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My Experience at Apple

ex-apple-engineer.medium.com

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Re: My Experience at Apple

#621

Post by fortran77 »

chromatin wrote: post #538
fortran77 wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> everyone was merged into another team working on something similar with new management. Meet the new boss same as the old boss I worked for Apple before Jobs died. He'd frequently have several teams working on the exact same thing, in secret, and then pick the team that met his goals the best. Sometimes the "losers" would be merged into the "winning" team, but never treated well by the winners.

I know more than one famous scientist who does this. Multiple postdocs working on the same project. Whomever gets there first gets a Cell-Science-Nature paper. The other(s) get nothing. Probably a very common abusive management style at high levels in many industries.

It’s fine if everyone knows they’re in a competition

Re: My Experience at Apple

#622

Post by [deleted] »

mooreds wrote: post #408
andreilys wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook had an engineer commit suicide and the company tried to cover it up. Going as far as firing an engineer that spoke up about it - https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvgn9q/do-not-discuss-the-in... So yes, this does happen. Typically to visa workers who are easily exploitable due to their precarious status in the country.

> Typically to visa workers who are easily exploitable due to their precarious status in the country. This is the key point about this experience to me. The fact was that without the visa situation, the author would have had many more choices. Unfortunately, it seems like the lack of viable alternatives was taken advantage of to the hilt (and presumably the author wasn't the first or last employee so affected).

[deleted]

Re: My Experience at Apple

#623

Post by spockz »

neycoda wrote: post #570
abraxas wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is due to the exponential payoff in a success scenario. Especially in high tech where certain initiatives can have a “winner take all” effect. I find it completely unsurprising that internally the tech giants function like a cluster of startups competing against each other. Capitalism is based on the idea of transplanting the survival of the fittest paradigm into the economy and that’s exactly how I’d ex…

Internal competition on the same project shows a lack of confidence from management... it literally shows they don't know what to do, and are just throwing spaghetti at the wall, or aren't confident in their skills to get something deployed with what they choose. It's not solid leadership, it's dissonant. It also sets people against each other, creates better-than-you mental heirarchies between equal workers where no…

I disagree that (internal) competition unequivocally leads to better-than-you mindset. If done properly, in an open and sharing mindset – one might call it scientific, with expectations and criteria defined up front and with the projects objectively compared against the criteria, then it will work. I have also this work. It takes effort to come up with criteria and metrics beforehand but that is what makes it different from throwing spaghetti at the wall .

Re: My Experience at Apple

#624

Post by tdeck »

AgentOrange1234 wrote: post #542
chihuahua wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never been able to understand why Apple thinks they need to be so secretive. Most other companies do just fine without pretending that they're working on life-changing secrets that are worthless if they are leaked.

I speculate some reasons are: 1. Being able to reveal something new and surprising leads to a flurry of good press. Failing that, constant rumors about what they are working on is like free advertising. 2. Keeping something a secret until it is shipping gives competitors less time to react/plan. 3. Preventing your employees from publicly discussing what they are doing may make it harder to know whom to poach, and har…

So they're making it hard to leave, creating a distinctive in-group and air of mystery, and clamping down on information to maintain strict control of the narrative.

I can't help but notice that some of these are the same reasons why cults are often so secretive.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#625

Post by carlivar »

CyberRabbi wrote: post #593
neycoda wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs died from being a jerk, to himself, because he refused to take his doctor's advice about his diet and pancreatic cancer. A reality distortion field only works so long.

What was his diet?

Nothing but fruit.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#626

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

dcist wrote: post #573
z3t4 wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most larger companies an engineer salary, or any human labour for that matter, is very cheap. FAANG could pay 10x more if they had to, but they don't have to because no one else pays more.

I'm not so sure. If engineer's were cheap, you wouldn't have Steve Jobs colluding with other companies to suppress salaries: https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-tech-jo...

That he'd prefer to pay less doesn't mean he couldn't afford to pay more.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#627

Post by nurspouse »

kamyarg wrote: post #620
nurspouse wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an immigrant who got a GC via the H1B route, so I'll give some perspective. I work at one big company, and have heard from those at FAANG. It depends on how you define H1B abuse. Most of the H1-B abuse I'm aware of are either from small companies, or companies like Infosys, etc where they really exploit the whole system. Most of the major companies (Microsoft, FAANG, etc) do not have systematic abuse, beyond per…

> The "pipeline" is also easy in the US. Come here for a MS degree, and get hired. For many other countries, it's not that easy. Some allow you to immigrate due to your advanced degree, but with no guarantee of work, so you need to have plenty of money saved while you look for work - something many cannot afford. I have to disagree with this as an Iranian working in Germany who moved with an offer on a Blue Card. Aft…

> I have to disagree with this as an Iranian working in Germany who moved with an offer on a Blue Card.

Reading up on it, I assume you got this offer while not in the EU? That is impressive. Over here (and often in Canada as well), few companies will give you an offer without you doing an on site interview - unless you are clearly exceptional. So it becomes a Catch-22.

(Of course, things likely changed in the age of COVID).

> Regarding your other point about racism, that experience is not representative of the whole of EU. I am biased as I live in Berlin but I think you are also biased (probably) if you live in the multi cultural centers of US(SV/LA/NYC/Seattle etc.).

Well, like in the EU, it is fairly nuanced here. I've spent most of my time in the US in small towns, actually - 100K or smaller, and some time in a larger city (but not as big as Seattle, etc). I've lived in both Red and Blue states. It's extremely hard to generalize. The least diverse city I lived in was also the most welcoming (I am not white) - and in a Red state. The larger, multicultural (and liberal) city I live in only like people like ma as long as my views are in line with theirs ;-)

I may be wrong. Pre-2016, it was much easier to find very open and vocal anti-immigrant rhetoric in the EU - but perhaps it's just a very loud minority. Of course, post-2016 you see plenty of that in the US. But prior to that, people really cared mostly about illegal immigration (and amusingly, the pro-immigration folks are often only referring to illegal immigrants - they do very little for those trying to gain legal immigration).

Speaking of racism in the US, here are some comments I made a while ago with more details:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21486342

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19324589

Re: My Experience at Apple

#628

Post by Noumenon72 »

pram wrote: post #612
Noumenon72 wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't follow in a growing economy, even a very simple two-person one where person 1 picks bananas by hand and person 2 builds a faster banana picker every year. No exploitation there.

Who is buying all the bananas?

You don't even need trade in your model economy. Just one person prefers a higher banana income so they can do pranks with the banana peels, or whatever.

Re: My Experience at Apple

#630

Post by trustfundbaby »

andreilys wrote: post #361
meekrohprocess wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. I've worked at other FAANG companies which had these sorts of posts written about them, and I've witnessed plenty of situations that I would call "abusive". But what I read in this article was beyond the pale. I never felt like anybody adjacent to any of my roles might have cause to fear for their physical safety. Reviews were used as political tools and occasional sources of psychological abuse, su…

Facebook had an engineer commit suicide and the company tried to cover it up. Going as far as firing an engineer that spoke up about it - https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvgn9q/do-not-discuss-the-in... So yes, this does happen. Typically to visa workers who are easily exploitable due to their precarious status in the country.

Same thing at Uber

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/04/27/is-uber-...

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