I find these "bad situation" postmortems to be unreadable most of the time. I do believe that these companies are full of assholes, but there are so many red flags with these one-sided testimonies. I can't tell how much is being conveniently left out to fit a narrative.
My Experience at Apple
111–120 of 840 posts
Re: My Experience at Apple
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some extra tidbits that didn't make it in because the edit timer ran out: - Despite the big release and herculean efforts, both of us were paid a fraction of our target bonus. This was the day I decided to move jobs. - I eventually grew some balls and told Apple to (a) pay me 2.5x during overtime (b) hire SREs for this critical service, or (c) go fuck themselves. They chose (c), which worked alright because our servi…
> - The primary lesson I learnt is that it doesn't matter if you work hard. Nobody notices, and even if they do you will likely not get anything out of it. Do your job, but don't kill yourself over it. Work-life balance is king. I think this close, but a little off. Work hard only on what matters. Join the high visibility projects and work hard on the important parts. "Nobody notices" -> that's up to you. Document an…
> Work only the good jobs. If it's not good, switch teams ASAP.
I agree with this but you have to understand that it's very difficult and frightening for an inexperienced new grad or someone on a green card to do. These groups are also unfortunately the most exploited.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, you can fill in the blank with any FAANG company with this story. I’ve heard it a thousand times. Toxic management. Sorry you went through that, sorry that was your first taste of engineering out of college. Glad you stuck with it. It’s a tough spot to be. Do you roll over and do the job your being yelled at to do even though you know any concessions are BS? Or like the senior folks, do you walk? It’s a really…
You can put just about any company in the "Apple" role here. A bad manager anywhere can cause a workgroup to turn toxic. I've seen it happen literally everywhere I've ever worked, though luckily only 1st hand at one location. (Actually there was one exception: working at a Barnes & Noble during college. I'd heard horror stories about other locations while I was there, but the store I worked at was run by an extremely…
Any large corporation that gets remotely near the headcount as Apple will have enough variance across team cultures that there will inevitably be cesspools of toxicity, true. But there's still the question if certain orgs foster a higher or lower standard across the org, and what factors contribute to it.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#114For anyone experiencing workplace harassment, this article is a great example of what not to do. Instead, document everything happening to you with evidence, speak with HR about incidents as they arise, and if they don't take action, seek legal counsel. Doing anything else will paint you in a bad light.
IDK. I've tried it every which way. None have worked out well for me.
Me now thinks only winning move is to suck it up while finding a new gig. For H1B prisoners like this OP, well, it's tough to win a rigged game.
The core problem, IMHO, is not having a baseline model for what good management looks like.
In my 30s, I finally stumbled into a high mutual trust situation. It was heaven. We got so much done, had so much fun.
Once you get a taste of trust, it's hard to suspend disbelief, kinda ruins you for future relationships.
After earning my PhD in failure, I'm still no wiser, have no prescriptive advice.
The only "skill" I got was tuning my spidey sense.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#115For anyone experiencing workplace harassment, this article is a great example of what not to do. Instead, document everything happening to you with evidence, speak with HR about incidents as they arise, and if they don't take action, seek legal counsel. Doing anything else will paint you in a bad light.
This person was not a US citizen, and needed to remain on the only path to a green card. Your options feel more limiting when that happens. They clearly didn't want to rattle the cage.
Attorneys will happily take your money and fight for you. Use what options you have.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly, you can fill in the blank with any FAANG company with this story. I’ve heard it a thousand times. Toxic management. Sorry you went through that, sorry that was your first taste of engineering out of college. Glad you stuck with it. It’s a tough spot to be. Do you roll over and do the job your being yelled at to do even though you know any concessions are BS? Or like the senior folks, do you walk? It’s a really…
Does anybody really want to be “the person who criticizes his or her managers,” in an official on-the-books capacity, in a context where your job is already being threatened?
Welcome to wage slavery, friend. You can’t even criticize!
Hah-ha!
Re: My Experience at Apple
#117Posting anonymously for obvious reasons. Unlike others, I actually find this story fairly believable. When I first joined Apple, straight out of college - a good program, top three in the country - I was abused similarly. I joined a team that was on a project behind schedule. Our manager was a brusque, no-nonsense sort of dude. But he clearly had anger problems. On the team were 2 senior engineers, me, and a junior e…
Some extra tidbits that didn't make it in because the edit timer ran out: - Despite the big release and herculean efforts, both of us were paid a fraction of our target bonus. This was the day I decided to move jobs. - I eventually grew some balls and told Apple to (a) pay me 2.5x during overtime (b) hire SREs for this critical service, or (c) go fuck themselves. They chose (c), which worked alright because our servi…
> The primary lesson I learnt is that it doesn't matter if you work hard.
As with most things in life, there are places where it matters and places where it doesn't matter. If someone's a junior employee working in a big company, it's likely that they don't have the necessary experience to figure out whether hard work matters in their position. That's an important risk to be aware of. But the opposite advice, avoiding hard work, is also risky. (And not a good habit to cultivate in the long term of course.) If you're not sure which position you're in, and you don't trust your more experienced coworkers to tell you honestly without punishing you for asking, then putting in some amount of hard work with the goal of finding out is a pretty good start.
Re: My Experience at Apple
#118[deleted]
Re: My Experience at Apple
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure why you think this. You can fire anyone whenever you want for any or no reason in the state of California. The only exceptions are when you have a written or implied contract that makes you not “at-will”. The best way to be an exception to “at-will” in California is to be paid in advance.
If you’re fired without good reason or paper trail and live in California take your employer to court. They still need good cause for termination.
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Re: My Experience at Apple
#120For anyone experiencing workplace harassment, this article is a great example of what not to do. Instead, document everything happening to you with evidence, speak with HR about incidents as they arise, and if they don't take action, seek legal counsel. Doing anything else will paint you in a bad light.
Doesn't exactly work when HR is toothless and one is seeking legal action against literally the richest company in the world and already inundated in lawsuits. Not to mention the author was on a student OPT visa- how is someone being sponsored by a company going to risk their status by suing that company?