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Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#51

Post by JumpinJack_Cash »

You like vehicles no? Well being an employee in a huge company is the equivalent of being a cog in a giant vehicle. You are not deciding which way you are going nor the speed, hell you don't even know the speed and the direction, you just feel the force rotating in one way or the other upon you (the cog) .

But of course, it can be worthy for the salary which enables you to do some real fun driving, riding, skippering, piloting on some real bad ass vehicles during the weekend. Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday the cog becomes the captain

Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#52

Post by bunabhucan »

If you want to try to find "beauty" or "ingenuity" in these behemoths, look at "all the processes that company has" and imagine trying to consistently pull off some of some of the bigger projects they do without those processes.

There are projects that can only be done by large entities and part of the boredom you feel is the systems "work" if workers are equivalent/replacable units.

Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#53

Post by treflop »

Reallllly depends on the the industry, the company, the department and the team.

——

Questions to ask yourself when looking at job so you can be picky:

- What industry are they in (helps determine if it’s interesting)

- Their place in the industry (helps if there’s growth)

- What is the next frontier for the industry (helps determine if you are going to be laid off)

——

And when they interview you, be sure to interview them, especially if you get to talk to technical members:

- What does your specific team work on (helps determine whether their work is interesting)

- How big is the team (helps determine if you’re gonna be a cog)

- What kind of inter-team collaboration goes on, including non-technical teams (helps determine the culture)

- Talk to me about your architecture (helps you determine the tech you will be working on)

- Ask questions about why they built in that way (if they cannot answer these, I would run)

- What’s their release process like (you’re almost looking for key words here)

Don’t be afraid to ask. I asked questions for like an hour before deciding this job was for me. It should flow like a conversation with a friend though.

Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#55

Post by DANmode »

throwup238 wrote: post #22
lemonwaterlime wrote: post #17

There’s nothing dull about it! Make sure to keep detailed records of everything you and more importantly the people around you do and say. Working in a corporation is about having brag lists for yourself and nuclear information to use against those around you, especially your boss. As you get experience you realize that at any given time everyone has said or done something that could be taken out of context as eviden…

> and nuclear information to use against those around you, especially your boss. Always remember MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise, and Ego. You probably don't control the money and the only ideology is capitalism so compromise and ego are the ones you should focus on. Honey pots work the best as compromise (especially sexual in nature) and you should always practice your skill of manipulating your coworkers' egos to…

Can't imagine willingly putting oneself in the environment you're describing.

These are people playing on the same team as you?

What kind of humans choose work environments where they're surrounded by foes?

Hoping this is winding down.

Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#56

Post by giantg2 »

In my experience, yes, big companies are boring. Sometimes a particular department might be good, but most of the jobs are boring. There tends to be many levels between you and the people making the actual decisions and you have little input. There is usually a large bureaucracy with a large number of busy work tasks. Being rewarded for you contributions (or just being rated accurately) is not a given and can lead to disappointment.

There's really no avoiding it. You're trading your life for money - that's how jobs work from an employee perspective.

Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#57

Post by lrvick »

My 2c having done a bit of everything

Consulting: Limitless income, low job security, high value interesting work

Megacorps: High income, medium job security, meaningless work

Startups: Medium income, low job security, sometimes meaningful work

Open source: Low income, low job security, work that lasts forever

I balance a mix of Consulting, a Startup job, and Open source these days. I tweak the dials between those to keep myself optimally financially comfortable, challenged, and happy.

Would never work full time at a megacorp again for any amount of money though. The toxicity, politics, and pressure to put profit before people do not work for me. At most I will solve a high value problem that interests me, take my contract fee, and move on to the next thing.

Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#58

Post by bdangubic »

lemonwaterlime wrote: post #17

There’s nothing dull about it! Make sure to keep detailed records of everything you and more importantly the people around you do and say. Working in a corporation is about having brag lists for yourself and nuclear information to use against those around you, especially your boss. As you get experience you realize that at any given time everyone has said or done something that could be taken out of context as eviden…

I would rather be homeless than spend majority of my days like this

Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#59

Post by moepstar »

rqtwteye wrote: post #23
Barrin92 wrote: post #12

I like the culture of huge companies because as a programmer I enjoy working on technical problems and working on a large system and improving things that millions of people actually use is cool. You can make something 2% better and that's worth like 50 million bucks. Seeing really large stuff come together that many people work on is fascinating to me. That there's more streamlined processes to me is a good thing, b…

The huge company I work for has managed to combine the drawbacks of small companies with the drawbacks of large companies. We need a ton of approvals and reviews for even the slightest thing but the processes to actually get things done barely exist so it's chaos with a ton of overhead.

Heh, that totally sounds like the one i'm working for...

Bonus points for "nobody being responsible for anything" plus a healthy dose of "yeah no, we don't have any budget for this this year"...

Re: Ask HN: Is it really so dull to work in huge company?

#60

Post by thrway12345688 »

jvm___ wrote: post #15

Do you want to produce something, or do you want a paycheque for doing work? If you're a plumber, do you want to be responsible for building a brand new skyscraper with top of the line pipes, or do you just want to show up to your dead-boring factory maintenance job, fix the things you know how to fix and go home to your wife, kids and/or hobbies - which is where you draw satisfaction from life. Hackernews is slanted…

I'm definitely on that side of building stuff. I really need something to work on and having progress, also unfortunately I'm more into HW. As companies making something HW related are really rare these days. So I'm not shaming the job itself but more like trying to understand if this is just something not for me.
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