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Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google

tinystruggles.com

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Re: Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google

#51

I recently left a job at a very different large company with a similar timeframe (a little under ten years). Pretty much everything this author states is related to my experience. There is nothing all that special about Google. Maybe there was twenty years ago, but that ship has long since sailed. It’s just another large US tech company. Like Microsoft and IBM before it.

> It’s just another large US tech company. Like Microsoft and IBM before it. This is just a hyperbolic statement that should not be taken seriously at all. Look, Google isn't some fantasy land that some people might have lauded it as once upon a time, and it isn't unique in terms of pay or talent, but it is certainly at the top echelon. I did an interview loop for high level IC at both Azure and GCP simultaneously an…

Microsoft and IBM used to have a similar extremely talented teams. IBM ran research centers full of the world's top Ph.D. The innovation that happened at those places easily rivals Google's.

It's a similar trajectory is what people are saying. When Google was small and everyone wanted to work there they could take their pick of the top talent. When you run a huge company you inevitably end up with something around the average. I.e. all those huge companies that pay similar wages and do similar work basically end up having similar talent +/- and within that there are likely some great people and some less than great people.

Re: Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google

#53

L3 to L4 in 9months is crazy fast, kudos

That doesn't sound too unusual. I'm more impressed that they made L6 in 9 years. I've known Googlers 10+ years forever stuck in L5. The easiest way to promo at these companies is to leave and come back at a higher level.

Re: Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google

#56
post #29

I've done the path from SWE to SRE and back to SWE. I was always happy to do production support and diagnose and fix production problems, so I naturally moved to SRE which is always looking for people. It was a real mistake, SRE is hugely stressful and really unrewarding compared to SWE. Yes you learn some skills and get some occasional glory, but year after year of fighting fires really didn't build any long lasting…

I started in basic IT, worked into SRE, and once I had established an understanding of it, immediately did whatever I could to transition into full time SWE. I went in hoping it would be cool coding to automate infrastructure, but it felt mostly like being tier 4 support.

I miss working in software that also utilizes my skills in infrastructure, but I do not miss the constant escalations, terrible on-call schedules, and only about 20% of my time being spent on the rewarding parts of the job.

Re: Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's fair. I'd like to think I have some fairly strong ethical requirements for work, but I can see those evaporate in the face of 8 figures.

Huh. That's concerning.

If you look back in time it seems pretty accurate for the vast majority of humans.

Re: Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google

#58
post #34

The traditional view is that young engineers should join startups in hope of a massive payoff if one goes big, but working for 10 years at BigCo with good salary and stock plans can set you up for life without any risk. One path to avoid is the one I took which was to work at a big tech co as a contractor. Good rates but nothing to show for it after 10 years other than the experience and whatever I had put in my 401K…

Another path to avoid is working "W2" for a BigCo via a contractor. You don't get any of the security or compensation, and you may not even get the benefit of the name for your resume.

Re: Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google

#59

Light on details and mostly seems to revolve around money.

When I worked at Google I immediately sold my stock and diversified. In hindsight that "cost" me at least $2MM. At a subsequent employer I held the stock, determined not to make the same mistake again. That "cost" me nearly $100k before I realized that the new employer's stock was not going to do what GOOG did. Anyway, congratulations to those Googlers who "picked" GOOG by not selling their GSUs and who made out like…

yeah, survivorship bias is a thing

Re: Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google

#60
post #4
post #3

You forgot the action items to be moved into the next sprint.

that’s just standard at all Fortune 500s. I called it “cooking the charts” so clueless executives don’t idiotically/blindly cut budgets scrum master: “points per sprint is going down guys!1!1 (after moving stories to next sprint). Velocity is gucci”

Story points are the pieces of flair of the SWE world. Trivial to have more of, but the only objective measure execs can freak out about
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