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How I Left YouTube

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Re: How I Left YouTube

#201

Post by paganel »

venturecruelty wrote: post #173
conqrr wrote: post #16

> In the software engineering world, we exist on a ladder. We call this ”Leveling”. Career is a made up game. There are no true levels or ladders in life that you have to chase. Nobody will care or remember what you did or what level you were given enough timespan. Take the bits that you want (money, skills etc) to live life, but don't get too caught up trying to win the game.

Career is a made-up game, but man, being homeless and hungry sure does suck, eh?

Getting a salary that pays rent/mortgage and puts food on the table doesn't always have to be about being in a rat race (which is what the "laddering" bs really means), to the contrary.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#202

Post by readyforbrunch »

godelski wrote: post #195
lisbbb wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See? That's his first problem--he bought into all that corpo bs that is placed there to steal your attention and keep you in their box. If they had liked the guy and he was truly talented, he would have gazzelled right up the org chart. I guess smart people think they're smart about everything?

> If they had liked the guy and he was truly talented, he would have gazzelled right up the org chart. Logic is weird here. You're operating under the assumption that these orgs work perfectly. Even if you believe they are operating at a very high level of efficiency it is a naïve assumption to make. False positives and false negatives are things that exist in every non-perfect evaluation system. But you are working…

Having led the process from the other side, the more often your name comes up in a positive light, the better your chances. Odds are that OPs work simply wasn't mentioned much by his peers. The person you are replying to was absolutely on the money.

Promotions aren't a popularity contest, but they definitely are a popularity contest.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#203

Post by anal_reactor »

squirrellous wrote: post #141

Google is a somewhat widely known place where promo is a huge problem, but the problem isn’t particular to Google. Generally companies will require you to repeatedly “prove” you are worth the additional compensation before agreeing to it. The friction varies, but the structural incentives are always there. Therefore if the goal is to maximize earnings, and assuming you are a high performer, it’s in your best interest…

There's a third way. Think about maximizing salary to effort ratio instead of total salary. It might be the case that lower position has better ratio. Quiet quitting where people do bare minimum not to get fired is essentially this theory put into practice. You want to avoid a situation where you're rich but too stressed out to do anything with that money.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#204

Post by throwaway2037 »

gen220 wrote: post #146
cyberax wrote: post #33

> Do say: "I optimized a high-throughput distributed system to prioritize user retention metrics, reducing latency by 150ms through a custom caching layer." Ugh. Pain. I'm hiring, and I've been filtering out resumes that are heavy on these kinds of metrics. Because I literally get thousands of entries with these kinds of wording. Often with excessively precise numbers, like "by 23.5%". My problem is that it's hard to…

FWIW, I agree that less ink on a resume is usually a higher signal, and I also find that indicators for “ownership”, social trust, autonomy, and proxies thereof are more valuable than number go up narratives. But sometimes people feel like they must play this game to get past the pre-interview loop screen; I’ve interviewed plenty of people with number go up narratives who’ve done exceptionally well. It’s challenging…

    > social trust
This is an interesting term. (1) Can you define it for me? (2) Can you provide some examples that appear on CVs that project it?

Re: How I Left YouTube

#205

Post by godelski »

readyforbrunch wrote: post #202
godelski wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If they had liked the guy and he was truly talented, he would have gazzelled right up the org chart. Logic is weird here. You're operating under the assumption that these orgs work perfectly. Even if you believe they are operating at a very high level of efficiency it is a naïve assumption to make. False positives and false negatives are things that exist in every non-perfect evaluation system. But you are working…

Having led the process from the other side, the more often your name comes up in a positive light, the better your chances. Odds are that OPs work simply wasn't mentioned much by his peers. The person you are replying to was absolutely on the money. Promotions aren't a popularity contest, but they definitely are a popularity contest.

Yet what you are saying is a bit different from the person I replied to (which I do agree with your final line). We also only have the information that the OP states. These are asymmetric information games so it is a bit naive to claim this for any response. Especially simple explanations.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#206

Post by vkou »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #153
aeyes wrote: post #93

I have seen this from the manager side at these kinds of companies, explaining to your manager that you are quitting because your level does not match your work is a waste of energy. Their hands are usually tied. Promotion decisions are made by committees which are 1-2 levels above your manager, your manager presents the candidates. They round up a pot of multiple teams which are discussed at once and there are usual…

Honestly, I’ve worked at everything from small to medium lifestyle companies, startups, Big Enterprise, BigTech, and now Í am a staff consultant at a third party AWS consulting firm across 10 jobs. In all of those jobs, I have found line level managers absolutely useless and powerless. At the jobs where I was responsible for strategy, one of my conditions for employment was I would be reporting directly to a director…

> I have found line level managers absolutely useless and powerless.

They are doing exactly what they are paid to, which is communicate decisions made above them to the people doing the work.

You are correct - that is a powerless position. That's by design. Work isn't a democracy.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#207

Post by qweiopqweiop »

Optimising YouTube viewing time is a terrible goal to devote your life to in my opinion. I'm not sure if OP ever thought too deeply about what he was working on, but addicting people to a screen is not one I consider a value to society.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#208

Post by ajmurmann »

immibis wrote: post #178
saghm wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, how many people are actually happier with that extra $500k? It's one thing if you're not making enough to allow you and whoever else you might need to support to be happy and comfortable and be able to save enough for emergencies and retirement, but I'm dubious that someone only one other away from a half million dollar raise is in that position.

Something that's often overlooked is the time equivalent of money. If the average salary is $50k but you get $500k, you only have to work 1 year in every 10, and that's crazy. Source: got paid 180k and took 2 years off.

And the feeling of safety that comes with it. I left my previous employer during an acquisition and took a year off and am taking my time to find the right next gig. I cannot imagine the terror of having to find a new job, any job, ASAP because otherwise we starve and lose the house. Substantial savings are honestly much nicer than spending on a lavish lifestyle.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#209

Post by wopwops »

conqrr wrote: post #16

> In the software engineering world, we exist on a ladder. We call this ”Leveling”. Career is a made up game. There are no true levels or ladders in life that you have to chase. Nobody will care or remember what you did or what level you were given enough timespan. Take the bits that you want (money, skills etc) to live life, but don't get too caught up trying to win the game.

I said "F-this" 20 years ago, moved to the middle of nowhere, paid cash for my property and live on next to nothing. Best decision ever.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#210

Post by wiseowise »

paganel wrote: post #201
venturecruelty wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Career is a made-up game, but man, being homeless and hungry sure does suck, eh?

Getting a salary that pays rent/mortgage and puts food on the table doesn't always have to be about being in a rat race (which is what the "laddering" bs really means), to the contrary.

People generally have different needs. Some want expensive Porsche with their mortgage and food on the table.
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