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Why I have left Samsung

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Re: Why I have left Samsung

#131

Post by w0utert »

ambiate wrote: post #91
w0utert wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Every time (~5/month) I hear the "managers are idiots" rant I start to wonder, how is it possible that all the smart people: 1. aren't managers. 2. aren't able to convince the "idiots". I guess you must have worked for completely different companies than I did, because in my experience it's not the smartest people who work their way up into management, just the loudest ones that don't have any specific skill that…

I really thought you were my coworker. He has been pushing for me to attack a niche at the company in spare time for months. 'Work on interesting things and move further away from meetings and people in general. You will lock yourself into being "that person."'

I never implied that working on interesting projects means you can't work in teams, and 'getting pushed into a niche' is quite different from getting yourself into a position where you can work on projects you actually like and make progress without having to tip-toe around office politics or waste time sitting in useless meetings or making planning spreadsheets based on when your manager promised a delivery to someone higher up in the food chain, instead of how long it takes to get the job done properly.

I'm not saying you don't need managers, or that no such thing as good managers exist. I'm just stating my observation that more often than not, who gets into management is based on the Peter principle, rather than how 'smart' or capable someone is.

Re: Why I have left Samsung

#132

Post by praptak »

michaelochurch wrote: post #123
praptak wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What makes you think Google is better? Statements from friends who work there plus knowledge from seminars they sometimes organize with Warsaw University. Example (Polish language warning :-) ): http://students.mimuw.edu.pl/SR/rok12-13/Google.html Short translation of the above link: cluster management, availability management, load balancing. OS-level things, definitely not maintenance of a legacy ticketing system…

You could be right, but my experience at Google is that even on the projects that seem interesting, the microallocation comes down to rank. For example, on my team of ~15 people there were plenty of individuals doing interesting stuff, but if you were SWE 2-3 you were fucked. Your boss could take advantage of the fact that SWE 3's are pretty much considered to be parasites not worthy of consideration as humans. You'd…

Not to contradict your experience, I just find it unlikely to translate to this particular office we're talking about. Who knows, maybe I'll find out first hand.

Re: Why I have left Samsung

#133

Post by fakeer »

SandB0x wrote: post #46

Whining child damages his career prospects with unprofessional rant after just nine months of work.

I used to work at Samsung. Left after 2.5 years.

From your comments, two things are obvious:

1. You have no idea what you are talking about or what he was talking about.

2. Your comment is top-voted and that's bad.

Leave alone whining. This guy has not even touched upon what is like working as a software engineer at Samsung. Over the time you learn to despise yourself for just working there and then leave and if you lazied around till late and didn't leave in time then you are stuck and then you despise yourself more.

Two years down the line you look at yourself and then figure you are mechanically doing and following all those work and procedures that you used to hate and then you are scared.

You just name any aspect of a work place or work and a (non HQ - though they are now coming out slowly) Samsung engineer can tell you how horrible that is. I had been to Korea HQ(Suwon) 5 times and I realized the HQ engineers are same with the only difference that a Samsung job is worshipped in Korea without parallel. If you talk to HQ(Korean) engineers about Samsung's low quality work and lowest quality work life balance - they make it a matter of prestige and patriotism.

Good luck Wiktor, you left in time :-)

Re: Why I have left Samsung

#134

Post by ardit33 »

Dystopian wrote: post #112
PavlovsCat wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't say they're incompetent, to the contrary, just that he didn't like it, and that being directly involved in something that makes more sense to him is more fulfilling to him in the meantime. So yes, he won't be hired by people without reading comprehension who snoop around on blogs, but what makes you think those are particularly productive anyway? And how is this relevant for someone looking to start his own…

Bigcos aren't the only ones who would be turned off by this post - I do due diligence daily on new employees at a small dev shop, we work startup hours and get dirty when it comes to the work we do (I do mindless crap daily that feels like I should have an intern that does it for me). The op's post wreaks of entitlement and puts doubt in my mind that he'd be able to sit for 5 hours and setup staging servers, or batch…

Then he wouldn't be a fit for you company, just as you probably wouldn't be a good employer for him.

It goes both ways. If a person takes a stand like that (basically stating not liking dysopian work environments, bad tools and major bureaucracy), he might make himself not available to such environments, but yet open doors to other ones.

The other thing you forget is that this guy is pretty young and still maturing up. Almost no level headed manager will read too much into it few years down the road.

As a co-worker, I like this type. They are more likely to reject bureaucracies, and seeking efficiency. These types tend to be more motivated on getting things done, and taking joy in their productive work, and not useless work.

Having seen myself how Samsung engineers work (mostly Korean teams), long hours culture, sleeping in their desks (shows you are working hard!), producing buggy code at night, then fixing their own crap in the morning (inefficient tail chasing), I would never work for that company either. *

*(Unless they pay me a 7 figure salary, I have a price after all)

Re: Why I have left Samsung

#135

Post by tbrownaw »

raverbashing wrote: post #74
rplst8 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's bulky and awful and became a monster of an application that would eat itself. But there were (are) some things that Clearcase does that other version control systems don't do.

There's also an awful load of (from important to trivial) stuff that most version systems do that CC ignores. And most of the CC features can probably be replicated easily with some scripting. But I'll give that CC feature of 'mounting a filesystem' is found in no other place (AFAIK).

I think that http://www.vestasys.org/ works by having your workspace/checkout be a virtual filesystem (which would be how it's able to track build dependencies).

Re: Why I have left Samsung

#136

Post by vinceguidry »

michaelochurch wrote: post #130
Dystopian wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unprofessional because in the real-world you're OFTEN (of not most of the time) tasked with tasks that you believe are below your skill-set (or non-world changing as the author put it). The reward for the hard work is usually being elevated to a project you're proud of, or work you enjoy (sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn't - that's the workforce - if you're in a situation where you don't see upward mob…

It's unprofessional because in the real-world you're OFTEN (of not most of the time) tasked with tasks that you believe are below your skill-set (or non-world changing as the author put it). The reward for the hard work is usually being elevated to a project you're proud of, or work you enjoy (sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn't - that's the workforce - if you're in a situation where you don't see upward mob…

> Do you realize how disgusting and condescending an arrangement this is?

It's a pretty basic workplace dynamic. If you really have to get away from it, you stay out of the workplace.

In freelancing or contract work, you're in the workplace, but are free to turn stuff down and be difficult because there's no long-term investment, you come on board and start contributing immediately. If they treat you poorly, just tell them to take a hike and go find something else.

The real problem is people let themselves be taken advantage of, because they often leave themselves with no options but to take abuse until they crack and do something that gets them fired.

If your immediate supervisor has shown signs of being a sociopathic asshole, you start making connections with other people, spread out your influence on the company. That way when things get real bad you can complain to someone who already knows you. Not make long diatribic rants about how ugly things are. One of these strategies offers options, the other limits them.

Re: Why I have left Samsung

#137

Post by kravlin »

michaelochurch wrote: post #119
mikecane wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>>It's a total waste of time to play that game. I disagree and the experience of many others in prominent positions have experience that runs counter to that. From the outside, it's easy to dismiss it as a "game" (which is a bit odd, given the popularity of games in software...). From the inside, find a better way to separate those who can make an actual contribution to those who just do what they're told and need t…

I disagree and the experience of many others in prominent positions have experience that runs counter to that. From the outside, it's easy to dismiss it as a "game" (which is a bit odd, given the popularity of games in software...). I'm using "game" as a synonym for "gamble", not "engaging, interactive experience". When you let your boss assign you crap work to support his career goals while you don't learn anything,…

I'm doing this right now. Hired on as a "programmer" I haven't written code in the entire time i've been in my current position. I'm doing the crap work, as are all of my coworkers who were also hired as "programmers" in the hopes that in a year or two they'll be able to jump into what they thought they were signing up for.

So now I have a decision, jump ship and hurt my "future" but find a place that gives me real work and get some experience or stick around in my "gamble" and maybe eventually get back to what I was doing as an INTERN in 2 or 3 years.

I'm jumping. not because I hate the company, but because I won't be anywhere further in my career or skillset in those 2 years.

Re: Why I have left Samsung

#138

Post by ardit33 »

SandB0x wrote: post #46

Whining child damages his career prospects with unprofessional rant after just nine months of work.

I don't think it will hinder his future employment prospects. He wouldn't be a fit for any company like Samsung, just as they wouldn't be a good employer for him.

It goes both ways. If a person takes a stand like that (basically stating not liking dysopian work environments, bad tools and major bureaucracy), he might make himself not available to such environments, but yet open doors to other ones.

The other thing you forget is that this guy is pretty young and still maturing up. Almost no level headed manager will read too much into it few years down the road.

As a co-worker, I like this type. They are more likely to reject bureaucracies, and seeking efficiency. These types tend to be more motivated on getting things done, and taking joy in their productive work, and not useless work.

Having seen myself how Samsung engineers work (mostly Korean teams), long hours culture, sleeping in their desks (shows you are working hard!), producing buggy code at night, then fixing their own crap in the morning (inefficient tail chasing), I would never work for that company either.

Re: Why I have left Samsung

#139

Post by mikecane »

xtracto wrote: post #101
mikecane wrote: post #67

I have a question as a user to devs: Do you consider fixing code a bad job, as he did? The Net is filled with complaints about things that require fixing in lots of software that's been around a while. Yet it never seems to get done. Is this more because dev hate to fix old code by someone else -- what in the book world would be termed an editor's function -- or is this the nature of the corporate beast, to just keep…

I am a dev, and I am sure my comment won't be liked here but there it goes: Nobody likes bug-fixing: not their bugs and of course not other people's bugs. You can see this clearly in open-source software (mainly because the communication channels such as Bugzilla, forums, mailing list are all open). It is like writing documentation: programmers don't like to do it. However, fixing bugs is worse, because there is real…

>>>so for any external observer (client, manager, user, etc) there was no value added.

Wouldn't it be reflected in a drop-off of calls to Support/CS?

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