Forget Wall Street. M.B.A.s Want to Work for Amazon • Hacker News Board

Re: Forget Wall Street. M.B.A.s Want to Work for Amazon

#81

Post by jrs95 » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 7:35 PM UTC

notyourwork wrote: post #34

sp527 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon has developed a public reputation for being an intense environment where employees are generally overworked [0]. Unsurprisingly, (based on conversations with engineers I know there) it varies depending on your team and even geographic location. But, based on the anecdotal data and the reporting that’s been done, it sounds like you can end up really miserable if you get screwed. [0] https://mobile.nytimes.com/2…

You can end up really miserable at any company that has a toxic team. This isn't unique to Amazon. I tend to think companies are on a spectrum where you have a few bad apples, a few exceptionally great teams and a most fall into the average like everywhere else in the world.

It doesn't even take an entire toxic team! One bad person, usually a manager, can fuck the whole thing up.

Re: Forget Wall Street. M.B.A.s Want to Work for Amazon

#82

Post by gaius » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 8:25 PM UTC

jrs95 wrote: post #38

gaius wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spolsky was a PM at MS, I don't think Jobs ever was.

I didn't mean it that literally. Just in general, I can imagine a bunch of people buying into some sort of faux-enlightenment aesthetic and parading around as product gurus.

I've been in the industry 20+ years and I still have no idea what a product manager actually does. As far as I can tell everyone completely ignores them. Maybe their job is just to be a warm body filling a chair in pointless meetings, so programmers can do real work? Seems perfect for an MBA when the weather's too bad to play golf.

Re: Forget Wall Street. M.B.A.s Want to Work for Amazon

#83

Post by kamaal » Thu, Oct 05, 2017, 8:26 AM UTC

uptownfunk wrote: post #28

School-Cotton wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because out of all the PMs I've worked with, over 90% were awful. I'm sure you are an exception but the general rule holds

Interesting to hear, what makes them awful? FYI There are some of us who welcome feedback, so would like to hear your thoughts to be mindful.

Its a misnomer to think that anything can be managed at a abstract level. Managing things requires understanding and working on them at a very intricate level. MBA thing is based on the exact opposite.

If you don't do this- Us Vs Them kinda environment emerges rather too quickly.

Re: Forget Wall Street. M.B.A.s Want to Work for Amazon

#84

Post by sage76 » Wed, Oct 18, 2017, 3:31 PM UTC

anindha wrote: post #74

sage76 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> by the way, outside the valley, most companies consider it a plus Maybe that's why they will never come up with the next Apple/Google/SpaceX/etc. Every single MBA I have met, without exception, has been extremely good at talking and making presentations. Ask them to do real work, and they will find a million excuses. Another thing I have noticed, is the kind of people attracted to doing an MBA. They have seen all o…

SpaceX? Elon Musk studied Business and Physics at Wharton/Penn and recommends that any founder should have some MBA style business training.

Late reply, but business training and MBA are 2 separate things.

Elon has categorically stated that MBAs are a bad idea : http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201311/profiles.cfm