More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision • Hacker News Board

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#151

Post by xkcd-sucks » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:28 AM UTC

amoorthy wrote: post #93

hcnews wrote: post #8

Sundar is neither a founder nor has been a practicing Engineer. That's gotta hurt a company like Google which is mostly Engineering driven. I guess Google at this point just keep churning through systems because Engineers are incentivized to show impact and rarely end up creating new good products. Adding tons of new engineers is also probably hurting their overall quality and velocity.

I'm not a Googler but read that Pichai oversaw the growth of Chrome browser from minor player to the dominant position it has today. And he also oversaw Android's growth after Andy Rubin's departure [1]. While he may not have written code that's two world-leading consumer adoption stories. So many great engineers build products that never achieve great adoption. So aren't Pichai's accomplishments worthy of CEO-level…

In that he's transitively responsible for hiring, he needs to have some familiarity with Google's core competency in order to avoid a turtles-all-the-way-down situation

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#152

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:31 AM UTC

givinguflac wrote: post #99

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno. I like Sundar. I like his straightforward style. Personally I think he's got it together a lot more than Larry and Sergey do. When Larry was the boss, I always felt like we were lurching. Sundar feels like high speed cruise. Look this ship don't turn fast no matter who's at the helm. And it's not even clear it needs to. Maybe it's already sailing where Sundar wants it to (mad money + compelling products). As…

|and building things that broadly speaking make the world a better and more productive place. I strongly disagree with this sentiment, ease up on the kool-aid. Productive, maybe? Better, hell no.

[deleted]

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#153

Post by 345tw4erfd » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:31 AM UTC

ajmbbs wrote: post #17

Having read the article, only 54% of Googlers view their compensation is better than what they could get from another company. I find it surprising. Who else pays more than Google does? Can only think of Facebook, but even then not sure.

I used to work at another BigCorp (around $150,000/yr) and really thought Google pays competitively, but boy was I wrong. Here are two offers that I received recently:

1. Small company: around $160,000/yr + equity

2. Google: no exact number but I was told that for the level I was approved, the base is around $120,000/yr. Apparently my coding skills on a Google doc were equivalent to that of a new grad and they are really trying to low-ball me. Somehow they are under the assumption that I'm "dying" to work there.

If you interview at Google make sure to have other competing offers, otherwise you'll be up for a surprise. Also remember that although they'll tell you that the hiring committee looks at a candidate holistically, only the onsite interviews will dictate your level and the compensation. They don't seem to care what products you've built previously, years of experience, or education. How you code in a Google doc is what seems to matter.

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#154

Post by ahartmetz » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:32 AM UTC

_i____ii_______ wrote: post #30

I thought every CEO's ultimate vision was to increase shareholder value. Does the vision of company really come from one person's declarations? Just look at what the company is doing as a whole and you can get a picture of what the company's vision is. In the case of Google how can you can conclude otherwise that the vision of the company is domination in any arena possible to dominate?

> every CEO's ultimate vision was to increase shareholder value

That is like saying every organism's ultimate vision is to flood the world with offspring carrying its own genes. It is true in some sense... But it is also good that it fades into the background in the day-to-day because the things you (supposedly) do to get there have much better consequences than just trying to go directly for the goal.

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#155

Post by askafriend » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:37 AM UTC

darkpuma wrote: post #86

dawhizkid wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They flipped it 20 years ago...talking about where these companies rank as far as current vision and innovation goes today in 2019.

They flipped it at least as early as 15 years ago in 2004 with with gmail, their acquisition of google maps, and in 2006 with their acquisition of youtube. Actually I think you're basically right.

Android? Chrome?

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#156

Post by austincheney » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:39 AM UTC

osrec wrote: post #63

goldenchrome wrote: post #40

Don't discount the massive increase in the number of employees. The more people you add, the more the culture dilutes. It becomes impossible for employees to feel like they're part of single a tribe with a clear goal. Factions develop, tensions mount, and you get angry employees leaking confidential information constantly. Most of the negative press the public has heard about Google in the past year is a direct resul…

I used to work a corporate job in an investment bank with around 30k employees. The majority of those employees were politicking chameleons with little productive output and a disproportionate salary. I used to hope that large innovative tech companies were different. From what I hear on HN it's becoming clear that that's not the case. It's almost as if the "largeness" of a company allows the non productive people to…

People are people and will do self-serving people things. Don't think any single industry is immune or reserved from this. I have been thinking about this heavily recently as to what I will do with myself when I return to the US later this year.

When interviewing ask the following questions:

* How do you define personal success?

* In the fewest words how do you define product quality?

* Do you require honesty/transparency as a primary cultural value even when it makes people uncomfortable?

> It's almost as if the "largeness" of a company allows the non productive people to hide within it

Yes, absolutely.

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#157

Post by _betty_ » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:44 AM UTC

joejerryronnie wrote: post #131

beambot wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just culture, it comes down to unclear vision. Under Google, it was "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible." Under Alphabet? It's super unclear. "Do cool stuff and make money?"

You should probably substitute "make money" with "subsidize it with our ad money".

Do cool stuff and sunset it a couple of years later

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#158

Post by ptd » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:45 AM UTC

ur-whale wrote: post #37

trixie_ wrote: post #19

Google's Achilles heel is search and ad revenue (80%). Which is sad because they've been trying to diversify and find another major source of income for 20 years now. If a better search engine comes along and people switch over, then google won't be able to maintain its empire and it could fold, or how would you like to pay $10 a month for a GMail and Google Maps combo access package? It could happen a lot easier and…

I think they're a lot stronger than you think. True, Search and Ads is still their bread and butter, but: Their search engine is really hard to replace, not just because of the quality, but also because of how ubiquitous it is. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet and has the largest mindshare of any website on the internet. Android is "the" platform pretty much everyone accesses the internet. Cl…

Anecdotally, there seems to be more stories of AWS->GCP than the other way around.

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#159

Post by ptd » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:48 AM UTC

aylmao wrote: post #89

ur-whale wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're a lot stronger than you think. True, Search and Ads is still their bread and butter, but: Their search engine is really hard to replace, not just because of the quality, but also because of how ubiquitous it is. YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet and has the largest mindshare of any website on the internet. Android is "the" platform pretty much everyone accesses the internet. Cl…

> Their search engine is really hard to replace, not just because of the quality, but also because of how ubiquitous it is. For the web, yes. I'd argue it's not threatened by other search engines, though it is threatened by other players and indexes: - Apps. Google can't crawl apps, and people are getting used to the idea of finding information in separate indexes as opposed to a single universal one. Each app today…

I think you’re a more sophisticated user. Most people would just google something like best [type of food] restaurant in [city]. They’re not going to help specially for yelp stuff when it shows up on google anyways. If I want to find someone’s Facebook, I search for their name and Facebook on google.

Re: More Google Employees Are Losing Faith in Their CEO's Vision

#160

Post by ptd » Sat, Feb 02, 2019, 7:52 AM UTC

345tw4erfd wrote: post #153

ajmbbs wrote: post #17

Having read the article, only 54% of Googlers view their compensation is better than what they could get from another company. I find it surprising. Who else pays more than Google does? Can only think of Facebook, but even then not sure.

I used to work at another BigCorp (around $150,000/yr) and really thought Google pays competitively, but boy was I wrong. Here are two offers that I received recently: 1. Small company: around $160,000/yr + equity 2. Google: no exact number but I was told that for the level I was approved, the base is around $120,000/yr. Apparently my coding skills on a Google doc were equivalent to that of a new grad and they are re…

Is there a better way of making sure someone can actually code? It’s easy to take credit for past projects when it’s unclear how much help you had or what part you played. Isn’t the best way to judge a candidate asking them to create/produce something for you?