and I’m debating if it’s worth it to apply to larger tech companies. They tend to have a higher barrier to entry with the tech interviews so I probably need to brush up, any tips there? I’ve been managing a small team and looking to do the same so not sure how much to study for the tech interviews.

Appreciate your responses so far! It’s been very insightful

Re: What’s it like working at a large tech company?

#18

Post by johnjungles » Sun, Dec 22, 2019, 12:41 PM UTC

adreamingsoul wrote: post #15

Is the grass greener? Yes and no. Startups and big tech are two very different environments. The environment that is best for you depends on many things. Suffice to say, it’s best to understand your goals and motivations for the next 5 to 10 years. You can learn a lot at either big tech or a startip if you surround yourself with the right people. Big tech has more people, which means your chances of finding excellent…

Thanks for this, I think I have to do a bit of soul searching and figure out what I want to do for the next 5-10 years and have that figured out more clearly.

As for mentors, working at startups I’ve had some pretty good success finding mentors who were essentially advisors and at larger companies or retired seasoned vets for the therapy, professional growth, and debugging strategies/technical problems. I think that would be the same because you’d have to make an effort to get something out of that mentorship - I don’t believe mentorship is bought or falls into your lap, it usually happens because of good chemistry (being in both sides of this).

As for stock compensation, from my understanding it’s usually options? Where the company has to grow correct? If it stays flat, it’s basically nothing? (Please correct next if I’m wrong, I’m a bit oblivious to this). Also from tax perspective it also eats into this? Just want the post tax perspective and assess the risk/rewards. Understandably, startups the stock is 99.9% worthless.