How I Left YouTube • Hacker News Board

Re: How I Left YouTube

#131

Post by dkasper » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 3:38 AM UTC

tamimio wrote: post #44

conqrr wrote: post #16

> In the software engineering world, we exist on a ladder. We call this ”Leveling”. Career is a made up game. There are no true levels or ladders in life that you have to chase. Nobody will care or remember what you did or what level you were given enough timespan. Take the bits that you want (money, skills etc) to live life, but don't get too caught up trying to win the game.

Exactly, that’s why I feel pity for the people who destroy their lives to get paid extra 5% and having a pizza party with good boy remarks, and of course making someone else wealthier too. It’s not a flex to sleep in a tent at work, while neglecting your health, family, friends, maybe kids, this “grind” culture is pushed by corporations for obvious reasons.

Except at big tech the next level might be 500k more not 5%

Re: How I Left YouTube

#132

Post by enraged_camel » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 3:41 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #128

blobbers wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think retrospectively your manager may not have been as supportive of you as you had thought? You missed promo 3 times, and when you left he didn't try to counter you. Is it possible s/he might have been blocking you?

I think counter offers in general are pretty rare, especially in a bad job market. Like unicorn rare. In almost 30 years I’ve never left a company where it was even mentioned during the resignation. The company just says “Well, bye.” Like the Tombstone meme.

Counter offers aren't rare, but they require good timing and finesse to be effective as leverage. You can't simply shove it in your manager's face and use it to demand a raise. You may first need to maneuver into a place where you play a crucial role in a project, for example.

Obviously not everyone can do that. Then again, not everyone can get offers whenever they need also, especially since doing so requires a large network and regular interviews. Most people have neither.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#133

Post by cons0le » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 3:45 AM UTC

shevy-java wrote: post #114

Youtube is getting problematic. I write this as someone who basically has some videos running in the background all the time, mostly just DJ music in the background. First, searching for videos sucks. Yes, the first few results can be useful, then more and more crap shows up. This just wastes my time. But, more importantly - more and more AI videos means I am being bombarded with more time wasters. I have about zero…

Set up jellyfin and tube archivist - I can't stand buffering

Re: How I Left YouTube

#134

Post by codingrightnow » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 3:49 AM UTC

When I read about the culture at Google, and similarly YouTube, I am constantly reminded of how (and probably why) their products have stagnated/gotten worse over time despite having top engineers. I believe Google has the talent to build anything in their wildest dreams. So why do their products suck? YouTube sucks from the user POV, Google classroom sucks, the user experience in their office suite leaves a tremendous amount to be desired for even a basic user like me, Android never improves, their voice recognition and assistant are trash. There's so much room for competition, I wonder where it is? What are they spending their money and talent on (besides AI)? I feel like it must primarily be on reliability, speed, and delivering more ads.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#135

Post by nyjah » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 3:55 AM UTC

shevy-java wrote: post #114

Youtube is getting problematic. I write this as someone who basically has some videos running in the background all the time, mostly just DJ music in the background. First, searching for videos sucks. Yes, the first few results can be useful, then more and more crap shows up. This just wastes my time. But, more importantly - more and more AI videos means I am being bombarded with more time wasters. I have about zero…

I’m a YouTube premium subscriber. Just yesterday I found myself opening a private window to watch a video with ads, rather than letting the algorithm know I was watching the video on my account. Even if I remove the video from my watch history, YouTube can’t help itself. You make a great point on stale content and the overall enshittification is becoming intolerable.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#136

Post by compiler-guy » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 3:58 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #128

blobbers wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think retrospectively your manager may not have been as supportive of you as you had thought? You missed promo 3 times, and when you left he didn't try to counter you. Is it possible s/he might have been blocking you?

I think counter offers in general are pretty rare, especially in a bad job market. Like unicorn rare. In almost 30 years I’ve never left a company where it was even mentioned during the resignation. The company just says “Well, bye.” Like the Tombstone meme.

Counteroffers for lower-level engineers are fairly rare. These companies believe that L4s are sufficiently common that another one will come along. It’s unfortunate especially when an L4 is seriously outperforming their level. But that’s a big company for you.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#137

Post by ksynwa » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 4:02 AM UTC

MinimalAction wrote: post #7

Tried to read through the article, but couldn't finish. I felt this writing heavily alluded to a ChatGPT generated response. Too many punchlines and paragraph breaks.

Unfortunately you missed the cherry-on-the-top AI generated image of an engineer and her manager mourning the end together.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#138

Post by mattgreenrocks » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 4:02 AM UTC

conqrr wrote: post #16

> In the software engineering world, we exist on a ladder. We call this ”Leveling”. Career is a made up game. There are no true levels or ladders in life that you have to chase. Nobody will care or remember what you did or what level you were given enough timespan. Take the bits that you want (money, skills etc) to live life, but don't get too caught up trying to win the game.

The purpose of a system is what it does. If the org truly cared about under-leveled employees, it would get fixed rapidly.

But they don’t.

I’ve seen enough people glossed over repeatedly and then when enough people leave and the org is in a less leveraged position, then the promos are no longer an issue. Such BS.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#139

Post by the_af » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 4:11 AM UTC

> If a company requires 13 people to sign off on a hire, it suggests they operate on a consensus-based model that stifles autonomy [...] the companies with 5 to 8 rounds had the clearest internal culture

Wow. 5 already feels like too many to me. 3 would be closer to ideal, counting the initial screening. 8 is positively too many; 13 is hellish.

It's very depressing when we start accepting 5 as the new normal.

Re: How I Left YouTube

#140

Post by daveidol » Thu, Dec 25, 2025, 4:11 AM UTC

nish__ wrote: post #103

huug156 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do live in a different, underprivileged world. Many Google engineers have never not heard back from a job app. I will never understand people who refuse to work at a big company yet complain about money of all things. For reference my last job at Google paid $450k+. It seems like it would behoove you to enter the other world.

And half of that is taxed. The rest is spent on over-priced housing. And now you have no time/energy left to build anything of value. Congratulations.

Yeah unless you legitimately enjoy it, want the experience, or want to save up some money for a while - I don’t think it’s worth it (coming from someone that spent 10+ yrs at FAANG).

It’s certainly not apples to apples with any other random tech job to where you can just compare TC while ignoring level of stress. And the money is good but not life changing good.