Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook • Hacker News Board

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#141

Post by mattgreenrocks » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 1:31 PM UTC

braza wrote: post #110

I really distaste those articles because it most of the time generalize based on exception cases. Not all companies have the resources and/or opportunities like Stripe and Facebook. Coming from the SME/laggard industries those posts sound completely out of touch with the reality of a lot of SWEs that are not in this demographic pool. One of the biggest disappointments with the SWE was the fact that when I started my…

Wow, I really feel this.

I have been mourning / processing the void left by the technical culture I’d fabricated in my mind. It’s like I grew up with a certain notion in my mind and never questioned it: namely that technical excellence was paramount. I also think it is a midlife thing, where you look at all the things you’ve put time into, and ask them, “and for what?”

The way forward for me is bootstrapping so I can buy back that which is most valuable to me: my time and autonomy.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#142

Post by busterarm » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 1:33 PM UTC

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #141

braza wrote: post #110

I really distaste those articles because it most of the time generalize based on exception cases. Not all companies have the resources and/or opportunities like Stripe and Facebook. Coming from the SME/laggard industries those posts sound completely out of touch with the reality of a lot of SWEs that are not in this demographic pool. One of the biggest disappointments with the SWE was the fact that when I started my…

Wow, I really feel this. I have been mourning / processing the void left by the technical culture I’d fabricated in my mind. It’s like I grew up with a certain notion in my mind and never questioned it: namely that technical excellence was paramount. I also think it is a midlife thing, where you look at all the things you’ve put time into, and ask them, “and for what?” The way forward for me is bootstrapping so I can…

The unbridled optimism about technology of the early-mid 90s was very real and very addicting. Having been around from then until now and seeing what's happening to the internet and open source software is extremely demoralizing.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#143

Post by busterarm » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 1:37 PM UTC

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #109

mertd wrote: post #3

The article does mention this but worth noting that riding two rocket ships back to back is not going to be a typical career experience for majority of people. So this doesn't strike me as a typical career growth story.

I think it's more useful if you read it from the perspective of "how do I hang onto this rocket ship and survive?". Of course, then the advice applies to very few people but it does become more useful. Not really convinced either way though. Much of this feels like backwards-facing advice, things that only make sense when you already know what you're doing, and very surface level. The "tying it all together" section…

I kind of agree. Also some rockets explode on the launchpad. Not every explosive growth company is a success story and they don't all mint millionaires.

I've been on two failed rocket ships and I'm pretty mellow about it. Surviving that is also its own skill. You'll go crazy trying to pick winners and getting rich isn't why I got into this field anyway.

While I would quit and work on passion software, you always owe it to yourself to find time for passion work in your free time.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#144

Post by vonwoodson » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 2:33 PM UTC

scottLobster wrote: post #63

Ah, the classic Silicon Valley conceit: "I worked too hard for too long and sacrificed too much to admit that I was just lucky"

I'd only add that it's not limited to Silicon Valley, nor to this kind of wild "success".

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#145

Post by hellisothers » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 2:54 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #26

The real lesson is to join a company poised for rapid growth (bonus points if it turns into a mainstream name like Facebook) and getting lucky as they expand. Try that at a mature company and you'll get nowhere. Do it at the small companies that never blow up and you'll get nowhere. Even if you're in the right company at the right time, there's a good chance someone else will be given the opportunity over you.

I came here to say this same thing, I’m now frequently reflecting on so much of my previous experience and a lot of advice now is based on high growth companies in a zero interest economic environment. Times have changed, uncertainty is afoot.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#146

Post by shrikant » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 2:59 PM UTC

throw3823423 wrote: post #59

giantg2 wrote: post #26

The real lesson is to join a company poised for rapid growth (bonus points if it turns into a mainstream name like Facebook) and getting lucky as they expand. Try that at a mature company and you'll get nowhere. Do it at the small companies that never blow up and you'll get nowhere. Even if you're in the right company at the right time, there's a good chance someone else will be given the opportunity over you.

There's a little more to it: Make sure your manager, and maybe even your manager's manager, likes you. If your manager doesn't like you, change teams. If your manager's manager doesn't like your manager, you should also change teams. The unfortunate reality of those high growth orgs is precisely that the growth leads to a lot of new managers, and as we all probably know by now, a new manager is a bad manager. Since t…

> Make sure your manager, and maybe even your manager's manager, likes you.

..and sometimes due to sheer shitty luck, even this doesn't work. Like in my most recent job, where me, my manager, and his manager were all laid off (oh sorry, "made redundant") from a profitable company because "business restructuring".

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#147

Post by pm90 » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 3:31 PM UTC

2-718-281-828 wrote: post #114

braza wrote: post #110

I really distaste those articles because it most of the time generalize based on exception cases. Not all companies have the resources and/or opportunities like Stripe and Facebook. Coming from the SME/laggard industries those posts sound completely out of touch with the reality of a lot of SWEs that are not in this demographic pool. One of the biggest disappointments with the SWE was the fact that when I started my…

that matches also my experience. then again I have always been a part of the problem. I'm like an amoebae without a functioning membrane. I find myself in a sick (intentionally avoiding the term "toxic". "sick" like in "sick system".) environment, then I will turn sick and act sick as well. I partake for a while until one morning I look into the mirror and don't like the person I see there anymore and I either just q…

> I'm like an amoebae without a functioning membrane. I find myself in a sick (intentionally avoiding the term "toxic". "sick" like in "sick system".) environment, then I will turn sick and act sick as well. I partake for a while until one morning I look into the mirror and don't like the person I see there anymore and I either just quit or develop a sort of burn out depression first - or favorably both.

This describes really well how I operate today. Changing cultures is just too much effort if the people don't really want to change. I will make suggestions and see how they are received, if the folks are receptive to it, I will do more otherwise withdraw.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#148

Post by gymbeaux » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 4:01 PM UTC

braza wrote: post #110

I really distaste those articles because it most of the time generalize based on exception cases. Not all companies have the resources and/or opportunities like Stripe and Facebook. Coming from the SME/laggard industries those posts sound completely out of touch with the reality of a lot of SWEs that are not in this demographic pool. One of the biggest disappointments with the SWE was the fact that when I started my…

Somewhat related- I’ve always been fascinated by the notion that a “senior” software engineer can have as little as 3 or 4 years of experience. I just have “software engineer” on my LinkedIn headline because anything like “senior software engineer” hits me as pretentious, whether that’s a title the person gave themselves or not.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#149

Post by fhd2 » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 4:56 PM UTC

InCacheOnly wrote: post #118

fhd2 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've seen, amassing riches is either a weird game to people, the means to a lifestyle they truly crave (status, luxury, ...), or an unhealthy obsession with security (both for themselves and their offspring). I was, maybe still am, in the last bucket. But I'm starting to realise that security is a quite mythical thing - you can always think of more risks and counter measures, at least at the point I got to.…

I've had a very similar realisation recently. A lot of what I spent the last 5 years doing has largely been to reach a state of security where I feel I 'no longer need to worry'. Due to a death in the family, an unfounded health scare and a rather paranoid money scare it's been made quite clear that this utopia of 'secure' does not exist no matter what I do. It has lead to a reduction in stress in some ways since the…

Sorry to hear that!

I have a positive outlook. I deal with the problems I encounter and enjoy the little things. This year was pretty good, I pulled off some stuff I didn't know I could do. Now I feel more confident that I can deal with lots of things life'll throw at me (not everything of course).

Happy to chat some more outside a public comment thread :D There's an email address in my profile.

Re: Engineer’s guide to career growth: Advice from my time at Stripe and Facebook

#150

Post by InCacheOnly » Wed, Sep 06, 2023, 5:16 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #136

InCacheOnly wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if you are sued due to something completely out of your control and lose your wealth? Or face a medical problem that requires expensive treatment not covered by your insurance or government healthcare? Or your investments fail, the USSR fell very quickly risking pensions people relied on, the roman empire fell. US investments could too; I mean they kinda did in the early 1900's, recovery from that took time.…

> But what if you are sued due to something completely out of your control and lose your wealth? You will be able to afford lawyers, and the US justice system is not so corrupt that you would lose millions of dollars for no reason. Don’t drive drunk, don’t operate a business, and buy umbrella insurance and you should be fine. Biggest risk would probably be divorce, or accusations of abuse from within the family. > Or…

I totally agree with pretty much every point you make.

I also invest in US majority index funds so certainly agree they are the best bet. I do however think security and certainty are different in that one is 99% and one is 100%.

I'd say it depends on your personality and risk tolerance but when talking about life destroying events I'd say 1% is quite significant. For example a 1% chance of a car crash per journey would be unacceptably high.

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed reply by the way, I'm thinking around this topic a lot at the moment so debating the details is very valuable to help reach a view I'm content with.