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About a Month at Yahoo

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Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#51

Post by CaveTech »

ryandrake wrote: post #41
volaski wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you look hard enough you'll definitely be able to find a lot of the failures. A lot of startups make the risk even higher because they're not always transparent with their finances. You might be working hard to meet a deadline and show up to the office only realize your company has gone bankrupt. A lot of newly funded startups live month to month and offer no security whatsoever (although they definitely try to make it seem like they can).

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#52

Post by Domenic_S »

rdouble wrote: post #48
ChuckMcM wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? T…

> if I didn't have to work here, would I still live here?

A fantastic question, and my answer as a south bay dweller is absolutely-freaking-not. Expensive, hot (for CA), crowded, weak culture:size ratio.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#53

Post by drgath »

jimmyjazz14 wrote: post #45
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.

Yup, exactly. I've been at Y! for almost 4 years and when I started I was absolutely a workaholic, but over the last 3 years I've transitioned into having a much healthier (and happier) balance. You can certainly work as much as want at Yahoo, but I don't think too many feel forced to.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#54

Post by drgath »

jedanbik wrote: post #7
jedanbik wrote: post #2

What's comfortable about working until 9 or 10 pm every night? Would you be saying that if you had kids?

Just an FYI -- I don’t have kids either. I was pointing that out because it seemed like a massive contradiction to say that working at Yahoo is comfortable, but then to say in the following sentence that home life is non-existent. I often ponder the long term stuff in the tech realm as a current full time grad student, and this particular section was striking to me.

I get the sense that the OP's work hours are actually what he likes and is comfortable with.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#55

Post by vxNsr »

7Figures2Commas wrote: post #23

> My apartment's sole purpose has become a place for me to sleep. Not for long, hopefully! There is clearly a need for on-campus dormitories so that employees don't have to worry about maintaining their own spaces and finding things to do on their own time. I can see it now... Google employee: "I live in the Adwords Apartments. Pretty ritzy. Where do you live?" Yahoo employee: "I'm in Flickr House. It was recently re…

lol "Poke Place".

But seriously, I feel like technically you could be homeless if you're single and work at Google or (now) Yahoo, they've got gyms, couches, private rooms to chill, you just put a tie on the doorknob (or whatever) and sleep there for the night. and Boom! you've just saved yourself like $1000+ /month, not to mention paying for internet/cable or furniture and other household items, in fact, I wonder if people aren't doing that right now...

/s

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#56

Post by parasubvert »

ryandrake wrote: post #41
volaski wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Having been at three "failed" startups in my 15 year (to date) career, I guess I can provide a data point.

I've been involved in the staff and eventual senior management (but not founding) of three small companies in my career: two began as bootstrap startups that morphed into relatively successful lifestyle companies once it became clear we had no scalable product/market fit. They settled into hardware or software consulting, one is pretty sizeable now (a few hundred strong), the other remains under a hundred employees. The final one got to Series B funding but tanked after burning through $15 million.

To summarize, all were highly intense and emotional experiences. I compressed 2-3x the amount of learning I would have otherwise had in most other jobs, particularly in areas where you don't usually get exposure to as a young geek: business development & sales, marketing, HR, finances, etc., and I also became a much better software developer.

That said, small companies, especially if you're involved with steering them, are very personal affairs, and are extremely sensitive the founders' personality quirks while they're under 50 employees. They were hard to work for after a while.

So, in sum:

- Working in a startup is a great experience if you're not in it to get rich, but rather to improve your career by compressing your learning & working on something that inspires you

- Get involved with senior management if you want the experience, but be prepared for the emotional/health toll

- Luck is important, but not just any luck, you want luck that helps you survive - a good market being most important.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#57

Post by adrianhoward »

reid wrote: post #15
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…

I've been at Yahoo for 5 years as a Software Engineer. This really is a new company under Marissa. I wasn't special, aqui-hired, or anything. I now can easily access management when I need them, my suggestions are taken seriously and acted on, and I get everything I need from upper management to excel at what I do. My manager has always been great, but now she is more empowered to get stuff done more than ever before…

> This really is a new company under Marissa. I wasn't special, aqui-hired, or anything. I now can easily access management when I need them, my suggestions are taken seriously and acted on, and I get everything I need from upper management to excel at what I do. My manager has always been great, but now she is more empowered to get stuff done more than ever before.

This is pretty much the exact story from the two folk I know it Yahoo! They went from being at the point of nearly resigning to being really happy post-MM.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#58

Post by qwerta »

vxNsr wrote: post #55
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #23

> My apartment's sole purpose has become a place for me to sleep. Not for long, hopefully! There is clearly a need for on-campus dormitories so that employees don't have to worry about maintaining their own spaces and finding things to do on their own time. I can see it now... Google employee: "I live in the Adwords Apartments. Pretty ritzy. Where do you live?" Yahoo employee: "I'm in Flickr House. It was recently re…

lol "Poke Place". But seriously, I feel like technically you could be homeless if you're single and work at Google or (now) Yahoo, they've got gyms, couches, private rooms to chill, you just put a tie on the doorknob (or whatever) and sleep there for the night. and Boom! you've just saved yourself like $1000+ /month, not to mention paying for internet/cable or furniture and other household items, in fact, I wonder if…

Buy RV and park it in front of company... :-)

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#59

Post by ChuckMcM »

Domenic_S wrote: post #52
rdouble wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? T…

> if I didn't have to work here, would I still live here? A fantastic question, and my answer as a south bay dweller is absolutely-freaking-not. Expensive, hot (for CA), crowded, weak culture:size ratio.

Can you define what kind of stuff is in the numerator in the 'culture:size' ratio? I'm trying to get a handle on what people mean when they use the word.

Re: About a Month at Yahoo

#60

Post by nostrademons »

rdouble wrote: post #27
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C'mon now. Sunnyvale isn't Las Vegas, but most of the time, "there's nothing else worth doing here besides working" is simply an excuse. And not a very convincing one at that.

Can you name five things to do in Sunnyvale when you're bored?

Do you not have 5 friends? I can name about 5 friends' houses that I like to go over to and hang out.
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