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About a Month at Yahoo

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Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#41

Post by ryandrake »

volaski wrote: post #36
ryandrake wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of off-topic, but your comment raises a question that I've been mulling over for a while: Given that the "acqui-hire" employee experience is so much better (more lucrative, more responsibility, more exposure to upper management, whatever your definition of "better" is), you'd think there would be more people trying for this path. Why jump through the traditional hoops applying at 100 companies, interviewing at 1…

Have you worked on a startup before? That's not how it works. There's no such thing as "moderate amount of risk". People who just read Techcrunch may think that it's so easy to get acq-hired, they think "Hey I could have built that, I guess it's so easy to get acq-hired". But what they don't realize is there are tons of other--failed or ongoing--startups that did the same thing started by founders who may be much sma…

Thanks for your insights. What you say makes a lot of sense, and you're right--you only read about the success stories, not the failures. As someone who has never tried the startup thing, on the surface it seems like a more straightforward path to employment, particularly in today's challenging job market. Clearly there are many factors, including luck.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#42

Post by LowKarmaAccount »

staunch wrote: post #6

Ahh, the honeymoon period. Look for a post in 11 months (+/- monetary incentives) called "Moving on..."

BenSchaechter, you've been hellbanned for at least 506 days, probably because of your submissions. Normally I don't tell people that they've been hellbanned, but since this is your post that has been linked to I thought you should know that not everyone can see your response to their comments.

Edit: @coolsunglasses, thanks for the follow up. I can see why a YC moderator would think that his posts are linkbait.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#43

Post by coolsunglasses »

LowKarmaAccount wrote: post #42
staunch wrote: post #6

Ahh, the honeymoon period. Look for a post in 11 months (+/- monetary incentives) called "Moving on..."

BenSchaechter, you've been hellbanned for at least 506 days, probably because of your submissions. Normally I don't tell people that they've been hellbanned, but since this is your post that has been linked to I thought you should know that not everyone can see your response to their comments. Edit: @coolsunglasses, thanks for the follow up. I can see why a YC moderator would think that his posts are linkbait.

He's been told this several times before, that he hasn't noticed is amusingly symptomatic of why he got hellbanned to begin with. (Spamming/saying his piece, then never returning)

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#44

Post by 7Figures2Commas »

volaski wrote: post #40
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give you 10: 1. If you like the outdoors, there are plenty of wonderful places to run/hike/bike in the South Bay/Peninsula. 2. There are frequent sporting events at HP Pavilion. 3. Sunnyvale may not be Paris, but museums and art galleries do exist in the area. 4. The diversity and quality of Bay Area restaurants is unrivaled. 5. Nightlife can be found in San Jose. 6. For weekend getaways, Santa Cruz, Half Moon B…

@7Figures2Commas sorry to say this but "45 minute drive to SF" would have been less boring that the 10 reasons you gave. Seriously, I think I would do the same if I were in Ben's shoes. If you're in your twenties and can't be in an exciting city (San Jose is large but I don't think it's comparable to SF), it's much wiser to work hard and improve skills than wasting time engaging in a mediocre entertainment like hangi…

1. Most of the people I know who complain about boredom are not bored because of their location. Some of them have moved to "exciting" cities and they are just as unhappy. Location is just a convenient excuse.

2. Trying to compare cities on a relative basis is a pointless exercise. You could easily find people living in major cities outside of the Bay Area who would suggest that San Francisco is boring. That doesn't mean that if you live in San Francisco, you should lock yourself in your room and wait until you can move to Miami or Las Vegas to have fun.

3. The idea is that you can't have a life and work hard and improve your skills is asinine.

4. The sad truth is that "I'll do x when y" is usually just an intellectually dishonest rationale for convincing oneself not to do y.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#45

Post by jimmyjazz14 »

jaredgeorge wrote: post #24

> I wake up, shower, and drive to work early to have breakfast. I spend all day at work, go to the gym and have dinner, do a little bit more work and don't get home until 9 or 10 every night. My apartment's sole purpose has become a place for me to sleep. I'm glad he's happy (right now), but this is exactly why I will never work for a company like Yahoo. I absolutely love what I do. And I protect it by ensuring I hav…

Living like this is likely by his own choice. Yahoo! is actually very good when it comes to work/life balance.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#46

Post by ChuckMcM »

rdouble wrote: post #37
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give you 10: 1. If you like the outdoors, there are plenty of wonderful places to run/hike/bike in the South Bay/Peninsula. 2. There are frequent sporting events at HP Pavilion. 3. Sunnyvale may not be Paris, but museums and art galleries do exist in the area. 4. The diversity and quality of Bay Area restaurants is unrivaled. 5. Nightlife can be found in San Jose. 6. For weekend getaways, Santa Cruz, Half Moon B…

I lived in the area for years. I know what there is to do in the Bay Area in general. None of the stuff to do is in Sunnyvale. It's nice (sorta), but it's boring. That's sort of the point of the suburbs. The skatepark is pretty good, though.

To be fair you could take Sunnyvale and draw a circle around it the same size as a "fun" place and see how much you got there. But the whole 'south bay is boring' narrative has always been weak for the same reason that equating 'walking in poo in the tenderloin' with it being 'edgy' is weak.

There is a pretty active club scene on Murphy street, there are great restaurants on Sunnyvale a few miles up in Mtn View, a few miles south in Cupertino, and a few miles south in Santa Clara. You've got hiking and parks with wetlands and concert venues (Shoreline, Great America, HP Pavilion), soon you'll have NFL football and world cup Soccer nearby, and you've got an amusement park with concerts and roller coasters, and you've got quicker access to the mountains, and the Steven's creek trail for some excellent biking, running, and walking.

Downtown Palo Alto is a quick train trip, where you can walk from the University Ave station to pretty much anywhere.

What you don't have are some high density urban buildings. More of those are coming with the Murphy Park build but they will still not be high rise apartment/condos. Its not clear to me what the buys you, but it is a difference.

And yes, I'm a bit defensive when people say "its so boring and plastic" (or words to that effect) but getting them to say what is 'not boring' or 'not plastic' seems unexpressable.

I'd love to know what makes a for a 'non-boring' place if you have a list.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#47

Post by tptacek »

michaelochurch wrote: post #13

Acq-hired people are not going to be having the normal employee experience. I would honestly rather have a $100k take-home but my employer pay $500k (i.e. 400k goes to charity) and think that's my salary, than a regular $150k. You get treated better if you cost more. Your salary is what it costs your employer to waste your time, so if you're at a high level, management actually fucking listens to you. Taking a long-t…

Have you been acqui-hired before? Is this coming from experience? How long did it take for your "golden child" aura to wear off?

(I've been through one startup/bigco acquisition, by [what is now] McAfee, back in the '90s; it wasn't a good experience, from the jump.)

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#48

Post by rdouble »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #46
rdouble wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in the area for years. I know what there is to do in the Bay Area in general. None of the stuff to do is in Sunnyvale. It's nice (sorta), but it's boring. That's sort of the point of the suburbs. The skatepark is pretty good, though.

To be fair you could take Sunnyvale and draw a circle around it the same size as a "fun" place and see how much you got there. But the whole 'south bay is boring' narrative has always been weak for the same reason that equating 'walking in poo in the tenderloin' with it being 'edgy' is weak. There is a pretty active club scene on Murphy street, there are great restaurants on Sunnyvale a few miles up in Mtn View, a fe…

For myself, there are a few criteria. First is the visitor test. If my family members comes to visit me, can I give them a week's worth of stuff to do that is nearby, or are we driving over an hour each way to find something to do? Would my relatives in Australia be stoked if they came to visit me, or would they be bummed they skipped over Hawaii and Disneyland? Second, can I easily meet new people outside of work? Third, is there a good bookstore? Fourth, can I do outdoor sports I like, such as bicycling and skateboarding easily, or is it a headache and/or dangerous? Lastly, if I didn't have to work here, would I still live here?

A few places I've lived, such as NYC, Tokyo and Paris, have had all these things, but also a whole bunch of other stuff going on I wouldn't have ever thought of. A few other ones have had all this stuff, but didn't really surprise me in any way, like SF, Boston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland. Most places I've been meet some of these criteria, but not all. I found that Cupertino did not have anything on my wish list, and also didn't have any other stuff going on that I wouldn't have thought of. In addition, there was a lot of stuff that seemed additionally negative: driving everywhere, expensive, bad rental properties, mediocre food, etc.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#49

Post by [deleted] »

CodeFoo wrote: post #22
patejam wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to chime in, there is zero pressure at Yahoo to stay and eat dinner on campus. In fact, not too many people stay unless there was an event going on before hand or something. Most people just leave. But as you said, it depends on the company's culture.

What about the opposite, are you outcasted like a freak if you abuse the free services and eat all your meals there?

[deleted]

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#50

Post by patejam »

CodeFoo wrote: post #22
patejam wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to chime in, there is zero pressure at Yahoo to stay and eat dinner on campus. In fact, not too many people stay unless there was an event going on before hand or something. Most people just leave. But as you said, it depends on the company's culture.

What about the opposite, are you outcasted like a freak if you abuse the free services and eat all your meals there?

Nope. I'm an intern there and usually work ~10-6, call my girlfriend back home/hang out for a bit with people, eat, and go home. There's really no judging, everyone seems super chill.
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