Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by cr3ative » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:33 PM UTC

ransom1538 wrote: post #38

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…

"A+ players solving hard problems" Eh. IMHO they are a group of super good test takers and white board ninjas.

Don't forget the other important point: very willing to jump through many laborious hoops in order to work for said company, which self-selects quite a unique group.

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

#62

Post by S_A_P » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:33 PM UTC

It seems to me that you went in with the wrong expectations. I don’t know the full details of your group and their tools and skills. I am not sure if you just want to work with the newest shiniest toys or if they really are bad. As I have progressed in my career I realized that latest isn’t always greatest and for me the most productive thing wins. If you think they really are lagging behind then the best thing you can do is take initiative. Start brown bag lunches and learning sessions. Suggest new methodology and try to get team buy in. I find that it is very gratifying to give back and improve things. Not to mention it could help you advance your career.

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

#63

Post by option_greek » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:33 PM UTC

laurieg wrote: post #14

"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…

Not to mention "so what if the iq is actually low?". These folks have passed the same bar the OP has. Now they have to work together with existing team and achieve what progress can be achieved.

Anecdotally, a lot of engineers (and especially managers) have this mentality where they don't treat the job as something that puts food on table and helps the company move their products forward in what ever pace the overall organisation is happy with. They want to get the high of entire life's achievement there which results in dissatisfaction/burnout.

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

#64

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

[deleted]

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

#65

Post by tuckerconnelly » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

silentsea90 wrote: post #43

tuckerconnelly wrote: post #36

Quit and join a startup? Feel free to reach out, we're only hiring A+ players and solving hard problems.

Where?

https://acelerate.io/ - building an OS for restaurants, founded by former DoorDash employee. Lots of scaling, data modeling, and reverse engineering challenges right now.

We just raised $14.4mm led by Sequoia: https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/14/acelerate-raises-14-44m-se...

Our jobs board: https://boards.greenhouse.io/acelerate

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

#66

Post by okareaman » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

Ex-Navy & programmer here: It feels like I am pointing out the obvious, but FAANGs have big problems, way bigger than a startup, and I'm not referring to only the technology. They have big organizational problems, like managing an aircraft carrier. They need to hire the smartest people and pay them a lot of money to manage those problems. Not every problem is sexy and many people are needed in the engine room to keep the fresh water distillery running and the ship sewage system from clogging.

The U.S.'s $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier Has a Toilet Problem

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

#67

Post by fghfghfghfghfgh » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

From a manager point of view:

In your shoes I would make a decision to either fix/improve the situation or leave immediately.

If you decide for the former then make sure you have support from your management and own that decision. Be the one who turned the subpar division around. If it is as bad as you say you can hardly screw it up any worse. That's a privileged position to start from - difficult to fail.

I doubt your colleagues are really below average IQ - but perhaps their skills could be better. So teach them. Be the leader and mentor they likely never had. Have patience and build a team.

Fix the high impact, low effort problems first. Get some fast successes - they inspire and breed appetite for more. Don't exhaust your resources. Chip away one small problem at a time. It adds up faster than you think.

Create a vision for where you want to be in one year. Communicate that goal at every opportunity. Believe in it and other people will believe as well. It doesn't matter if you reach it within an arbitrary deadline - it matters that it exists in the first place.

Whatever you do, don't coast.

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

#68

Post by birdoinzoink » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:40 PM UTC

I've worked at these companies for several years, gotten promoted, shuffled around internally, etc...it can be frustrating and demoralizing for sure. But it can be rewarding too, and I saw plenty of people coast without stressing too much.

Here are my survival tips. Tl;Dr, calm down and try to be positive at work.

* Things are never as serious as they seem, and deadlines are rarely as solid as they seem. These companies have inertia and capital, and they understand that estimates are not promises.

* Check in with your teammates regularly, and avoid giant complicated code reviews. Be ready to change direction quickly, and don't worry too much about throwing away a few days of work if a better solution presents itself.

* Try to get a feel for how the in-house tools work. Even a basic understanding of how large companies handles things like deployments might be valuable in the future.

* Ignore the politics. Try to help your peers, and be nice to them even when they're annoying. They may or may not be "low-IQ", but as long as your teammates feel like you help them out, you should get good annual reviews without needing to work more than 40hrs/wk.

* If you want to transfer internally, be up-front about it with your manager. In-house transfer applications aren't always private.

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

#69

Post by jnwatson » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

zamalek wrote: post #47

efficax wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hoops you have to jump through to snag one of these jobs make it seem like everyone there must be on top of their game. The truth seems to be that once you've got the position you can coast, these organizations are just too large, too bureaucratic and too rich to solve the problem of poor performance effectively

> The hoops you have to jump through to snag one of these jobs This right here is exactly the problem. In the interview you are expected to write a fault tolerant k-way distributed sort and publish it to production, in 3 hours. Once you are embedded in your team they'll have you fixing typos on the landing page. "Our interview process is good at finding people who are good at interviewing, not good at their job." ~ S…

I just got 4 offers from 3 FAANG companies, and I agree completely.

None of the interviews had any filter for finishing tasks on time, writing good tests, improving team cohesion, or any of the many important characteristics of a great software developer.

But, gosh, I can definitely explain how Aho-Corasick works.

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

#70

Post by toast0 » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

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…

> I would have tried to learn more about the team in interviews if possible or is that just not a thing with FAANG interviews ?

Depends on the FAANG, but a lot of them do pooled interviews and assign a team later. Some do a weeks long orientation/training and you have some ability to more or less interview for final placement, and there's some other styles as well. For important teams that have trouble hiring, probably some people get selected into it without a lot of choice.

Either way, in a pooled hiring environment, you're probably not meeting with people on the team you'll work for before you join, although maybe you'd get to talk to a hiring manager after an offer; maybe.