181–190 of 219 posts
Interesting that this is so complicated in a big Bay Area tech company. At a fruit-themed Bay Area company I can register a domain name behind a load balancer, issue a new cert, kickoff a VM to host it internally all in the same day without any approvals... so long as it is below a certain scale suitable for testing, skunkworks projects, etc. Approvals and meetings only become necessary if I want to deploy a producti…
This.
I work for a very large corporation (Fortune 100 that everyone has heard of). I was hired by a business unit back in the days before the company even had an IT department (back then everything technical was outsourced to another company). So for decades we did whatever we wanted. Eventually the company created an IT department and about 10 years later they got wind of us and insisted we get moved into IT. Complete he…
I see a lot of comments saying to stick it out, etc. But for me, I worked at a fairly Big Co for a year and a half and it really really affected my mental health negatively. The pace the company moved at compared to how much needed to be done created substantial existential dread within myself. I did everything I could to have a good attitude about it, worked the politics of it all, enjoyed side projects and hobbies,…
Yes. It even happens at medium sized companies. One answer is to accept the way things are at BigCo and to just coast along in your role, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Another answer is to work at an early-stage startup or a small non-tech company where you can move fast. The tradeoff there is lack of job security and lesser pay. Don't ever expect to move fast at BigCo. It's a BigCo for a reason. By moving fa…
OP, there's a lot of wisdom in this comment. I suspect you might be 20-something instead of 30-something, and in hindsight I wish I'd relaxed more. And I especially wish I'd learned to play the politics game, or at least pay attention to it. Your alliances will make or break your career at BigCo. You should make sure that your manager feels like you're directly advancing their career, not just yours. I suggest channe…
Yes. It even happens at medium sized companies. One answer is to accept the way things are at BigCo and to just coast along in your role, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Another answer is to work at an early-stage startup or a small non-tech company where you can move fast. The tradeoff there is lack of job security and lesser pay. Don't ever expect to move fast at BigCo. It's a BigCo for a reason. By moving fa…
I've worked at a few startups that have this problem too. Mostly because tech leadership came from a bank. I would never hire someone again if they have worked at a bank for more than a couple of years.
(I never worked in a bank myself.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP, there's a lot of wisdom in this comment. I suspect you might be 20-something instead of 30-something, and in hindsight I wish I'd relaxed more. And I especially wish I'd learned to play the politics game, or at least pay attention to it. Your alliances will make or break your career at BigCo. You should make sure that your manager feels like you're directly advancing their career, not just yours. I suggest channe…
Do you guys ever think there's more to life than being really really really ridiculously well compensated?