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Googler... ex-Googler

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Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#511

Post by shadowgovt »

spicyusername wrote: post #468

I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yep. One of the most unfortunate realities of modernity. Your managers, or your managers managers, or their managers don't care about you. At all. If you ask them on the weekend, they'll decry that the things they are asked to do are horrible. but they'll still do it. Some gladly. They are themselves cogs in the machine. A machine that goes all the way to the executive c…

So the key thing here is that this didn't used to be how things were at Google.

People outside the ecosystem disbelieve, but I had the mixed privilege of watching the company evolve from a spicy startup to a megacorp. There isn't one point in time you can put your finger on when it shifted, but the shift happened. And for Googlers who'd been there forever, they were legitimately startled to learn that all their years of work hadn't made them insiders as the lines were drawn and management consolidated into something more approximating a traditional corporation.

If there's a lesson here, I think it's that there is a difference between a company like old Google and a company like new Google, but if you only want to work at old Google, you have to pay very close attention to the signs that things are changing around you. Capitalism, to be certain, incentivizes drift in that direction, from small outfit where everyone knows everyone to 100-thousand-person megafirm with concerns about its tax obligations to Ireland.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#513

Post by Tainnor »

Kaethar wrote: post #443
Tainnor wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME, this was true four years ago. Few rounds, assessments were mostly take homes or in-person "implement a feature" style, interview questions didn't seem to be built to trip you up. Now, every job I apply for has 4-5 rounds, leetcode is more common, they do behavioural and system design rounds that you have to prepare for, etc. One job I applied to even asked me two behavioural questions via email before I even tal…

Wait till you get a self recorded behavioral interview. I truly wonder if there is that much value to be extracted out of 10 minutes of people awkwardly responding to questions while trying their best to fill in the silence.

I think I'm not yet desperate to the point that I would agree to that.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#514

Post by shadowgovt »

vonneumannstan wrote: post #502
spicyusername wrote: post #468

I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. Yep. One of the most unfortunate realities of modernity. Your managers, or your managers managers, or their managers don't care about you. At all. If you ask them on the weekend, they'll decry that the things they are asked to do are horrible. but they'll still do it. Some gladly. They are themselves cogs in the machine. A machine that goes all the way to the executive c…

>I really was just a fuckin cog in a mega corp. >Yep. One of the most unfortunate realities of modernity. The crazy thing to me is the lack of awareness of these people. Has hiring at Google fallen off that badly? Was there always such a gap between 'smart enough to work at google' and 'smart enough to realize their corpo-we're one big family-speak is total BS' ?

For many Googlers, this is their one-and-only company so they actually have no frame of reference, including no frame of reference to notice the company culture was shifting over the past decade-ish.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#515

Post by varelse »

steveBK123 wrote: post #382
mycatisblack wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in a (now defunct) US co in West-EU I can say it’s a subtle blend of the two. The layoff was announced, shortly after a few people received a call by HR, were escorted to their desk by security and had to turn in all company belongings on the spot. They were not allowed to touch a computer or telephone and were then escorted out of the premises. Afterwards, we learned that they had received a severance…

Well US companies now take the cowards way out generally - tell everyone to WFH that day (despite prior RTO mandates) and then just disable peoples access so the first way the laid off find out is when they can't login for the day.

[dead]

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#516

Post by vzaliva »

I guess the lesson is: don’t get emotionally attached to your job. Despite all the “we’re like a family” talk, at the end of the day, you’re just an employee. Never forget that.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#517

Post by concordDance »

WhrRTheBaboons wrote: post #272
wiseowise wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Weird, as someone from Europe I've never experience anything else. As someone from Europe, I’ve never experienced US salaries. Go figure.

what about US costs of living?

You can use numbeo to compare. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

Basically, almost all places, particularly in the UK, have worse salary to cost of living ratios.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#518

Post by kaon_ »

sudomateo wrote: post #116

> But I was also immediately ripped away from my calendar, docs, code, and more. Layoffs are never easy. I've been through a few myself and it really takes the wind out of your sails. That being said, this sentence made me pause a bit. None of these things mentioned are actually yours. They are the property of Google. One thing that helped me immensely in my career is understanding that my relationship with a company…

"One thing that helped me immensely in my career is understanding that my relationship with a company is a business relationship"

That is just a culture thing. Most prominently in the US. In many cultures there is no clear boundary between personal relationships and business relationships. And why would there be? I would like to live in a world where kindness, dependability, punctuality, warmness, openness and forgiveness are values upheld both by natural and legal persons. And I have worked with many companies that have! As you can read in the comments, for every bad example you can find companies lead by empathic people that treat their employees humanely.

Google always pretended to be that company. And maybe they were for a long time. Now they've shifted. They really didn't have to but they did. The excuse of "it's just a business relationship" really is just that: an excuse. The symptom of a culture with values so bankrupt that it accepts citizens being treated poorly and then blames the victims for expecting to be treated humanely.

And yes, it saves you a lot of personal pain if you expect the worst from your employer from the outset. But is the world really better off if we all expect to treat each other like criminals?

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#519

Post by nehal3m »

antisthenes wrote: post #485
nehal3m wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to disrespect you, but I don't think your opinion on the value of their work is relevant, the author's is.

Sure, and water is wet. Yet the blog was posted in the public domain, so saying what is and isn't relevant is...irrelevant. It's in a public forum, up for discussion. End of story.

Of course you're free to discuss. You're belittling the author's expression of grief because their job was 'routine maintenance' of 'some CSS spec (...) which tens of thousands of other people have been doing for probably 2 decades now' and I'm saying they're entitled to their grief regardless of how you feel about the job's content.

Yes, they're a cog, as almost all of us are, and it would have been better for their own sake to realise that, but losing something you enjoy still sucks.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#520

Post by yodsanklai »

mycatisblack wrote: post #338
yodsanklai wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want to work for another US company again if I can help it You can work for a US company in the UE. They have to follow the local rules like anybody else.

Having worked in a (now defunct) US co in West-EU I can say it’s a subtle blend of the two. The layoff was announced, shortly after a few people received a call by HR, were escorted to their desk by security and had to turn in all company belongings on the spot. They were not allowed to touch a computer or telephone and were then escorted out of the premises. Afterwards, we learned that they had received a severance…

I work for a US company but in western Europe. The layoffs have been much more humane here than in the US. There was a negociation process which lasted several months, and the severance was better and on a voluntary basis. I don't think a company making profit can easily get rid of employees over here, but probably depends on the country. Regarding performance-based layoffs, they did manage to fire people too, but again it was technically a common agreement.

That being said, if they want to get rid of employees, they always find a way. And the European market isn't as dynamic as the US one, so there are pros and cons. Personally, all things considered (risks of layoffs, PTO, cost of living) I'm happier in Europe but it really depends on individual situation.

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