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I'm done with coding

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Re: I'm done with coding

#111

Post by NetOpWibby »

tombert wrote: post #110
NetOpWibby wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is amazing how uptight people are and the lengths they'll go to ensure your managers know how much you've "offended" them. I've left all non-work Slack channels as a result of such an incident. Employees will also ask you questions as if they genuinely care about you and rather than correct you or give friendly advice, will go to your manager. I've worked at startups for most of my career so I'm used to peo…

Yeah, I think most people end up learning the hard way that there's no equivalent to "attorney client privilege" in regards to coworkers and managers. I like all my current coworkers, I think they're nice and smart people, and I don't think they're assholes at all, but I don't really say anything to them that I wouldn't be fine with HR hearing about, even during off hours. They're not bad people, and I don't think th…

I’m very much still an Apple fan but being on the inside and seeing how weirdly cutthroat people are (we’re not even in the same teams!!) encourages me to look elsewhere.

Re: I'm done with coding

#113

Post by bitwize »

hahajk wrote: post #9

His mom telling him he's "neurodivergent and won’t survive at a smaller company"... unfortunately I am familiar with this type of mother.

Large companies are all about neurodivergence in the workforce nowadays, but they expect them to conform to neurotypical-friendly, neurodivergent-hostile operating procedures like Scrum.

Re: I'm done with coding

#114

Post by nunez »

tombert wrote: post #13

> I’ve tried to discuss this with my mom, and she kept telling me how “lucky” I am for working at Microsoft... I don't think I worked on any unethical part of Apple, I just worked on the indexing and caching for iTunes, but I really hated working there, and it was frustrating that whenever I complained about it, people would remind me how lucky I was to have a job at Apple. I survived 2.5 years there, but eventually…

Same experience at Google in 2015. Explaining to recruiters why I left after eight months for years afterwards was interesting/awkward.

Re: I'm done with coding

#115

Post by tombert »

NetOpWibby wrote: post #111
tombert wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I think most people end up learning the hard way that there's no equivalent to "attorney client privilege" in regards to coworkers and managers. I like all my current coworkers, I think they're nice and smart people, and I don't think they're assholes at all, but I don't really say anything to them that I wouldn't be fine with HR hearing about, even during off hours. They're not bad people, and I don't think th…

I’m very much still an Apple fan but being on the inside and seeing how weirdly cutthroat people are (we’re not even in the same teams!!) encourages me to look elsewhere.

I have worked for a fair number of BigCos now, and they all have their own little annoyances.

As far as I can tell, pretty much all “enterprise” companies drain your life force. They’re all subtly slightly different in how they suck away your will to live, and some are worse than others, but they’re all kind of horrible in their own wonderful ways. There is almost always cutthroat shit.

I wasn’t a huge fan of working at Apple but don’t let me take it away from you if you do. If you can stomach it, stick with it, let the stock vest, and retire comfortably in your 50’s.

Re: I'm done with coding

#116

Post by BuckRogers »

tombert wrote: post #106
JKCalhoun wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was younger, I had "attitude problems" as well. I like to think though it was because I was passionate about what we were doing at Apple — how we were being perceived by the public. I think I eventually just stopped giving a shit and instead more or less kept my head down. And perhaps that's too bad.

I think my biggest ongoing frustration was how much time I was expected to read and reply to emails; on my first day one of the first things I was instructed to do was to use their internal email filtering system (the name of which I can't remember), because if you didn't you'd have literally thousands of emails going into your main inbox. Mostly alerts, lots of cross-team announcements that weren't relevant to me, s…

I'm a so-so to possibly bad programmer, but I am very well organized, responsible (respond to everything immediately), and very good at enduring pain and BS like you describe. Lifetime of it, it's how I survive. I'd never get hired at Google due to the interview process I'm sure, but it sounds like I'd be their ideal employee. Shame that marriage made in heaven will never be consummated!

Re: I'm done with coding

#117

Post by isleyaardvark »

hansvm wrote: post #56
ivewonyoung wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain why you hated working there

At YT, I hated that you needed two weeks of prep for the meeting to uncover two weeks of prep for the meeting where you could get preliminary access to the data source you needed to figure out if your job description was even viable. I get that you need internal controls or whatever, but just log my queries, and if I'm stalking an ex then fire and sue me. It's hard to optimize conversion rate for superchat or whateve…

> and if I'm stalking an ex then fire and sue me.

I agree that's really frustrating but that's probably the worst example you could use. Real "can't unring that bell" stuff.

Re: I'm done with coding

#118

Post by jordanb »

swat535 wrote: post #94
tombert wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh my, how long you got? There were a ton of things, but I can really boil down to a few instances. First: The thing that really made me disenchanted with the company came down to an incident where I replied back to a previous email chain with (one of the higher-ups at Apple) with a topic that wasn't directly relevant to the subject of the previous emails, and then that asshole thought it was best to complain to ever…

> It was three hours of nearly-continuous meetings, all with the same subject of how bad it was to email a higher-up without first emailing every single person in-between first. There is a famous scene, in the movie Office Space (1999), where the low level coder is constantly harassed about an idiotic memo because he forgot a cover sheet on his TPS reports.. he is reminded of this 3 times and then some by other peopl…

The best part of that movie is the office is supposed to be a bleak, soul-destroying cube farm. But watching the movie now it's like "wow they have so much space and privacy."

Re: I'm done with coding

#119

Post by snailmailstare »

ForTheKidz wrote: post #57
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never worked for apple, but huge companies with established, incumbent cash flows and huge moats can bear a truly, spectacularly, mind-bogglingly incredible amount of internal dysfunction while still generally going forward. This can make it really crushing to be a sensible, well-intended single person inside this beast where you have essentially no power yourself.

Yes. And part of why you're paid exorbitantly at these places is to absorb, manage, and counteract this dysfunction. This can be exhausting and lonely work.

Counteract might be the wrong word.. The ongoing dysfunction doesn't fall from the sky, it is largely a consequence of people prioritizing the goals they are assigned for the betterment of their group, etc.

Re: I'm done with coding

#120

Post by 7bit »

tombert wrote: post #13

> I’ve tried to discuss this with my mom, and she kept telling me how “lucky” I am for working at Microsoft... I don't think I worked on any unethical part of Apple, I just worked on the indexing and caching for iTunes, but I really hated working there, and it was frustrating that whenever I complained about it, people would remind me how lucky I was to have a job at Apple. I survived 2.5 years there, but eventually…

> whenever I complained about it, people would remind me how lucky I was to have a job at Apple.

That's the envy speaking. You have something they wish you have, so they hate you for it and enjoy your misery.

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