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How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

oliverzheng.com

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Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#31

Post by dannygarcia »

lhorie wrote: post #13
ashwinaj wrote: post #3

How about just quitting because you don't get good work (whatever that definition might be)? I find it hard to believe that most people in so called "top tier" tech companies do compelling work. Not everyone gets to work on de jour areas, most people work on maintenance and improving old code bases (BTW, there is nothing wrong with this)

> Improving old code bases From my experience, I think there's a great need in large tech organizations for people that are able to advocate for and drive initiatives that can scale up efforts to improve old codebases.

I agree, but that won't happen until large tech organizations incentivize and reward maintenance work. See this related HN discussion about someone who left Google partly because they were not promoted for their documenting and bug-fixing efforts. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#32

Post by caymanjim »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #20

> you have enough savings to last at least two years. I've always heard it as being 6 months. Especially with his next point assuming you can certainly find employment. Or maybe that's what I chose to remember, because I'm lucky enough to work in a high-employment sector in a region that can't fill enough positions: i.e. my profile is in high demand. (... for now. I know)

Almost no one has enough savings to last two years. It's an absurd metric and enforces how out of touch the author is. It reads as nothing more than a brag.

Anyone good enough to get hired by Facebook in the first place is going to have no problem finding a job in two weeks, nevermind two years. Quit, shop around and burn some savings until you find something good enough. If it's not your dream job, stick with good enough while you shop around some more.

No one worth working for actually cares about some amount of job-hopping. More employers care about long gaps than about minor job hopping. Neither is a showstopper if you find a good destination.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#33

Post by yfiapo »

Yeesh, the mindwash is strong. I had a hard time continuing to read this post after the Prestige by Association section. Working at a respected company known for cutting edge work is generally a good sign but it does not make you an Internet God or widen my eyes.

It is like saying you went to Harvard or MIT. That's neat. You are probably reasonably intelligent. However, even that isn't an automatic and I'll reserve judgement until I've made my own assessment.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#34

Post by throwaway289910 »

zapita wrote: post #11
throwaway289910 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently about to quit Microsoft and am going through the exact same set of questions in my head. I joined the company a few months ago and am blown away by how bad the culture is - or how badly I fit into the culture, take your pick. If you don't fit the culture, it's time to leave.

Out of curiosity, which part of Microsoft have you joined? The culture in large companies can vary greatly between divisions. What aspects of the culture do you not like?

Yes, that's very true of course. I came from a large enterprise company (100,000+ employees) so I know it's really only your immediate team culture that matters.

I joined Microsoft Canada. Perhaps Corp HQ is different, but here in the sub it quickly became clear that a culture of fear and CYA is alive and well. There are dozens of meetings where the primary objective is to make sure that the organizer doesn't get blamed for stuff.

Honestly, what blew me away even more was the terrible quality of execution. It's 2018, and apparently it's impossible to embed a reg form into a page. Everyone agrees that we should do it, but no one is willing to take responsibility. I tried, but multiple teams agreed that it's not my job to do it - it's not their job either, apparently, but it's definitely not mine!

I'm sure Microsoft is a great place to work (I was excited to join as well), and maybe I just got really unlucky with my manager, but the idea of spending my days writing emails for CYA and not focusing on a great customer experience is not my idea of what I want from a job.

Another anecdote - planning and strategy is done by FTE (full time employees), but the execution is often left to vendors - and no one really cares whether customers see a high quality outcome. It's almost comical how bad some things are.

Sigh, I don't mean this to be a rant, but maybe someone else reads this.

At the end of the day, no job is worth being unhappy at - or worth compromising your own personal integrity (to be clear - here I mean my desire to provide great customer experiences - MS is a very ethical and honest company in my experience)

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#35

Post by jjtheblunt »

minimaxir wrote: post #2

About a year ago, I quit my job at Apple because I wasn't able to apply my technical skills in my role and I was not successful in transferring to another department (full blog post: http://minimaxir.com/2017/05/leaving-apple/ | HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14270897 ) Despite the loss of a salary and frustration in getting another job (Tweetstorm about data science job hunting: https://twitter.…

I don't know if we know one another, but the same here: quit my job of many years at Apple (engineering, very good rank, loved Apple) because I also wasn't able to apply my technical skills, and transferring to another department is really hard to time such that it works.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#37

Post by FLUX-YOU »

lhorie wrote: post #13
ashwinaj wrote: post #3

How about just quitting because you don't get good work (whatever that definition might be)? I find it hard to believe that most people in so called "top tier" tech companies do compelling work. Not everyone gets to work on de jour areas, most people work on maintenance and improving old code bases (BTW, there is nothing wrong with this)

> Improving old code bases From my experience, I think there's a great need in large tech organizations for people that are able to advocate for and drive initiatives that can scale up efforts to improve old codebases.

They need it, but they sometimes don't realize it.

Personally I had trouble selling it but that's probably my fault. One had "clear text passwords of C-execs" before it got any attention and rewrites.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#38

Post by minimaxir »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #35
minimaxir wrote: post #2

About a year ago, I quit my job at Apple because I wasn't able to apply my technical skills in my role and I was not successful in transferring to another department (full blog post: http://minimaxir.com/2017/05/leaving-apple/ | HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14270897 ) Despite the loss of a salary and frustration in getting another job (Tweetstorm about data science job hunting: https://twitter.…

I don't know if we know one another, but the same here: quit my job of many years at Apple (engineering, very good rank, loved Apple) because I also wasn't able to apply my technical skills, and transferring to another department is really hard to time such that it works.

Other people in the linked HN discussion had similar experiences. It's genuinely weird.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#39

Post by kettlecorn »

throwaway289910 wrote: post #6
minimaxir wrote: post #2

About a year ago, I quit my job at Apple because I wasn't able to apply my technical skills in my role and I was not successful in transferring to another department (full blog post: http://minimaxir.com/2017/05/leaving-apple/ | HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14270897 ) Despite the loss of a salary and frustration in getting another job (Tweetstorm about data science job hunting: https://twitter.…

I'm currently about to quit Microsoft and am going through the exact same set of questions in my head. I joined the company a few months ago and am blown away by how bad the culture is - or how badly I fit into the culture, take your pick. If you don't fit the culture, it's time to leave.

A massive issue with Microsoft's college recruiting pipeline (this may not apply to you) is that college hires are placed pretty much arbitrarily without input from the hire themselves.

People interested in backend work get placed on frontend, people interested in frontend work get placed on backend. As a result, retention for Microsoft college hires is rather poor. Contrast this with Google where once you're selected you're often given a choice of a few teams and you can indicate your preference.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#40

Post by fizwhiz »

> Being told something like "you are intrinsically amazing and working here proves it" flatters in a deep existential way but also insidiously creates a dependence on that validation.

Well that hit home.

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