Earlier quoted context omitted.
None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.
Because those people will leave and take their knowledge with them to big tech?
Exxon’s Exodus
21–30 of 102 posts
Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#22A dinosaur media company cheers on a dinosaur energy company's demise. > a culture that’s increasingly out of step with the world around it. Those interviewed describe an organization trapped in amber, whose insular and fear-based culture—once a beacon of corporate America—has become a drag on innovation, risk taking, and career satisfaction. It's a giant, old company, with 1000s of employees who were not at that tow…
Indeed, the high profitability suggests that the people working there can function pretty well and work together efficiently. The company didn't win the lotto. Every few pennies the company earned must come from a very complex supply chain working correctly so that car drivers will buy gas from Exxon and not a competitor. There might be some individual pockets of toxic behavior, but I submit that the profits show that they're few and relatively rare.
Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> and whether Exxon was willing to raise pay to the level of major tech companies. Why would oil companies need to hire the same kinds of engineers that a SV giant would need? If they can get that kind of salary, more power to them, but I don't see the challenges being similar enough except on a smaller scale with device drivers for industrial equipment, etc.
What kind of systems do you think run the oil drills/manages refineries? Or simulate potential drilling sites? You think Exxon doesn't have data-centers? Or that everything is still analog buttons with a digital device driver on the end like the 80s? I work for a large defense contractor, you know what I'm working on right now? I'm coding up REST services, and a couple of months ago I was helping to spin up a Kuberne…
Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of systems do you think run the oil drills/manages refineries? Or simulate potential drilling sites? You think Exxon doesn't have data-centers? Or that everything is still analog buttons with a digital device driver on the end like the 80s? I work for a large defense contractor, you know what I'm working on right now? I'm coding up REST services, and a couple of months ago I was helping to spin up a Kuberne…
None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.
Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of systems do you think run the oil drills/manages refineries? Or simulate potential drilling sites? You think Exxon doesn't have data-centers? Or that everything is still analog buttons with a digital device driver on the end like the 80s? I work for a large defense contractor, you know what I'm working on right now? I'm coding up REST services, and a couple of months ago I was helping to spin up a Kuberne…
None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.
Like if you have normal modern tech skills you shouldn't expect to make top 0.1%th percentile of the industry salaries. People with those normal skills make 50th percentile and up salaries. Which are high relative to other industries, but not top of our industry high, sorry.
Your (the general your, not you in particular) labor is valuable but not that valuable :P
Not to mention that the available amount of positions at these top tech companies are limited. Not everyone will get to them, because there just aren't enough.
Edit: However, I'm a big believer in the idea of "You can eat what you can catch." So if you can otherwise raise your earning power to that of a FAANG Eng for doing normal work -- more power to you.
Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#26> Keillor started by thanking everyone for their hard work over the past year, presented awards to three top-performing teams, and then opened the floor to questions. It was at this point things started to unravel, according to four people present who spoke on condition of anonymity. The software developers, data analysts, and technicians who run Exxon’s vast computing network, which helps the company manage everythi…
>> and whether Exxon was willing to raise pay to the level of major tech companies. Why would oil companies need to hire the same kinds of engineers that a SV giant would need? If they can get that kind of salary, more power to them, but I don't see the challenges being similar enough except on a smaller scale with device drivers for industrial equipment, etc.
Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of systems do you think run the oil drills/manages refineries? Or simulate potential drilling sites? You think Exxon doesn't have data-centers? Or that everything is still analog buttons with a digital device driver on the end like the 80s? I work for a large defense contractor, you know what I'm working on right now? I'm coding up REST services, and a couple of months ago I was helping to spin up a Kuberne…
None of this seems to answer the underlying question of why other companies need to compete on salary with big tech. I work for a financial company. We have tons of tech. We get paid peanuts compared to big tech.
Then do the same for some big tech companies. Call that 'Y'. The employee count is way less than for Exxon.
Most likely, Y >> X. Vastly greater.
So to a corporate bean counter, the "value" of an Exxon employee, X, is about what they're paying them now. Hiring one more, even a brilliant tech guy, will have a negligible effect on any numbers they care about. Especially since he'll be frustrated by the dinosaur culture and his inability to have any impact.
You can say "you're wrong, what about ?" Well, this finance guy understands Exxon's numbers pretty well.
Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#28Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#29Re: Exxon’s Exodus
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> and whether Exxon was willing to raise pay to the level of major tech companies. Why would oil companies need to hire the same kinds of engineers that a SV giant would need? If they can get that kind of salary, more power to them, but I don't see the challenges being similar enough except on a smaller scale with device drivers for industrial equipment, etc.
Big oil needs a lot of compute for various engineering tasks like prospecting and simulations. Depending on how much they do in house those are pretty hard problems and that also means data on a large scale.
At the retail level. The analytics to track sales and optimize distribution marking sure fuel trucks arrive as needs to tip up supply is massive.