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Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

thinkgrowth.org

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Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#81

Post by loeg »

shostack wrote: post #56
objclxt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but after the initial grant has vested entirely your opportunities for growth are limited. Here's an example - say I'm hired with 1000 units of stock over four years. Each year I receive a refresher grant of 250 units of stock, again vesting over four years. Once I reach Year 4, my stock compensation stabilizes, assuming my refreshers remain the same (I'm am obviously grossly simplifying - you could be promoted…

Are you able to put any actual dollar or % amounts against this?

It's meaningless alone. It'll need to be higher at roles with a lower base salary or can be lower at roles with a high base salary. Total annual compensation is what you should pay attention to.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#82

Post by Leanna55 »

danek wrote: post #48
andrewstuart wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, companies can use "level of enthusiasm for working here" as an excuse for their poor recruiting practices. "OH, the candidate dropped out of our recruiting process? But he was only at interview four after 6 weeks.... well it doesn't matter because clearly he didn't want to work here enough - we want people who really want to work here and are willing to do what it takes to get a job with us." Even worse: "But h…

Yes this too. Someone I know was interviewing at google (his first choice, he did a few rounds), and then later at some other places. Google took three months to get back to him and gave him a really good offer, but by that time he had already accepted somewhere else.

I just got paid $6784 working off my laptop this month. And if you think that's cool, my divorced friend has twin toddlers and made over $9k her first month. It feels so good making so much money when other people have to work for so much less. This is what I do,http://www.joinmate2.Com

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#84

Post by sumedh »

AVTizzle wrote: post #34

>> "I was visiting with an ex-student who’s now the CFO of a large public tech company." >> "(By coincidence, the CEO was an intern at one of my startups more than two decades ago.)" Admittedly, this isn't adding to the discussion at hand. Just one amateur writer picking apart another's writing style, but... Is it just me, or do those lines serve no purpose except to boost the author's own ego and sense of self-impor…

I was skimming through the article when I read that line then I assumed the author might be someone important so started reading the rest of the article with more focus.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#85

Post by sokoloff »

mnm1 wrote: post #46

This attitude of "you really have to want to work here or you ought to leave" justifies a lot of insanity. I've heard it from companies who make potential employees jump through ridiculous hoops to even get a chance at a job. Here's reality for people who suffer from this delusion: most people don't give a fuck and are just looking for a job. They're applying to dozens or hundreds of jobs (yes, even in software), and…

People are applying to dozens or hundreds of jobs at once? How is that possible? I'm generally only considering 1 new employer at a time, and the most I've ever done concurrently was applying to two companies in CA at the same time.

How could there even be dozens of companies that you'd want to work for at any given time?

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#86

Post by MrMorden »

hkmurakami wrote: post #79
geofft wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I care about the mission. In fact, I care about the mission so much that I know that it'll do the company a disservice to train me and lose me a year later to another company with a similar mission offering me more money. Therefore, it's in the company's interest to pay me a competitive salary!

The best startup CEOs I know overpay their key people BC they know that losing their best people hurts so much more than the same people helping whatever company they might join next

So it sounds like they're paying over market, but not overpaying—they recognize the cost of these people leaving and provide a salary that takes said cost into account.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#87

Post by choward »

geofft wrote: post #71
hkmurakami wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fascinating how in the recruitment process, hiring managers who expect potential hires to act logically and methodically all but demand the recruit to suspend his or her logic and mental methods when considering their personal financial interests. The dichotomy would be humorous if it weren't so sad.

I care about the mission. In fact, I care about the mission so much that I know that it'll do the company a disservice to train me and lose me a year later to another company with a similar mission offering me more money. Therefore, it's in the company's interest to pay me a competitive salary!

Dwight Schrute said it best: “Would I ever leave this company? Look, I’m all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I’m being paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly… I’m going wherever they value loyalty the most.”

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#88

Post by khyryk »

sokoloff wrote: post #85
mnm1 wrote: post #46

This attitude of "you really have to want to work here or you ought to leave" justifies a lot of insanity. I've heard it from companies who make potential employees jump through ridiculous hoops to even get a chance at a job. Here's reality for people who suffer from this delusion: most people don't give a fuck and are just looking for a job. They're applying to dozens or hundreds of jobs (yes, even in software), and…

People are applying to dozens or hundreds of jobs at once? How is that possible? I'm generally only considering 1 new employer at a time, and the most I've ever done concurrently was applying to two companies in CA at the same time. How could there even be dozens of companies that you'd want to work for at any given time?

Plenty of people don't have companies in mind, just jobs in mind.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#89

Post by logicfiction »

objclxt wrote: post #28
cbanek wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's refreshes and then there's the speed of the vesting schedule. Some places offer a bunch to start, but very little after that, which means people tend to leave once they have vested all their options/RSUs. After the first year, sometimes your vesting schedule will be monthly, quarterly, twice a year, or once a year. As to why they don't allow everyone to be monthly - it's probably because they get to claw back…

> As to why they don't allow everyone to be monthly - it's probably because they get to claw back a fair amount of the equity if people leave. I may be being a little cynical, but if you vest annually or bi-annually you can get a pretty good idea of when your employees are going to leave and use that to plan your crunch periods accordingly. People are rather unlikely to quit the month before the annual vesting date.

To double down on the cynicism, you also need to be sure your employees value your options for this to be relevant.

Re: Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies

#90

Post by petre »

tootie wrote: post #68
Eridrus wrote: post #15

Despite the overall theme of this interaction, opening an office in the East Bay seems more employee friendly than keeping them in Palo Alto.

If the company is still succeeding, then it doesn't seem to be an unreasonable move. The company doesn't operate for the benefit of employees commutes. If they can still attract and retain talent and have a more practical work space, then great.

Any company/CEO who wastes 45 x 2 minutes of my life on a commute is bound to get a quit notice.
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