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On Leaving Facebook

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Re: On Leaving Facebook

#291

Post by boppo1 »

2457013579 wrote: post #156
Aperocky wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At Facebook I could get by barely working a few hours a day. But the job was so unsatisfying This is a little too first world. if the work were too sparse and wants more work, why not join interview loops or take classes/training, attend talks? Does Meta not have those options? The frustration feels almost artificial, if one does not want to get more work, then maybe just go boating or mountain biking. Watch some s…

As someone who worked remote at a large company and spent the last year or so doing this, I don’t think it’s a viable long term solution, at least for me. I’ve been traveling every month (7 times in other countries), spent countless hours gaming, got some certificates, etc, etc.. all the while still looked at as a “top performer” on my team. Due to the nature of bigger organizations (or at least mine), there isn’t an…

What do you do for a living/ what was that job? Current job?

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#292

Post by ipaddr »

zionic wrote: post #171
Godel_unicode wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to know this as well. Anyone willing to write off literally millions of engineers because they happened to work at some huge companies is someone worth avoiding.

> literally millions of engineers It’s tens of thousands, tops. And let’s be honest, most of them are highly overrated. > because they happened to work at some huge companies Because they made the choice to work at some incredibly evil corporations. Give them some credit, they didn’t sleepwalk into their roles. They did it for that fat cash, and they sold their morals out to do so. Jokes on them, I have the “fat cash…

Sounds like raises would be a life and death struggle at your company.

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#293

Post by tyre »

tasty_freeze wrote: post #119
jackblemming wrote: post #8

This man had 8+ years at Facebook and they still made him do programming questions? What is wrong with our industry?

I have 38 years in hardware design, most of that doing ASIC design in Verilog. I've been with my currently employer 19 years, but if I found myself in an interview I'd expect them to ask me technical questions. If they didn't ask them, it would be a red flag. What if they asked me an "offensively" basic question? Great, I can make quick work of it, no insult taken. It has happened to me only once that I interviewed s…

It depends on the type of questions and whether they were relevant. The thing with these little coding quizzes is they rarely have anything to do with what the person will do day-to-day. Design a problem that's relevant to the work and it's fine.

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#294

Post by kortilla »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #147
mercutio2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well of course we won’t say that to your face! But it’s certainly a factor when I’m reviewing resumes.

Taking you at your word that you do this, I'm very glad I don't work with you. I would never want to associate with the kind of person who holds the employees responsible for the decisions of management, and then punishes them for wanting to leave that same management. Seems pretty biblical, in the original sin sense. The whole "won't say it to your face" is the absolute cherry on top. If you don't talk about it, how…

> I would never want to associate with the kind of person who holds the employees responsible for the decisions of management

That excuse is maybe acceptable for someone who worked at Facebook 10 years ago, but someone who is still working there in the last couple of years? You might just be an employee but you’re willfully helping well-known behaviors.

This isn’t like some revelation of fraud that employees don’t know about. Countless articles have been written about the problems with Facebook and it has been in the crosshairs of national politicians several times.

At this point taking a job at Facebook is not really any different than accepting a marketing job at a cigarette company.

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#295

Post by Hermitian909 »

vanusa wrote: post #227
neilv wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this the point in your career when you have so much money that you don't actually need a job?

More like you gradually come to a realization that your time in this world is extremely, extremely precious. And that you just don't particularly see a need to cater to other people's made up (and sometimes downright farcical) rituals to such an excessive degree. No matter how much money they may dangle in front of you.

> More like you gradually come to a realization that your time in this world is extremely, extremely precious.

> And that you just don't particularly see a need to cater to other people's made up (and sometimes downright farcical) rituals to such an excessive degree.

> No matter how much money they may dangle in front of you.

I confess to not understanding this take, money can purchase back a substantial portion of time. Working at big tech can fairly easily reduce your working life to 10 years if you spend conservatively. Outside of big tech the norm seems to be more towards 20-30.

The cost of those decades of saved time? About 100ish hours of prep for your first interview, 40-50 from there on (based on personal experience, conversations with my colleagues, and a friend who runs a FAANG interview class). Assuming 3 job hops in your 10 year working life, that's 200ish hours to save 20 years. Is there a reason you don't think that's worth it?

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#296

Post by throwawaylinux »

renewiltord wrote: post #281
throwawaylinux wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the answer, much appreciated -- a lot of people throw out comments like yours but won't back them up. I'm probably not the right fit for the job, I'm happily a lowly kernel developer with 20 years experience on half the salary and not in SV/SF. But I do appreciate the answer and maybe your post leads to a mutually beneficial arrangement with someone here.

I once aspired to be a kernel dev. As an aside, I once spoke to an engineer at a previous gig and told him that we don't get as low-level as what he was used to (wrote kernel code) and he was affronted. Had to calm him down and tell him that I meant "close to the metal" not "inferior software". Didn't work out for other reasons but I was embarrassed.

Sounds like he needed some thicker skin or awareness of the terms of art in his own field! I don't think you had anything to be embarrassed about, that's what my pun was related to.

Although as another aside, I know some kernel devs who do very low level work for HFT. You're not in Chicago or NYC so maybe you're not in that game. Or at least you're happy to keep a healthy distance from the coalface.

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#297

Post by throwawai2021 »

zionic wrote: post #140
iamstupidsimple wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unpopular opinion: Facebook is widely disliked by the loudest voices in the room (for good reason), but the vast majority of people still just treat it like a fancy forum. It's not going to stain your CV. Plus, Facebook-the-app is far more disliked than Meta-the-company especially now that's a formal distinction. I imagine it's still relatively cool to work on Instagram, for example.

> It's not going to stain your CV. Not with that attitude. I refuse to hire anyone with FAANG on their resume and you can all do it too. Most of you on here are all woo woo Linux this and FSF that, but you won’t put your money where your mouth is. I won’t hire you if you work for these assholes, and I’d love for more of you to join me. To the rest of you: Sure, take that $300k total comp bro. Good luck working outsid…

Total comp at FAANG for a senior engineer who's been there a few years is more like $800k+.

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#298

Post by [deleted] »

sockgrant wrote: post #122
elb0w wrote: post #79

It always blows my mind how most interview in our field. When I first started in tech I was afraid to talk about not knowing leetcode to my peers. 15 years in and I now can confidently say I’ve yet to meet someone who thinks these are a valid metric. Why do we make this the gate keeper to our industry when we know (except for the very specific roles) we will rarely need leet code type problems. When we do we just goo…

I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about someone being hired that couldn’t write simple code. It’s easy to study leet code, and it’s relevant because it shows the interviewer you can write code. I’ve had non-leet code interviews, like write some feature in 60minutes. It was fine. It tests code and knowledge as opposed to just algorithms and tricks. I dunno I’ve always felt that the people who can’t leet code are the…

[deleted]

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#299

Post by avalys »

zionic wrote: post #140
iamstupidsimple wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unpopular opinion: Facebook is widely disliked by the loudest voices in the room (for good reason), but the vast majority of people still just treat it like a fancy forum. It's not going to stain your CV. Plus, Facebook-the-app is far more disliked than Meta-the-company especially now that's a formal distinction. I imagine it's still relatively cool to work on Instagram, for example.

> It's not going to stain your CV. Not with that attitude. I refuse to hire anyone with FAANG on their resume and you can all do it too. Most of you on here are all woo woo Linux this and FSF that, but you won’t put your money where your mouth is. I won’t hire you if you work for these assholes, and I’d love for more of you to join me. To the rest of you: Sure, take that $300k total comp bro. Good luck working outsid…

I would have more respect for this comment (and your entire crusade in this thread) if you were complaining about Facebook for political reasons. I would disagree with you, but, I couuld understand your perspective.

But, all FAANG, really? What business are you in that's so noble by comparison?

Re: On Leaving Facebook

#300

Post by boppo1 »

Swizec wrote: post #211
ipnon wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the distinction to be made is between the process of finding the best out of 7,000 and finding someone sufficient out 7,000. The first is surely extremely expensive for companies. The second can be done in a week or two. I think the anecdotal evidence shows though that no company can accurately do the first, and the gamification of this process is a deeply researched topic, so it's likely that a company that…

> Coding is hard, but so is marketing, accounting, management ... But are your marketing candidates being put through the ringer too? I suspect software engineers are being uniquely hazed. My girlfriend works on the business strategy side of Fortune500’s. Our interviews look like a joke compared to theirs.

Also interested in top strategy interviews. Not that they aren't hard, just that "strategy" has always seemed so ephemeral to me. My business profs failed to impart any real criteria to define it. Seems like something people either have or they don't and all you can do is hire based on past success.
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