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I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

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Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#71

Post by noonespecial »

wccrawford wrote: post #62
izacus wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? So why does everyone complain about engineering shortage?

Because what they're really saying is that they don't want to pay more money. By complaining about the "shortage" they encourage new entrants into the field and convince existing talent to accept lower wages. It's purely marketing, IMO.

>convince existing talent to accept lower wages.

That seems like lousy marketing. If I'm told that something is constantly in a shortage my first thought isn't exactly to sell it for less.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#72

Post by trentnix »

gaggler wrote: post #66
trentnix wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. Everywhere I’ve been employed cared about my wellbeing and when I was an employer, I cared about the wellbeing of my staff. Calling an employer/employee relationship slavery after a Googler complains he wasn’t promoted fast enough is peak self-importance.

I feel like you're underestimating how terrible Google's stack ranking system. It basically exploits you into doing more work than you should with the prospect of making more money, only to smack you back down and ask you to do 6 more month of back breaking work. More than you were hired to, mind you.

“back breaking work”

Mercy.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#73

Post by Tade0 »

heyflyguy wrote: post #29

Now granted, I never worked at Google, but I've worked for several F500 companies through the years. I made a promise that I'll never work for one ever again because this corporate structure and bloat tend to engineer promotions and reward through things that do not actually benefit the company. His work, which was useful to the company essentially got reworked into something that impressed the "promotion committee".…

My take is that it's a product of their situation: Google has thousands of highly talented people on board who probably have some expectations regarding professional growth, so in order to keep them they produce it.

Does this mean that we have an overabundance of talent? I don't think so. I guess Google simply has enough money to keep its competitors at bay by hoarding talent.

And they appear not to be alone in this as the anti-poaching agreement scandal showed.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#74

Post by rb808 »

war1025 wrote: post #55
ainar-g wrote: post #2

> Wait a second. I was in a business relationship with Google. > It may sound strange that it took me two and a half years to realize it, but Google does a good job of building a sense of community within the organization. To make us feel that we’re not just employees, but that we are Google. > That conversation made me realize that I’m not Google. I provide a service to Google in exchange for money. People, and espe…

What always gets me about these statements is that, yes you're in a business relationship with the company, but that relationship is obviously highly profitable to you. What's the point of giving up that income just to "stick it to the man"?

There is only one thing worse than being exploited by the capitalist corporations and that's being unemployed and not being exploited by anyone.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#75

Post by im3w1l »

saalweachter wrote: post #27
doublement wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a useful resource doesn't have to be miserable though, especially if your role is more akin to a chainsaw or rocket engine than a stapler.

A farmer will put the animals' comfort and health and safety ahead of their own. They'll work long hours through heat waves and winter storms, get up in the middle of the night to check that everything is all right, spend every waking and sleeping moment worrying about the livestock, individually and collectively. 'course, the pig still gets eaten in the end.

You need to watch more PETA undercover videos.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#76

Post by UncleMeat »

gaggler wrote: post #66
trentnix wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. Everywhere I’ve been employed cared about my wellbeing and when I was an employer, I cared about the wellbeing of my staff. Calling an employer/employee relationship slavery after a Googler complains he wasn’t promoted fast enough is peak self-importance.

I feel like you're underestimating how terrible Google's stack ranking system. It basically exploits you into doing more work than you should with the prospect of making more money, only to smack you back down and ask you to do 6 more month of back breaking work. More than you were hired to, mind you.

Google hasn't done stack ranking for perf in years.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#77

Post by rb808 »

joeblau wrote: post #23

The promo process story hits home with me. I was trying to get promoted a few years back at my company. Over the previous 4 years, I built out a lot of systems, fixed critical bugs in our software stack, stayed late during crunch mode ensuring on time shipping, and volunteered to debug issues upstream issues impacting our software. Our team was customer facing so back-end bugs always surfaced in our product. I was a…

My advice is talk to your manager about how disappointed you are. If you need metrics and a plan - work with him on how to get that, I'm sure they'll be happy to help. Alternatively it could be that you are doing great work but your manager didn't notice - so you should be telling him what you're up to. It could be that your manager isn't wise enough to realize how valuable you are so you should let others try to do the heavy lifting and fail. It could be that there you're just working too hard so you should be going home earlier and work on spending time learning the skills for your next job.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#78

Post by lotsofpulp »

trentnix wrote: post #69
vms20591 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they might pay for your insurance, give you free food, but that's it. The ultimate motive is to make profit, by getting every bit of work from you. You can sugarcoat it however you want, but to an employer, you are just a liability, not an asset, even when the "current" they call you as one. Because, the "next" they might not. The terms "employer", "they" are relative. As in the previous comment, "A company as…

No, a company just a collection of people with a common goal. And when you don’t like one company, you have incredible mobility to find another. In a job market as good as the one in the US at the moment, that mobility is irrespective of skill level . And that keeps companies, even the bad ones, from getting away with dehumanizing its workforce.

There are vast swaths of the US that are in economic decline, and they most certainly do not allow for mobility irrespective of skill level. They don't even have sufficient economic activity to support a Walmart.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#79

Post by trentnix »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #78
trentnix wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, a company just a collection of people with a common goal. And when you don’t like one company, you have incredible mobility to find another. In a job market as good as the one in the US at the moment, that mobility is irrespective of skill level . And that keeps companies, even the bad ones, from getting away with dehumanizing its workforce.

There are vast swaths of the US that are in economic decline, and they most certainly do not allow for mobility irrespective of skill level. They don't even have sufficient economic activity to support a Walmart.

You seem to define mobility different from me. The people in those areas have the legal and opportunistic means of going elsewhere.

Re: I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

#80

Post by simlan »

zrail wrote: post #40
joeblau wrote: post #23

The promo process story hits home with me. I was trying to get promoted a few years back at my company. Over the previous 4 years, I built out a lot of systems, fixed critical bugs in our software stack, stayed late during crunch mode ensuring on time shipping, and volunteered to debug issues upstream issues impacting our software. Our team was customer facing so back-end bugs always surfaced in our product. I was a…

Sounds like you needed a brag doc. You are the only one that can remember everything you did, so write it down and hand it to your manager so they can remember too. https://jvns.ca/blog/brag-documents/

Interesting I do exactly that to keep track and have something in hand on a rainy day where the motivation tanked.

I usually keep it analog though because a ruby piece of paper that fills over time is more tangible than a doc. But i guess that is personal preference ;)

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