Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#131

Post by georgehotelling » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

kweinber wrote: post #123

incanus77 wrote: post #110

This is such a smart move. I was one of the first two simul-hire remotes at Mapbox (when the company was ~12 people) and, until I left in 2017, the longest-term remote there at seven years. I've been fully remote for thirteen years. At Mapbox, I unofficially took on the role of internal advocate for remote culture. It wasn't always easy to be remote, but as the company grew, Eric, the CEO, was fond of saying that "ev…

"Often it was lonely, isolating, I felt out of the loop on some decisions, I didn't get some in-jokes and nicknames, I missed the non-holiday parties and happy hours, etc." I am in this boat now. . . and find it really tough. Many others I know feel the same way but it is rarely talked about. How do you get over the social isolation of being remote?

I can't speak for the parent commenter, but for the loneliness aspect I found a coworking space that is focused on community. It's a bunch of remotes and freelancers, so you see the same folks every day. It's kind of a "third place," although I guess that it's a second place since we all work here.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#132

Post by throwaway201905 » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:24 PM UTC

If anyone from Stripe is reading: is there any precedent for taking a remote role with a view to transitioning to an office role in the US while being sponsored for a visa?

Who would I talk to about this?

Thanks.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#133

Post by ghaff » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:24 PM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #125

a9a wrote: post #21

I hope other companies follow Stripe's lead here. Anecdotally, I've never been as happy and productive as I've been the past few years as a remote worker. It seems to me too few companies are taking advantage of the opportunity here. The few challenges I've encountered seem solvable: (1) effective team culture building: can be solved with travel budget & prioritization of good team cultural norms by team leads (2) wh…

> The few challenges I've encountered seem solvable I see a lot of people saying this. I never see anyone saying "We have solved these problems"...

Well, they're probably ongoing challenges that any company needs to consider--and I'd argue that culture and communications can be challenges even within a company location as it scales. I'd shy away from ever saying they're "solved."

But the fact that there are successful companies with a significant percentage of remote and/or distributed workers suggests that they can be solved well enough.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#134

Post by Cofike » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:32 PM UTC

kweinber wrote: post #123

incanus77 wrote: post #110

This is such a smart move. I was one of the first two simul-hire remotes at Mapbox (when the company was ~12 people) and, until I left in 2017, the longest-term remote there at seven years. I've been fully remote for thirteen years. At Mapbox, I unofficially took on the role of internal advocate for remote culture. It wasn't always easy to be remote, but as the company grew, Eric, the CEO, was fond of saying that "ev…

"Often it was lonely, isolating, I felt out of the loop on some decisions, I didn't get some in-jokes and nicknames, I missed the non-holiday parties and happy hours, etc." I am in this boat now. . . and find it really tough. Many others I know feel the same way but it is rarely talked about. How do you get over the social isolation of being remote?

I think it really depends on the person. I had the same feelings of being isolated and not really getting to know everyone. I ended up getting an office job which is great. I love seeing people and having a separation of work and home.

I know others who now do remote and absolutely love it. From what I understand though they are in my same situation but it just doesn’t bother them. It all depends on your personality and what you are looking for.

Perhaps find a local coop workspace where you can go meet other engineers in your situation but then is that even remote anymore?

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#135

Post by TulliusCicero » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:34 PM UTC

xadhominemx wrote: post #130

Why does Stripe need 5 engineering hubs? I don't understand what Stripe engineers work on all day.

> I don't understand what Stripe engineers work on all day.

Software products are icebergs. For all the things you see as a user, there's way, way more going on under the hood that you never see or think about. Some of that is platform/infrastructural work, some of it is features that target things you don't know or care about.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#136

Post by hobofan » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:36 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #121

hobofan wrote: post #115

I've seen a sign on the street level in Berlin of a Stripe office and heard that 10-20 people are working there with half of them in engineering. I realize that this probably doesn't count as a hub, but how does it fit in with what's explained in the blog post? Has Stripe more non-hub locations?

Stripe has offices in San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Seattle, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Berlin, Dublin, London, Paris, Melbourne, Singapore, and Tokyo. Engineering hubs have organizational infrastructure that the rest of our offices may not, like dedicated reporting lines for engineers at the hub, engineering teams which exist at the hub and don't exist elsewhere, and similar. We have engineers who work out of ou…

Thanks for the reply!

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#137

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:36 PM UTC

ngngngng wrote: post #61

I've always wanted to switch to fully remote. I worked from home for a couple weeks after my son was born and my current company didn't like it. My productivity was down and they noticed so they informed me I wasn't allowed to work remotely anymore because of it. Obviously it had nothing to do with the fact that they gave me 3 days of parental leave after the birth, so I was trying to help a recovering wife take care…

[deleted]

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#138

Post by rattray » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:38 PM UTC

geofft wrote: post #99

sandGorgon wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@patio11 - thanks for your reply. > I cannot conceive of a reason we'd track screen time for employees, remote or otherwise. I can model why a company which had an adversarial relationship with employees might want to do that (to discourage shirking). We do not have an adversarial relationship with our employees, and (hopefully) have more interesting utility functions than that. its not about the company. See you guy…

Probably one question that would directly answer this is—can Stripes who live in SFBA transfer from the SF hub to the remote hub?

I assume SFBA == San Francisco Bay Area

I work at Stripe and I'm not sure the answer to the question, largely because it hasn't come up that I know of; most folks enjoy working in our SF office (even many who usually decry open seating plans).

I often work from home (or will WFH until ~11am, and commute in after traffic). I also know some SFBA Stripes who work from home more often than in the office. To an ancestor's point, I am not remote and often do code in my PJ's.

I think there may be at least one Tahoe/Truckee-based remote, but I may be misremembering...

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#139

Post by britt_binler » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:42 PM UTC

pastor_elm wrote: post #55

I just looked at Stripe's job page and noticed they don't advertise any positions as "Senior" nor do they appear to list 'years required' in any of their listings. Definitely a fresh take, and I hope it actually does yield better applicants and results!

Apparently, everyone has the "same" title - levels are only reflected in your pay band.

Re: Stripe’s fifth engineering hub is Remote

#140

Post by greenhatman » Thu, May 02, 2019, 4:43 PM UTC

kevsim wrote: post #65

C4stor wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read that, but the timezone problem doesn't really explain why south america was slashed. Overall it seems a bit strange to explain "we officially have a remote hub" and "remote workers need to be supported by physical hubs".

"There is substantial organizational, legal, and financial infrastructure required to support each new jurisdiction we hire in, so we have to be measured in how quickly we expand." Each country you want to pay salary in comes with legal aspects. Therefore they have to be a bit tactical with where they try to hire people.

I work remotely for a U.S. based company from South Africa. I don't think they do anything special for each different territory. The IRS stuff just has two categories - U.S. and outside U.S.

I'd love to apply for an engineering job at Stripe.