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Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

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Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#101

Post by blackguardx »

jtmarmon wrote: post #18
arcanus wrote: post #2

Anyone have a guess as to what company this was?

My guess is square. The CFO went to stanford for an MBA, where the author taught. Neither CFO Tesla has had went to Stanford. Can't find anything about Dorsey working at one of the startups listed on the author's wikipedia page, but he seemed to have been involved with many so it would be unsurprising if it just wasn't listed there.

I worked at Square on the hardware team. Sarah Friar (CFO) and Jack Dorsey (CEO) aren't like that and Square doesn't do any manufacturing. They use contract manufacturers.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#102

Post by dleslie »

RealityNow wrote: post #99

This post rings eerily true. Recently had a company all-hands where the CEO said basically the exact same lines. The whole "if you don't love working here, then you should leave" bit made me cringe. Easy for you to say when you've got a significant equity share in the company. The saddest realization I've had working at companies is how power-hungry people are, how little respect the people in power often have for th…

Avoidance of power inversion is, IMHO, the greatest contributing factor to this state. Management have little to no incentive to assisting the upwards mobility of their subordinates as it is, but the social stigma of someday possibly answering to those you have authority over can drive individuals to undermine the aspirations of others.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#103

Post by toast0 »

frozenport wrote: post #42

I'd like to remind people that large companies are the only ones capable of hiring junior engineers who might not be at full productivity at day 0. This is especially true of the C++ ecosystem.

When where I work was small, we still hired a fair number of junior people, although I think all (or most) were conversions from interns. One thing we were able to do, that is much harder at large companies is hire smart, technically minded people for customer support, who were able to help with automation, and eventually become full time developers. At a larger company, they would have automated their job, and nobody would have noticed, now they've been able to build skills and experience and should be able to get a developer job when they're done with us (may need to learn interview problems though).

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#104

Post by peterwwillis »

RealityNow wrote: post #99

This post rings eerily true. Recently had a company all-hands where the CEO said basically the exact same lines. The whole "if you don't love working here, then you should leave" bit made me cringe. Easy for you to say when you've got a significant equity share in the company. The saddest realization I've had working at companies is how power-hungry people are, how little respect the people in power often have for th…

We tolerate tyranny and imbalanced power structures everywhere in this country. Corporations are a cheerio in our cereal bowl of oppression.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#106

Post by ghaff »

petre wrote: post #90
tootie wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the company is still succeeding, then it doesn't seem to be an unreasonable move. The company doesn't operate for the benefit of employees commutes. If they can still attract and retain talent and have a more practical work space, then great.

Any company/CEO who wastes 45 x 2 minutes of my life on a commute is bound to get a quit notice.

A company that isn't either all-remote or encouraging of significant WFH is going to satisfy some people and not others with respect to commuting.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#107

Post by logicfiction »

quotemstr wrote: post #72
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be able to take the very demanding step of saying, "No. We're not doing that. I don't care if this change caused a SEV, we're not adding process. Moving fast is important!". The moment that some minor disaster hits, which it inevitably will, whoever is in charge will find themselves no longer in charge. I think this is one of the fatal flaws of a big company. Everyone is terrified of risk. I'm not sure it…

Right. You have to create a culture where it's okay to fail. And it's not enough to just say that: you have to actually practice it. You have to let people make mistakes, then do nothing so that other people don't feel afraid to take risks. Hell, reward people for failing. Highlight them as exemplars of people who do things. If you don't fail once in a while, you're not moving fast enough.

Rewarding failure can have pitfalls (if we mean something like customer impacting fallout). You may then be encouraging people that create broken things over people that more quietly create well-functioning things the first time around.

Enabling people willing to act is important though and I fully support the do nothing aspect of failure, or better yet support and stabilize but not reward.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#108

Post by mrbill »

When I worked for a large multinational energy services firm, one of the bosses I had (they changed every 2-3 years) was a huge bully. One of those "great coworker, bad manager" types. My wife had passed away, and as a result, my performance had dropped.

One of his lines (verbal in person, not on paper) was "If you don't want to work here, there are plenty of people that do."

He was the only boss I've ever had that made me consider leaving a job I'd had for 7+ years (at the time) simply because of who my manager was. Needless to say, about a year later when he called a meeting to announce that he was leaving for a competitor, my back popped as my shoulders un-tensed.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#109

Post by [deleted] »

wes-k wrote: post #98
hkmurakami wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fascinating how in the recruitment process, hiring managers who expect potential hires to act logically and methodically all but demand the recruit to suspend his or her logic and mental methods when considering their personal financial interests. The dichotomy would be humorous if it weren't so sad.

Yes! Entering the job market I was offered x amount of stock. I had no way to know what this was worth and essentially asked my manager who said "you should feel good about this amount". He was honest and fair but the fact is that most places are trying to hire bright people and they offer x amount of stock without providing how much stock is out there. Here's a # that we know is meaningless to you, do you accept? Wh…

[deleted]

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#110

Post by Sonarius »

coretx wrote: post #27

Hmm. Really?! I worked for various large corporates, studied for a MBA after my IT career; found out about ethics and other ontologically speaking really valuable things in life hence left. But really, besides personal spectives and/or ego's. :: Henry Mintzberg basically said it all in 2004 already: https://books.google.nl/books?hl=nl&lr=&id=zsYAeVgwHDQC&oi=f... ISBN-13: 978-1576753514, ISBN-10: 1576753514 " Managers…

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