Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
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Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
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Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#2From what I've heard, Google does a particularly good job of taking care of reservists (there are federal laws about not firing, but good companies go beyond this). Outside of government contracting (where it makes a lot of business sense to hire reservists or former military), there don't seem to be a large number of reservists/national guard in the tech community; almost more foreign-country-compulsory-service veterans (from Israel, etc.) than US veterans.
Kind of a loss for the military, because tech startups are a great preparation for actual deployed military operations (which are basically the opposite of the peacetime bureaucracy). As well, the military is a more diverse organization in the US than almost any tech company -- it's a great way to get underrepresented minorities involved.
Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#3Excellent read, thanks for sharing.
Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#4Excellent read, thanks for sharing.
I totally agree. Thanks for sharing.
Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#5From what I've heard, Google does a particularly good job of taking care of reservists (there are federal laws about not firing, but good companies go beyond this). Outside of government contracting (where it makes a lot of business sense to hire reservists or former military), there don't seem to be a large number of reservists/national guard in the tech community; almost more foreign-country-compulsory-service vete…
I see US military people on IRC sometimes. They're around, but I agree, not much.
Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#6From what I've heard, Google does a particularly good job of taking care of reservists (there are federal laws about not firing, but good companies go beyond this). Outside of government contracting (where it makes a lot of business sense to hire reservists or former military), there don't seem to be a large number of reservists/national guard in the tech community; almost more foreign-country-compulsory-service vete…
> As well, the military is a more diverse organization in the US than almost any tech company.
Agreed. I always get irritated when I see people referring to the military as some homogeneous, white-Protestant, politically conservative institution. It's very much not the case.
Dan, the subject of this article, studied at Columbia, which has an incredibly large veteran population in the undergraduate student body. From my experience at Columbia, the GS veterans come from an incredibly diverse range of background (racial diversity being just one aspect of that).
Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#7I've briefly met Dan. I work in the same office and some months ago we were in the same class where he was talking about his time in the Marine Corps. I often hear him when I'm in the micro-kitchen.
So while I don't know him you quickly get a sense of who he is. Grounded, humble, practical, having integrity and he has some amazing stories. I had no idea about the full details of his story (from this article) but it's really fascinating. It's just such a totally different world to the one that the rest of us, myself included, mostly take for granted.
I'm also glad to be working for a company that does go out of its way to support veterans and reservists.
Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#8From what I've heard, Google does a particularly good job of taking care of reservists (there are federal laws about not firing, but good companies go beyond this). Outside of government contracting (where it makes a lot of business sense to hire reservists or former military), there don't seem to be a large number of reservists/national guard in the tech community; almost more foreign-country-compulsory-service vete…
> As well, the military is a more diverse organization in the US than almost any tech company. Agreed. I always get irritated when I see people referring to the military as some homogeneous, white-Protestant, politically conservative institution. It's very much not the case. Dan, the subject of this article, studied at Columbia, which has an incredibly large veteran population in the undergraduate student body. From…
Regarding diversity in the military, I can only speak of my own experience, but when I was in the military I found it to be a very interesting atmosphere.
Unlike the rest of the US, where race is an extremely touchy subject and anyone bringing it up walks on pins and needles, I found that the military was full of people from all kinds of backgrounds constantly needling each other with jokes, questions, and comments that in other company would be called 'racist', but nobody seemed to care - if anything, it seemed like we all learned a lot about each other this way.
Only once did we ever really have a problem with a guy who was genuinely racist, and when someone said something about him, the higher-ups came down on him pretty hard. It took a lot to get to that point though - usually the enlisted men can deal with the problem themselves pretty well. Most people who enter the military racist drop that outlook very quickly.
Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#9From what I've heard, Google does a particularly good job of taking care of reservists (there are federal laws about not firing, but good companies go beyond this). Outside of government contracting (where it makes a lot of business sense to hire reservists or former military), there don't seem to be a large number of reservists/national guard in the tech community; almost more foreign-country-compulsory-service vete…
there don't seem to be a large number of reservists/national guard in the tech community;
Why do you/others think this is?
I'm not a US citizen, so that counts me out. But even so I wouldn't become a reservest because I feel I have a lot of unique and valuable skills (engineering, thought leadership in platforms, and media technology) that wouldn't be capitalizable by the military - certainly not as a reservist. I wouldn't feel I was utilizing my skills if I was a regular solider or even reservest officer.
It's similar to volunteering for charity: rather than volunteer to work a day in a soup kitchen I would be able to bring far more value to a charity by just work for a day doing my normal job and then donating that day's pay to them. (yes you personally learn some good life skills volunteering but I'm talking about which is better for the charity)
EDIT: perhaps folks who have downvoted me would like to leave a comment to help me understand where the skill capitalization for a tech founder/software engineer is in the reservists, seeing as they clearly feel I'm wrong.
Re: Google Engineer: What I learned in the war
#10I've briefly met Dan. I work in the same office and some months ago we were in the same class where he was talking about his time in the Marine Corps. I often hear him when I'm in the micro-kitchen. So while I don't know him you quickly get a sense of who he is. Grounded, humble, practical, having integrity and he has some amazing stories. I had no idea about the full details of his story (from this article) but it's…
He does a very commendable job of representing the best about the military and service that I remember.