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I Quit Google to Work for Myself (2018)

mtlynch.io

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

#131

Post by kbutler »

heyflyguy wrote: post #130
rb808 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're at a corporation you should figure out which game you're playing. Are you there to "benefit the company" or get "promoted and rewarded"? Make a decision but they are different paths leading different directions.

I don't disagree with you, only as a business owner I'd be pretty upset if I even knew that was going on amongst my new hires. If someone can't explain to me our company vision after 90 days, as well as their role in delivering it - I'm not saying they'll be fired but it's not a long term engagement between us.

Isn't that a management failure? If the most effective way to "get promoted and rewarded" is substantially different from "benefit the company", then management is not directing effectively.

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

#132

Post by joeblau »

rb808 wrote: post #77
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…

Another challenge along the previous 4 years was leadership turnover. In the last 4 years, I've had 4 managers. No one every really lasted more than a year. My most recent manager quit to start a stealth startup around the time I switched teams. He's a great person and a great manager, but he's on to bigger and better things. I've only been on my new team for a few months and my new team is great, but I think you final sentence is really where my sentiment is right now.

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

#133

Post by joeblau »

bathtub365 wrote: post #43
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…

What about the third option of building it for a different company?

That's a great idea and also a potentially viable possibility.

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

#134

Post by joeblau »

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/

This is a great idea, thanks for sharing.

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

#135

Post by sdenton4 »

Frost1x wrote: post #97
noonespecial wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not always zero sum. In the best case, a group of workers that could make 1x each on their own, combine and are able to make 1.5x each together, and get paid around 1.2x each. The additional .3x is the corporate "profit" and is distributed in any number of ways depending on how the company is set up. Its still a rational decision for all of the employees to work there.

Not sure I believe emergentism. While it may be difficult to quantify, I don't find the "whole greater than the sum of its parts," just the perception of the sum being greater than its parts or the reality hiding in the complexity from us mere mortals. Without emergent properties (your work + my work < our work), it really is a zero sum game. To me, you may be able to manipulate perception of value in this fashion bu…

It would be interesting to try worker co-ops for software... It is a woefully underexplored space. I expect three is /some/ emergent value (eg, I don't really do ux worth a damn...), and a worker co-op could get there without needing to get huge.

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

#136

Post by rb808 »

heyflyguy wrote: post #130
rb808 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're at a corporation you should figure out which game you're playing. Are you there to "benefit the company" or get "promoted and rewarded"? Make a decision but they are different paths leading different directions.

I don't disagree with you, only as a business owner I'd be pretty upset if I even knew that was going on amongst my new hires. If someone can't explain to me our company vision after 90 days, as well as their role in delivering it - I'm not saying they'll be fired but it's not a long term engagement between us.

You're right, but I specifically mentioned corporations as that is where its less obvious what is right for the company and more likely to make it hard to get promoted or recognized.

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

#137

Post by stjohnswarts »

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".…

I don't consider myself above say a mediocre programmer, but some of the atrocities called "code" that I saw at the Fortune 500 companies, I swore them off and have been working as a consultant for startups since. I have to change up companies every year or two or I become anxious and bored.

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

#138

Post by rkagerer »

Google was great 15 years ago. Lately, most of what I observe from its products and read about the company lends the impression they've fallen victim to their size and are just another dumb, beurocratic corporation whose best innovations come from acquisitions of smaller startups (Maps, Android, Nest, etc). Good on the author for leaving and seeking a place where he's free to truly innovate.

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

#139

Post by kachurovskiy »

tyingq wrote: post #5

It appears it isn't going terribly well so far: https://mtlynch.io/keep-growing-never-profit/ https://mtlynch.io/solo-developer-year-1/ But, he doesn't seem discouraged. I'm guessing whatever equity he had means he has a fair amount of time to figure it out.

In his planning and execution he seems to focus on technical and product parts. Those aspects of his projects seem to be doing well.

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

#140

Post by NicoJuicy »

tuesday20 wrote: post #46
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…

My dad had just one job all his life, for 33 years. While he didn’t become rich, he did enjoy relative peace of mind, pension etc. Of course everything is relative, but there was a time where companies had a little bit of concern to their employees, however small it was. Those days are gone. These days, companies don’t even pretend. A very small percentage of people are going to do well, for the vast majority it is j…

I think you have a personal grudge against something.

Working is not slavery, you work for money to do what you want.

You have a bad boss, can happen. Change jobs and it's done

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