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Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

neomindlabs.com

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Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#181

Post by mytailorisrich »

paulgb wrote: post #3

> never underestimate the amount of money the FAANGs have to poach your talent. I really wish we'd stop using the word "poach". It's a loaded word with negative connotations, but what it really means here is "offer someone a better situation than you offered them". Employees have agency, they aren't wild elephants who need your "protection" from "predators" who just want to pay them more.

Offering a better than average package to attract talent is just a HR strategy, I agree.

Poaching, on the other hand, usually does not mean that. It means targeting key people at competitors and specifically courting them to make them switch. Hence the analogy with hunting on someone else's land. I would also agree that the term tends to be overused.

Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#182

Post by mnm1 »

game_the0ry wrote: post #23

I agree with the author's point about using popular tech stacks to alleviate the ramp-up time for new hire productivity, but that is not the optimal solution. The optimal solution is for management to not let high-productivity talent from leaving - increase their comp to whatever offers they might get in the open market. That's how labor economic works - it's a market. Investment bank and management consulting figure…

You're asking that businesses think about long-term goals, efficiency, and what is best for the business. After having worked at over a couple dozen companies, I've never seen such an attitude from any business. Industry and size are irrelevant. Occasionally things line up by accident and the business does well, but every single business I've ever worked at or seen has a culture of shooting itself in the foot:

* No training (Not just for engineers but for anyone, including for specialty positions that simply don't exist outside the business)

* No focus on employee retention

* No significant raises / bonuses (Lucky to get a cost of living raise these days)

* No consideration for employees' goals

* Stressing employees unnecessarily with shit vacation benefits and no sick time

* Stressing employees with shit equipment

* Stressing employees with shit hours

* Stressing employees with shit office conditions

* Reducing benefits to slightly cut costs

The list goes on and on. Businesses succeed despite their own best attempts at hurting themselves, not because of it. Owners, executives, and other stakeholders are deluding themselves into thinking this isn't the case and often driving the business into actual bankruptcy or just below mediocre performance.

It's no wonder most employees are disengaged from their work. When you treat employees like shit, they will treat your business like shit to the greatest extent possible. They will do the minimum and it's extremely hard to change that course once it's been set. Employees are humans. Most businesses treat them like slaves, or machines at best.

Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#183

Post by dmoy »

WWLink wrote: post #126
JPKab wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that hits me is the "$500k+/year in the valley". Is this really a thing? Am I a giant dumbass for staying in Colorado? Even factoring in my stock grants, I'm nowhere close to that number.

I feel the same way about being a dumbass for staying in los angeles lol. Here I am getting low 100k and some linkedin recruiter tells me about a 400k job. Wait WHAT?! Man I'd happily take up one of those Google jobs, but being an embedded software guy, I'm not even sure what they'd want me for. It seems like a lot of silicon valley companies are a great place if you're a web dev, or use C#/Java all the time.

I have both interviewed and coached embedded software devs into positions at .

You probably won't end up doing embedded work though, just as a point of warning. I mean you might, but probably not. As sibling poster alluded to, there are some jobs closer to that area, but more likely than not you'll end up on some other team doing something completely unrelated to embedded.

It doesn't have to be a permanent thing though -

It does not take too many years of $300-$400k compensation to make your future much more free to pursue what you want. If you do FAANG for 5-10 years while saving aggressively and can't take any more of it, then you can go back to working on embedded software for a third of the pay and have a huge buffer for retirement.

Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#184

Post by logicslave »

Schiendelman wrote: post #99
non-entity wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep telling myself one day I'll try to make it, but by the time I feel comfortable with those interviews I'll probably be too old for FAANG lol.

If I may offer advice: Never tell yourself no. Go give it a shot, even if you don't prepare at all. You lose nothing.

You'll never pass if you dont prepare, this is bad advice

Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#186

Post by echelon »

benrbray wrote: post #153
sjburt wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really fail to see the distinction. If someone is willing to pay 600k for something, then the value of that thing on the market is 600k. That is what a market is.

If Google is willing to pay 200k above market rate to hire an employee from a competitor, chances are part of the "value" of that employee is that they will no longer be working for someone else. Yes, literally speaking, it's "worth it" to Google, or they wouldn't do it. Being so large, Google can throw advertising money on their self-driving car division, no problem. They can take a loss for 5-10 years, no problem.…

If Google is stopping forward progress to entrench their moat, they need to be broken up by the DOJ.

There's plenty of antitrust fodder already with their stranglehold over the web and the behavior they've taken to protect their search/ad business. But if they're hiring people away in cutting edge areas of research simply to destroy startups, that's abhorrent. That means they're pouring their obscene wealth from advertising into unrelated fields in order to dominate them.

Monopoly.

Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#187

Post by roland35 »

vkou wrote: post #160
roland35 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to generalize that Big Tech has awful work life balance or other problems (I am sure it is mostly the opposite!), but rather there are lot of things smaller companies can and should offer to be more appealing.

Yes. If your company is actually very good on those things, it can be a good selling point, especially to someone who has been burnt in the past. The problem is that when I'm applying for a job, I have no idea if the hiring manager is being honest with me, or if they are just telling me what I want to hear. Any claims of 'no politics' and 'you own the process' should be taken with a lot of salt.

Ha yes it is hard to believe it when people say it, almost like when someone has to tell everyone they are smart it often means they aren't that smart...

Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#188

Post by benrbray »

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #176
benrbray wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Google is willing to pay 200k above market rate to hire an employee from a competitor, chances are part of the "value" of that employee is that they will no longer be working for someone else. Yes, literally speaking, it's "worth it" to Google, or they wouldn't do it. Being so large, Google can throw advertising money on their self-driving car division, no problem. They can take a loss for 5-10 years, no problem.…

> If Google is willing to pay 200k above market rate This is not possible according to the usual definition of "market rate". If Google is willing to pay X, that is the market rate.

I disagree with your definition of "market rate", but let's suppose you're right: Do you not see it as a problem that Google alone decides the cost of entry to an entire market?

Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#189

Post by nkrisc »

BrentOzar wrote: post #150
nkrisc wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but even someone retiring after winning the lottery might deign to write a few things down for you. The point of the bus scenario is that there is not even the possibility to ask them a question you might get an answer to. I don't really see why framing it as a positive thing or negative thing matters, no one is actually getting hit by a bus, it's just a hypothetical scenario.

> Sure, but even someone retiring after winning the lottery might deign to write a few things down for you. Might, or they might not. Just as if someone were hit by a bus, they might be able to communicate from their hospital bed...or they might not. Hope is not a strategy.

> Hope is not a strategy.

Well yeah, that's why the whole scenario in the first place is that they're hit by a bus and instantly killed.

Maybe it should be rephrased as "blown to a million pieces" then there's no question you're discussing a situation in when there's an immediate and irreversible loss of knowledge.

Re: Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Netflix

#190

Post by Bootvis »

wry_discontent wrote: post #149
Bootvis wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the same way as offering products below costs would be to drive out competition and become a monopolist. I'm not sure I think this is bad but I believe this is the argument.

In the same way, isn't that just the way markets work?

IANAL but I believe lowering prices to kill competition is illegal in the western world and in the US in particular.

Googled: https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a...

It’s called predatory pricing in that case and legality is unclear. It seems you probably get away with it in the US.

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