The lesson here is that you shouldn't just join a FAANG company, you should aim for particular teams inside it. Any big company has a lot of operational needs, and not all of them are hard and exciting, on the contrary: most of those just aren't.
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
#232The lesson here is that you shouldn't just join a FAANG company, you should aim for particular teams inside it. Any big company has a lot of operational needs, and not all of them are hard and exciting, on the contrary: most of those just aren't.
Exactly, like I paraphrase it to "young colleagues":
Large companies / countries do not exist, they're made up out of small groups and picking the right group makes the difference between awesome and hell.
You will not find a large company with stellar players only.
Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work at the FAANG considered the “dumbest” - do you think people like me have any hope for the future?
You should feel hopeless, you're doomed to having a steady career where you are paid well.
Except I’m not - I make the same as a new grad at other companies.
Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Everything they code is a one off solution to a one off problem. To me, this is more indicative of the company culture than your coworkers' IQ.
Not at all. They are not capable of building useful abstract components.
In school, I noticed that many people don't learn deeply.
They get good grades even with a shallow understanding of the material.
They learn by heart and are not interested in why something works. (For example, what a Fourier transform essentially does. A Fourier transform is essentially projecting a target function to the sinusoidal bases. That is what the dot product implies.) I don't think this is necessarily related to intellect. I think it is somewhat related to laziness and lack of interest or curiosity.
They use a bunch of formulas and code snippets and glue it together until it somehow works without understanding it.
I am a big believer in learning deeply by focusing on the fundamentals. Here's what I previously wrote about that very topic:
> Instead of APIs, learn the fundamental algorithms that those APIs provide. Instead of OpenGL, learn rendering algorithms (raserization, Bresenham etc.). The same applies for other frameworks such as Vue.js. Learn how to write a virtual DOM yourself. Learn how JS operates under the hood. Learn how to implement a hash table (std::unordered_map) and a dynamic array (std::vector); understand why you cannot simply delete a bucket when using the open addressing scheme. Learn C and memory management, since many other programming languages are influenced by C. Implement the algorithms in C if you are proficient enough in it (gives you a better understanding).
Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful
#235Expectations are the thief of joy.
Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful
#236Leave? I work for a FAANG, and have for a while. Maybe I have below average IQ, too, but I've met and had the pleasure of working with some of the smartest, hardest working, kindest people in my career here. Some assholes too, of course, but we're all human. Everything is built in-house because it needs to solve problems at a scale that you've never worked at. Be humble. If the tooling is terrible, congrats! There's…
> Maybe I have below average IQ
No you don't. I find OP's bold characterization of his co-workers inflammatory. Below average in general means "borderline retarded"[1]. You are obviously not below average. Stop saying that, please.
[1] https://paulcooijmans.com/intelligence/iq_ranges.html
I think the issue is because of people who care less about learning a topic deeply. Understanding why something works at all etc. This might be the actual complaint of OP.
Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful
#237Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful
#238"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…
I seem to be getting a lot of heat for this comment - fair enough, but I will expand on that. Before joining this company, I hired and managed teams across various startups. I don't think I would be speaking out of turn to say in every company we looked for aptitude and intelligence. I don't know what my previous or current colleagues literal IQs are, but you know a highly intelligent person when you meet and work wi…
You're looking for independent thinkers. You won't find them at a megacorp because the hiring funnel actively selects against such a personality. Good employees are good followers.
Perhaps you should reconsider selling out to the megacorp, and sell out to VC instead. Now that you're a Xoogler (or FANG-er, whatever), raising money will be easy.
Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work at the FAANG considered the “dumbest” - do you think people like me have any hope for the future?
I have no idea which FAANG is considered “the dumbest”…
Any thread with FAANG in the title always brings out the weirdest insecurities. Maybe it's because emotionally stable people don't optimize their life and identity around which megacorp buys their time from them.
Re: Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful
#240Put in some time and get out. It will help your resume, but not your soul.
I have been working with a FAANG recently, one that builds EVERYTHING in house. Almost comical. There are great engineers all over the place, but no cohesive strategy or overarching sense for product outside of a couple of niches. Not a great situation.