AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills • Hacker News Board

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#11

Post by bx_lr » Sat, Mar 12, 2011, 11:07 PM UTC

adamc wrote: post #9

bx_lr wrote: post #8

Notice the following "AMD says it maintains a start-up mentality even though it's a large company". This is becoming a trend now, hardly the only company touting this. My current company is doing the same. My old company approached me recently and told me are going to start working in start-up mode in California, and this is an old and rigid company. I'm holding Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky and others accountable for th…

So find another job or another career. I'm not being mean: there are still jobs that are 40 hours per week. If those jobs don't appeal to you, switch careers and find a work-life balance that does. People get exploited because they don't act on their other options. I work 40 hours a week.

I was just pointing out a trend. It seems that more and more companies are trying to appeal to the start-up types. I'm not too optimistic that these big-corp-in-start-up-mode ideas will work, most people are not up to the task. I view this kind of mode as an exception not the norm.

Personally I don't mind working hard. In my case the work has been interesting enough and I'm viewing the long hours as an investment to acquire certain technology experience. At the same time I do feel an increasing urge to go and start working for real start-ups again.

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#12

Post by queensnake » Sat, Mar 12, 2011, 11:10 PM UTC

callmeed wrote: post #4

Interesting that they want to move into cloud & software products so aggressively. What large hardware companies have done similar moves successfully in the past? (honest question)

> Interesting that they want to move into cloud & software products so aggressively.

Well if, looking at the future, CPU time will be commoditized and centralized implying less sales, they should try to get in on what /will/ happen which is the cloud business. Makes sense.

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#13

Post by dimitar » Sat, Mar 12, 2011, 11:24 PM UTC

jswetnam wrote: post #2

Beware of management employing 'impact' as a verb

Well I guess HR dude probably told a lot more, but it was edited out. Its just regular HR placeholder speech. He may have also been intentionally vague.

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#14

Post by Tautologistics » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 12:23 AM UTC

bx_lr wrote: post #8

Notice the following "AMD says it maintains a start-up mentality even though it's a large company". This is becoming a trend now, hardly the only company touting this. My current company is doing the same. My old company approached me recently and told me are going to start working in start-up mode in California, and this is an old and rigid company. I'm holding Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky and others accountable for th…

This is such an annoying new trend to claim one's company is in "startup mode" when it is all just superficial or even straight out bullshit; it has become quite the trend in NYC now.

One place I declined to work at claimed to be in startup mode yet their offices looked like those of a financial company (which they were not), everyone seriously dressed up, and the code base and infrastructure was pretty big and inherited from the parent organization.

A place I used to work at is also going through the motions of "becoming a startup" -- a company that has not been an internet startup for over 10 years. Apparently being a startup means rewriting the whole codebase in Java, offering free snacks and drinks, tearing down the walls from the cubicles (say goodbye to ever getting "in the zone" when coding), and calling daily standups and using JIRA "being AGILE". Sticking feathers in ones butt does not make one a chicken...

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#15

Post by jswinghammer » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 12:24 AM UTC

bx_lr wrote: post #8

Notice the following "AMD says it maintains a start-up mentality even though it's a large company". This is becoming a trend now, hardly the only company touting this. My current company is doing the same. My old company approached me recently and told me are going to start working in start-up mode in California, and this is an old and rigid company. I'm holding Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky and others accountable for th…

I agree there is a trend but I think it has more to do with the idea that you will be making something new not that you will need to work a million hours to do it. I've never needed to work a lot of hours to get my projects done and I always avoid companies where people seem to work too many hours.

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#16

Post by hasenj » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 12:26 AM UTC

This is slightly off-topic but I hope they release decent Radeon drivers for Linux. . My experience with their proprietary drivers wasn't very good. I ended up switching to the open source driver, which (unfortunately) doesn't support 3D very well.

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#17

Post by berntb » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 12:36 AM UTC

Tautologistics wrote: post #14

bx_lr wrote: post #8

Notice the following "AMD says it maintains a start-up mentality even though it's a large company". This is becoming a trend now, hardly the only company touting this. My current company is doing the same. My old company approached me recently and told me are going to start working in start-up mode in California, and this is an old and rigid company. I'm holding Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky and others accountable for th…

This is such an annoying new trend to claim one's company is in "startup mode" when it is all just superficial or even straight out bullshit; it has become quite the trend in NYC now. One place I declined to work at claimed to be in startup mode yet their offices looked like those of a financial company (which they were not), everyone seriously dressed up, and the code base and infrastructure was pretty big and inher…

Check for Java, standups, JIRA, snacks, etc.

But only free espresso -- I should forward your comment to my boss, so we get more drink options. :-)

(A Python guy just started and makes predictable noises about rewriting thousands of pages of working code from a scripting language with very similar capabilities... That will probably happen simultaneously with free Coca Cola being introduced.)

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#18

Post by Tomek_ » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 1:12 AM UTC

berntb wrote: post #17

Tautologistics wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such an annoying new trend to claim one's company is in "startup mode" when it is all just superficial or even straight out bullshit; it has become quite the trend in NYC now. One place I declined to work at claimed to be in startup mode yet their offices looked like those of a financial company (which they were not), everyone seriously dressed up, and the code base and infrastructure was pretty big and inher…

Check for Java, standups, JIRA, snacks, etc. But only free espresso -- I should forward your comment to my boss, so we get more drink options. :-) (A Python guy just started and makes predictable noises about rewriting thousands of pages of working code from a scripting language with very similar capabilities... That will probably happen simultaneously with free Coca Cola being introduced.)

that scripting language is Perl or PHP?

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#19

Post by storborg » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 1:14 AM UTC

bx_lr wrote: post #8

Notice the following "AMD says it maintains a start-up mentality even though it's a large company". This is becoming a trend now, hardly the only company touting this. My current company is doing the same. My old company approached me recently and told me are going to start working in start-up mode in California, and this is an old and rigid company. I'm holding Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky and others accountable for th…

I actually think the explosion of software engineering salaries (led by VC-funded SF startups) is responsible for this work attitude, not just glamorization of startup life.

Larger companies (and even smaller companies that aren't ultra-rapid-growth) have to pay much more to compete on salary, and as a result, they now have to get much more productivity out of each employee than before. Hence, more accountability, more ridiculous schedules.

Re: AMD needs 1000 Developers with Linux Skills

#20

Post by aaronblohowiak » Sun, Mar 13, 2011, 2:09 AM UTC

gst wrote: post #7

hunterjrj wrote: post #3

I do not work for AMD but am close friends with an AMD employee working in the Markham (Toronto) office. They enjoy their position considerably, but complain that the work-life balance isn't there. Just a note to those who are thinking of applying, but who are also seeking that balance.

As a European I always had the impression (from what I've read) that at most US-based IT companies there's not really a work-life balance. I currently work 40 hours a week and get 5 weeks of holiday per year (+ public holidays + sickdays) and that's already something where I think that the "life" part of the work-life balance is somewhat low. So home much time do you have for your "life" if you start at, e.g., at a v…

many valley startups expect six day workweeks and think that vacation is the time you spend between jobs.