> Is all of FAANG like this?
No. All big companies are like this, not just FAANG!
Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
71–80 of 648 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#72This doesn't directly answer your question and you didn't ask it, but I feel it relates directly to the source of your frustration potentially: you may never find a job that is fully satisfactory in terms of what you hope to find. I used to be in a similar boat striving to work towards and find some magical job that would make me feel fulfilled and purposeful. They all ended up having things I didn't like and would q…
I'm sorry if I'm taking this the wrong way but that sounds like settling for mediocrity to me.
Who said jobs can't be fulfilling?
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#73I think being part of a big company will always be like that. The 10x performers will get paid 1.3x and the .5 performers will get paid .8x, so if you're smart and not particularly passionate about your work it makes much more sense to be a .5x performer. Also, usually the codebases tend to be quite complex with little to no documentation since that kind of work is not rewarded. This means the hundreds of engineers w…
> This is why I'm convinced places that use proprietary tech are going to fail in the future since the natural forces of competition will cause the internal technology to stagnate
This was Bezos' reasoning for making as much of their internal software available to the public via AWS, a) now it's required to be documented, b) it's now subject to competition, you know it's not the best if no one's using it.
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#74What is slow? Days, weeks, months?
It's perfectly normal to take day to makes changes in a company. Going through tests, build, code reviews and staging over multiple environments.
This can easily scale into weeks if there are challenges like opening firewalls or access permissions.
It's the normal pace of development in large companies. Unlike in startups where developers could push the application straight to prod over ssh any minute.
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#75I remember talking to a senior person at FB (wears a suit on friday). I asked "how is hiring?". Their response: terrible. People like this OP game systems, know how to test, understands what the boss wants, know ahead of time the questions they will be asked, etc. They have gamed the entire system. So! They tend to get through the interview with ease. The problem is... now what. What is the next thing they need to game? Turns out, they are in it for the 'game' itself. Eventually they wake up, realize their life now is to ensure people click on FB ads. Basically, they finished the last level on Mario Bros. and now begin a bizarre existential crisis.
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#76It annoys me that I probably couldn't pass the FAANG interview but I would definitely be better than most people on your team (and probably improve the team)
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#77This doesn't directly answer your question and you didn't ask it, but I feel it relates directly to the source of your frustration potentially: you may never find a job that is fully satisfactory in terms of what you hope to find. I used to be in a similar boat striving to work towards and find some magical job that would make me feel fulfilled and purposeful. They all ended up having things I didn't like and would q…
I'm sorry if I'm taking this the wrong way but that sounds like settling for mediocrity to me. Who said jobs can't be fulfilling?
Who said they must be?
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#78It's all like this. Mostly because nobody feels excited about making rich richer by improving the conversion rate on ads.
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#79Don't leave, stay. Your current future opportunities might never come back to you again. To have 3-5 years of experience from a faang will be extremely good for your career.
Re: Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?
#80I worked in a corporation that pretended to be a startup; or a startup that pretended to be a corporation; basically what's called "unicorn" nowadays.
And yes, unless you got lucky and get to work on some interesting, infrastructural problems, it was like this.
Also tons of useless meetings where things get rehashed over and over, and people shouting "agile" and "AI" and latest buzzwords over and over without actually understanding them, and having 1 hour calls over 1px design changes.
On the other hand - comparing with start-ups, you have clearly defined role what to do, nobody can really screw you over like start-ups tend to do, the pay and perks are good, the teams are more clearly delineated than in start-ups.
Pick your poison.