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What I learned getting acquired by Google

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Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#211

Post by svieira »

mattigames wrote: post #53
nonameiguess wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think about this when I was a kid. If 5 billion people pray to God at the same time and ask for mutually exclusive things, how can he possibly answer or even listen to them all? And it's now up to 8 billion and the problem isn't getting any easier. I guess the answer is God's perfect omniscience is massively concurrent on a scale unfathomable to human computational models and, by existing outside of time, h…

Im pretty sure that if there were only one single human in the world the success ratio of the communication with God would be just as bleak, and the situation there is more like a company that after digging a tiny bit you discover only exists on paper.

> after digging a tiny bit

What makes you so sure that "the company" doesn't exist? Sounds like you've discovered something almost axiomatic to have that level of certainty since there isn't a state-of-Deleware for the perfect being.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#212

Post by mistrial9 »

ajross wrote: post #141
gumby wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blame the courts, basically. No, blame these companies for trying hard to avoid workplace protection.

No, it's got nothing to do with workplace protection or wages. The original suit was actually about participation in the stock purchase program (which in the mid-90's was extremely lucrative at MSFT!), something that no contractor would normally expect to get. But because the contractors got free food at the cafe (or whatever), they did. Or rather they got a settlement making up for the stock the courts said they sho…

yes, it has everything to do with workplace protection and wages

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#213

Post by TremendousJudge »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #189
gizmo wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 10 person startup without a business model? And all the tech got thrown out. Clearly an acquihire.

How can you tell them difference between that and early removal of a competitor?

You often can't, which is why they can get away with these anti-competitive practices

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#214

Post by ido »

SilverBirch wrote: post #132
izacus wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean... it's both? It reads like real life - good things and bad. Which is why the insight is interesting.

To me it reads more like someone with a positive disposition (or someone who has founded a start up and doesn't want to burn bridges) laying out the problems without saying they are problems. I mean come on - the upsides: we "merged cultures", "our app lives on", "careers have bloomed" versus downsides "we quit", and "we don't think we actually delivered what we wanted to". But it's ok because after everyone who care…

> I mean come on - the upsides: we "merged cultures", "our app lives on", "careers have bloomed" versus downsides "we quit", and "we don't think we actually delivered what we wanted to". But it's ok because after everyone who cared about the product quit, maybe someone else will might make it happen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Do we ignore the most obvious upside, that this guy (and possibly/probably everyone in that startup) got paid a shit ton of money as a result of Google buying the company?

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#215

Post by modeless »

drewg123 wrote: post #203

What I learned getting acquired by Google is that if your company is below a certain size, everyone will need to do a technical interview to be hired and leveled. They tell your management to lie to you, and tell you its just a meet and greet, with questions about projects you worked on, general background stuff etc. But its actually a full on surprise technical interview. (NOTE: This was true in the early-ish 2010s,…

Nobody lied when we were acquired in 2016. Everyone was told ahead of time that they would be interviewed and not everyone would be hired.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#216

Post by paganel »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #79

The "red badge" thing was very real. It was really weird having TVCs on your team. You'd all work hard together to launch a thing, and then everybody except the red badge would get a celebratory team tchotchke or a team lunch or something. If you asked about it, the manager would say "we can't give Jim things directly because that might be like compensation and they'd be like an employee." There'd be all-hands meetin…

> And report them if they ever claim to work for Google.

Google is already too big at this point, I'm talking about producing anything that would have a real impact in the medium to long term.

In a way, that's good, the last thing we really want is for really talented people to be able to do meaningful work at Google's scale and given Google's current incentives, on the other hand you have to feel for those talented people and for their wasted intellectual potential.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#217

Post by ponector »

orochimaaru wrote: post #201
slater- wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thank you for mentioning this. i was a red badge. it was fucking demeaning. i have a lot of stories, but my favorite was when everyone on my floor got an earthquake safety kit except me. literally google didn't care if i lived or died. the expectation was that if i sucked up enough ("demonstrated my value") they MIGHT make me a real boy, like some bizarre Velveteen Rabbit fetish game. i loved watching how Google woul…

This is a case with contractors in all big companies. You are not a company employee. The expectation is that your employer will compensate you and take you out to lunch, etc, etc. But otoh you don’t need to deal with performance appraisals, office politics and all the other bullshit. Do your work, take the money.

In such companies you are not truly a contractor, but employee of the bodyshop company which lease you to the client. As the result you deal with politics in both companies: your employer and their client. And bodyshop has performance reviews as well.

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#218

Post by TremendousJudge »

nonameiguess wrote: post #18
olivierduval wrote: post #2

> "At Google's scale, the external world ceases to exist and is only rarely and carefully allowed to enter their walls" OK Google... now I get why you behave that way with your users (no support, product graveyard...) ! ;-)

I used to think about this when I was a kid. If 5 billion people pray to God at the same time and ask for mutually exclusive things, how can he possibly answer or even listen to them all? And it's now up to 8 billion and the problem isn't getting any easier. I guess the answer is God's perfect omniscience is massively concurrent on a scale unfathomable to human computational models and, by existing outside of time, h…

Or maybe there just shouldn't exist a company so large if it's clear that it won't be able to listen to its users?

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#219

Post by foota »

nineplay wrote: post #176
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #79

The "red badge" thing was very real. It was really weird having TVCs on your team. You'd all work hard together to launch a thing, and then everybody except the red badge would get a celebratory team tchotchke or a team lunch or something. If you asked about it, the manager would say "we can't give Jim things directly because that might be like compensation and they'd be like an employee." There'd be all-hands meetin…

I went from full time employee to contractor at the same company once and it was honestly a huge relief. No awkward team lunches No useless tchotchkes No boring all hands No forced participation events like 'hackathons'. I just worked. It was great

It was Microsoft, wasn't it? :)

Re: What I learned getting acquired by Google

#220

Post by rightbyte »

ponector wrote: post #204
peddling-brink wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't just google, it's every company with contractors and employees. Microsoft learned the hard way to not treat contractors like employees. https://www.reuters.com/article/businesspropicks-us-findlaw-... Nobody else wants to learn that same lesson.

Every US company. European companies somehow have contractors without caste system. Obviously there are different policies for internals and contractors, but fruits and pizza are for everyone in the office.

Which is because it is extremely rude, like meanest of meanest, to not share food with each other. Like, of all mean but not illegal things you can do to contractors, not sharing food is probably what people consider the worst. Small every day things are way more provocative than abstract things like retirement funds or whatever.

Been there. Done that. The FTEs got strawberries. I didn't. I don't think I have been that pissed off in my life. If someone had wrecked my car on purpose I'd be less pissed.

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