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Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

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Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#11

Post by ozzythecat »

I’ve been at a couple FANG companies in my career. Generally I worked with extremely intelligent people, but I did sometimes work with people who didn’t care… not that this makes it any better.

Are you able to switch teams? Can you find or take ownership of a specific part of a project that’ll keep you sane and motivated? Are you able to fix the specific tooling on your team or for your project that you don’t like?

Is the tooling really backwards 10 years, or is it that you’re unfamiliar with it and just out of your comfort zone?

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#12

Post by cj »

> I've told this to lots of people who work in other division (that I can trust) and they've said the easiest thing is to just accept it as it is and coast. I've never done that in my career and don't think I could do that.

This is one of the reasons I usually disqualify people with long stints at FAANG on their resume.

If you plan to get back into startups, you may not want to stick around for too long. Another option is to jump to another FAANG where maybe you’ll be lucky to find better people/culture.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#13

Post by bombcar »

Don't try to fix everything. Pick small battles and things and fix them one by one.

You're not at a startup where "fix all the things ASAP or we die" is the driving force. Settle in and work on making things better, even if it's just to keep you in play as you investigate other options.

A year of improving a team would give you a solid foundation for an internal transfer, for example.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#14

Post by laurieg »

"staffed with below-average IQ people"

I'm not sure why your co-workers' IQ is your concern. To come out of the gate with a comment like this sounds like you have a strong disdain for them.

Part of your reason for joining the company was the paycheck. I assume the checks aren't bouncing.

My advice is the same advice I would give to many people: Learn from your coworkers. Understand the problems that the team and the company face. Make incremental improvements.

If you really want to you can work late every day and at weekends. It's your choice. Bear in mind your job won't love you back.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#16

Post by aynyc »

codegeek wrote: post #4

"A+ players solving hard problems" Is this really what people think when joining a large company such as FAANG ? I mean not everyone can be an A player in a company with 1000s of employees, correct ? Also not every team is going to be solving hard problems. Someone has to do the dirty things. Isn't that understood ? Not trying to shit on you OP but I would have tried to learn more about the team in interviews if poss…

This is what you say when asked, "Why do you want to join XXX?". Say it long enough, you internalize it and accept it.

FAANG usually don't hire for a specific team, you get matched after. It's a crapshoot where you end up, but they usually let you transfer relatively easily if positions are opened.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#17

Post by eplanit »

"I've told this to lots of people who work in other division (that I can trust) and they've said the easiest thing is to just accept it as it is and coast"

The Big Head character from Silicon Valley is again proved to be (like all the characters) spot-on accurate. Mike Judge is sorely underappreciated.

My $0.02 advice: you seem smart, hard-working, and self-motivated. Become a consultant and be your own boss. Use the FAANG creds to demand a high rate. It's a market, and you can leverage your abilities as services you can offer. Work it to your advantage.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#18

Post by d357r0y3r »

Take the money, max out 401k + after tax, save whatever you can after that, and get your fulfillment outside of work, just like the majority of other employees do. After a few years, you shouldn't need your FAANG job anymore.

If you wanted to work on something interesting, you should have stayed at a startup. You wanted to make bank, and this is the price.

Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful

#19

Post by arpyzo »

Congrats on landing a FAANG position! As long as the environment isn't toxic, you can find a way to be content.

Use this as an opportunity to learn how to adjust your thinking so you can thrive personally in a challenging environment. You may never get to a point where you love it, but you can probably get to a place where you are successful and can focus on the positives.

Learn how to work well with challenging people. You'll encounter more of them later in your career. Again, adjust your thinking. These people almost certainly have their positive qualities. Work with those positive qualities and become a master at mitigating or avoiding their bad qualities.

As far as working nights and weekend goes... do you really have to do that? Are other team members doing that? Big companies are not like startups. All the things will never get fixed, and you simply need to do your best with things in a permanently semi-broken state.

I understand that you don't want to coast. You don't have to even if others are. Focus on doing an excellent job on your corner of the world. Your projects, your code, helping others, etc.. Worry less about the bigger picture.

Also remember that it's not forever. This is an investment in your future career.

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