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What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

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Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#51

Post by ghaff »

bradleyjg wrote: post #42
ghaff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, timezones (and different days) are an issue for regular meetings. At my last job, US east coast to Europe worked pretty well. We'd be reasonable morning time on the east coast and Europe would be reasonable mid to late afternoon time. But the (for me occasional) call to Singapore was always a pain for someone.

I found being in the US east coast in teams spread across Europe and the US to have the advantage of being able to touch base with anyone fairly easily but the disadvantage of never getting that natural quiet period. I don’t see how us east cost apac is really feasible on any kind of regular basis.

We had occasional interlock meetings, briefings, and webinars but it pretty much meant that from the east coast you were doing them at 10 or 11pm. I'm sure senior execs did more frequently. We didn't really have people on the west coast, especially latterly when I was there.

Up to 5 or 6 hours is a reasonable range for routine interactions.

Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#52

Post by typewithrhythm »

hetman wrote: post #48
thayne wrote: post #22

> Australians typically play down their achievements, while Americans like to talk themselves up. Americans naturally read to Australians as boastful, while Australians naturally read to Americans as meek American culture is not a monolith. This can vary greatly in different regions or different subcultures.

Suppose you very crudely modelled the spectrum of American attitudes on this topic using some kind of bell curve. I don't think many people across the pond realise just how far apart the American and Australian bell curve means would be. These kind of "the truth is unknowable" truisms may sound wise but don't really teach us very much about reality. On average, Australian culture views anyone, who even passively demo…

I think we (Australians) have a real lack of effort=success stories to draw from; if someone has wealth it was probably inherited.

In the US if you have wealth it's plausible that you had a great idea that got acquired, or a great skill.

Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#53

Post by ecshafer »

denkmoon wrote: post #2

I'm an Australian working for a US big tech company, the culture thing is interesting to me. What I see from corp and the US side very much matches the "Americans tend to be enthusiastic about their company mission - in the extreme, believing that they’re saving the world" statement, but I always wonder how genuine it is? When your access to healthcare is directly tied to your enthusiasm for the company mission, it s…

I joke with my friends that one day I am going to get a job with Lockheed, Raytheon, etc. and be uncomfortably enthusiastic about the mission. Some sort of workplace live art project.

However, I have luckily only worked at companies in my career that I could really get behind the mission and have in my view a reasonably positive work output. Letting people save money for retirement, or start a business is pretty good. I don't know how my view would change if I worked for something more morally gray.

Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#54

Post by aragilar »

bradleyjg wrote: post #42
ghaff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, timezones (and different days) are an issue for regular meetings. At my last job, US east coast to Europe worked pretty well. We'd be reasonable morning time on the east coast and Europe would be reasonable mid to late afternoon time. But the (for me occasional) call to Singapore was always a pain for someone.

I found being in the US east coast in teams spread across Europe and the US to have the advantage of being able to touch base with anyone fairly easily but the disadvantage of never getting that natural quiet period. I don’t see how us east cost apac is really feasible on any kind of regular basis.

I think daily/weekly you'd shift work hours (that what I do when I have a meeting like that). Global meetings are always a pain, though I'd say the worst meetings are when US-based folks plan a meeting based on their local timezone, as opposed to UTC, because it always ends up at 3am in Australia (so I bow out of those).

Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#56

Post by CoastalCoder »

bradleyjg wrote: post #42
ghaff wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, timezones (and different days) are an issue for regular meetings. At my last job, US east coast to Europe worked pretty well. We'd be reasonable morning time on the east coast and Europe would be reasonable mid to late afternoon time. But the (for me occasional) call to Singapore was always a pain for someone.

I found being in the US east coast in teams spread across Europe and the US to have the advantage of being able to touch base with anyone fairly easily but the disadvantage of never getting that natural quiet period. I don’t see how us east cost apac is really feasible on any kind of regular basis.

I did US East Coast / Shanghai for one project. We got really good at asynchronous messaging, and that went a long way.

Still didn't fix the 1-workday latency for discussions, though.

Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#57

Post by RustyRussell »

Worked for American companies for 25 years. Generally Americans come across as more confident, and yet conform to hierarchy in a way I've never seen en-masse in Australian culture. It always seemed to be that only the most weirdo Americans are blind to relative status, whereas for many Australians it's the norm?

Employment-at-will takes some cultural adjustment, too. But for tech folks tends to be a net win. You just need to set your expectations accordingly!

Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#58

Post by WatchDog »

kasey_junk wrote: post #17

I had a, kind of, opposite experience. I worked for an Australian company as an American in the US. My experience with the culture was the opposite. The Oz folks tended to be boastful with a chip on their shoulder. This was annoying as an employee but caused real problems when dealing with regulators and other companies. A big successful aus company just can’t throw its weight around in the US like at home. That said…

What sector was the company in? I’m an Australian that has worked a lot with US companies.

The most boastful Australian companies I have worked with have also been the least effective.

Consultancies tend to be very boastful, but they have to be constantly selling themselves.

The other boastful culture I worked in was a big bank.

They had some of the worst over-complicated software, and a horrible culture, it seemed like the only way to rise in the company was salesmanship.

Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#59

Post by crooked-v »

denkmoon wrote: post #2

I'm an Australian working for a US big tech company, the culture thing is interesting to me. What I see from corp and the US side very much matches the "Americans tend to be enthusiastic about their company mission - in the extreme, believing that they’re saving the world" statement, but I always wonder how genuine it is? When your access to healthcare is directly tied to your enthusiasm for the company mission, it s…

In my experience (outside of bigtech but in the B-tier of VC-funded startups), "change the world" hyperbole is rare, but most founders and founding devs are pretty confident they can improve some specific topic for some specific niche of people. And it's sometimes even true for the ones that provide real services.

Re: What it's like working for American companies as an Australian

#60

Post by esperent »

RustyRussell wrote: post #57

Worked for American companies for 25 years. Generally Americans come across as more confident, and yet conform to hierarchy in a way I've never seen en-masse in Australian culture. It always seemed to be that only the most weirdo Americans are blind to relative status, whereas for many Australians it's the norm? Employment-at-will takes some cultural adjustment, too. But for tech folks tends to be a net win. You just…

> It always seemed to be that only the most weirdo Americans are blind to relative status, whereas for many Australians it's the norm?

As an Irish person, I have the impression that Australia is very similar to Ireland in this regard. I came across a survey years ago that asked a question along the lines of "in the workplace, is the manager/boss higher status or equal to the staff they manage?" (paraphrasing because it was years ago). Ireland scored amongst the highest that said the boss and other staff are equals. I imagine Australia would too, while the US would score lower on that scale (as did some other EU countries).

I now live in Vietnam, and somehow I've ended up being the boss, with a team of around 20 Vietnamese people. While they are diligent and skilled workers, the level of deference they show to me makes me deeply uncomfortable and I have to keep reminding them to talk to me like a human being - call me by my name instead of "sir", for example. But it's a losing battle.

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