Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I Left YouTube

zhach.news

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 345 posts

Re: How I Left YouTube

#211

Post by oscarcp »

I'm writing this without reading the comments first but oh boy, I wanted to punch a stone wall while I was reading this. I don't tolerate any company that has more than 3 interviews for a position, it's an automatic "no, sorry, I have better things to do with my life", and I tried, believe me, Red Hat had 6, Creative Assembly burnt me with 2 personal and 3 technical, all on-site on different dates (edit for peace of mind: these interviews were 13 years ago, it's fine...)

Maybe it's my own personal working culture, but when I get into a company I'm not thinking about levels, growth, stock options... I go there with a salary, a position and a willingness to help in whatever I can, once I'm not needed anymore (it's usually a combination of managerial direction changes, new hires, new objectives) that's my cue to help somewhere else where I may be needed or wanted. Am I that weird? I honestly don't understand this culture of quarter finance agent, half developer, quarter manager aspirant :/

Re: How I Left YouTube

#212

Post by wiseowise »

CrossVR wrote: post #177
mattgreenrocks wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of a system is what it does. If the org truly cared about under-leveled employees, it would get fixed rapidly. But they don’t. I’ve seen enough people glossed over repeatedly and then when enough people leave and the org is in a less leveraged position, then the promos are no longer an issue. Such BS.

You have to realize that a company is always optimizing for efficiency and salaries are no different. Giving out promotions when people are already working at the level they'd be promoted to is simply a waste of money. This is the author's biggest mistake. If you voluntarily work on tasks above your pay grade you are signaling to the company that you don't need a promotion.

> You have to realize that a company is always optimizing for efficiency

Must be “efficiency” why my coworkers have constant coffee breaks to talk about kids/sport/travel while MRs are open without comments for weeks.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#213

Post by wiseowise »

saghm wrote: post #158
dkasper wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except at big tech the next level might be 500k more not 5%

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.

> And yet, how many people are actually happier with that extra $500k?

A hella lot people, are you seriously that dense? If there were gladiator fights for 500k, I would be a fucking janitor cleaning up the bloody mess, because of how many people would die for a chance to make 500k extra.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#214

Post by kakacik »

anal_reactor wrote: post #203
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.

This is me, within limits of course. I work on 90% contract, having 10 weeks of paid vacation and sure as hell try to use that to the fullest.

Life is too short to focus on stuff that would lead to deep regrets later. I dont know about you guys but focusing all the time on money and career certainly feels like one, IT engineering is too successful to really have the need to behave so, so it becomes a choice.

I do focus on those but in short bursts and them coast the results for long time. Ie push through some boundary (lengthy acquiring of property, planning and realizing big reconstruction, naturalization process for me and family etc). I never grokked the 'completionist' mindset as a default one, its endless toil and unhappiness in big corporations.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#215

Post by wiseowise »

lisbbb wrote: post #82
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.

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.

Oh sweet summer child. How old are you? Genuine question.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#216

Post by stickfigure »

BoxFour wrote: post #69
mgaunard wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well of course, if you were CTO of a company of 10, you can't expect to be hired as CTO of Google.

My first manager at a big tech co was the CTO of a 500 person company. He was down-leveled to being a first-level manager.

There is so much interesting to unpack here.

He was down-leveled to a first level manager at the company you are at? He accepted this? Why? Do you think he / the new company chose wisely? What ended up happening?

Re: How I Left YouTube

#217

Post by wiseowise »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #175

This is an interesting contrast to the "don't become the machine" article. The mouse wheel this guy has been running in, both working for YouTube and preparing for interviews to work elsewhere, just sounds like an intentionally created psychology-breaking torture machine designed to eat youthful enthusiasm and ambition and spit out the dried up shell once the juice has dwindled to an arbitrary low yield. Jumping from…

The difference is that the guy has moderate success, while don’t become the machine is a starving student who bought into Andrew Tate instagram kool-aid bullshit. Money is a hell of a drug once you’ve tasted it.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#220

Post by wiseowise »

paulcole wrote: post #10

Love how he’s critical of the 13-interview hiring process despite having done all 13 of those interviews. “Nobody drives there anymore. There’s too much traffic.” These companies can do 13 interviews because people will put up with them. The little place I work does phone screen, work sample, final interview, reference check. We can be done in a week. Nobody wants to work with me bad enough to sit through 13 intervie…

Do you also pay 500k?
Post reply on HN