Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
91–100 of 106 posts
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#92I had a Netflix offer this year I declined (yes, people decline Netflix now and then) The salary was eye-popping...$400k. That's just to be a senior developer. There were RSUs on top of this so total comp was probably $500k. That's crazy! I knew if I joined I would be terminated but that didn't bother me...the salary was crazy and apparently the goodbye package is also generous. I suppose it's sort of nuts to know yo…
There are no RSUs at Netflix, just for everyone 5% each year of annual salary in free stock options at 40% of current value, vesting every month. You can also use up to 100% of your salary for buying stock options at 40% of current value. The policy made rich many people who invested heavily in the stock options program years back. The severance package is 4 months of salary. I doubt you got an offer from there, beca…
Dude I don't even know how the stocks work at my current employer. Can't force you to believe I got an offer there and I'm not forwarding you my offer letter...so choose to believe me or not.
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are no RSUs at Netflix, just for everyone 5% each year of annual salary in free stock options at 40% of current value, vesting every month. You can also use up to 100% of your salary for buying stock options at 40% of current value. The policy made rich many people who invested heavily in the stock options program years back. The severance package is 4 months of salary. I doubt you got an offer from there, beca…
Dude I don't even know how the stocks work at my current employer. Can't force you to believe I got an offer there and I'm not forwarding you my offer letter...so choose to believe me or not.
Putting aside the very rude "dude", it is not a matter of how RSUs work or do not work, more simply they never talk about RSUs because they do not give RSUs.
As I said, you never got an offer or you did not pay any attention. It is fine either way, of course. No need for any letter.
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is wrong and it is very unlikely that you read it in an article, since it is not a secret. There are no stocks, it is all cash for everybody, at least below the C-suite. You can use up to 100% of your salary to buy stock options at 40% of current value. The options are delivered each month and vest immediately. There is a huge difference between shares and stock options.
if someone invests 100% of their salary in NFLX, do they get a better performance review?
There are no performance reviews at Netflix.
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#95Netflix is following FB tracks it seems, 1st degrade the user experience, then poor company ethics surface. Soon we'll need food like "humane" labels in tech.. [edit : user not customer]
What did the user experience used to be like, if the current version is 'degraded'? We only just got Netflix but it seems pretty slick and well-thought-out.
Those who have been subscribed for a long time know that the content selection is abysmal compared to what it was in the past. A long time ago, I remember feeling surprised when they didn't have something specific I wanted to see; now I am surprised when they DO have something specific I want to see.
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah I see, there's certainly a clear difference between our evaluation. If I see a whole team of freeloaders I blame the management team above them. At least in engineering teams it's super easy to have motivated teams because the people choose this career out of desire for working as engineers. Loads of freeloaders means there is no fruitful ground for motivated people to grow on. So they leave or turn into slackers,…
>At least in engineering teams it's super easy to have motivated teams because the people choose this career out of desire for working as engineers. Where do you work and how do I get a job there? I've only worked in big corporations - and I rarely see this attitude. Many people became engineers because it was seen as a way to make a decent living. The number among them who actually enjoy technical stuff (say, well e…
> Where do you work and how do I get a job there?
Western Europe country. I wouldn't suggest my company though. Where I currently work is Slack-off Fest 9000, but it's also a big corp.
Maybe you should check out meetups, hack fests, hackathons, coworking spaces, hacker spaces, maker spaces around you. There you can meet the real engineers. They earn maybe even just 50-75% of your colleagues. But they always give 120%.
And these also exist in big corps, but true, it's rarer there. The highest motivated engineers I see in big corps are people who don't care about engineering that much, but are certainly working their ass off to ship whatever stupid idea their manager had latest. The thing will not work in a customer environment, but it's good for a demo, and more does their manager not need.
I also led teams of engineers in the start-up world. Usually all you need to do is keep the political bullshit away from them, show them the sufferings of the customer, and provide them with enough money that they don't starve to death (and can afford 1-2 raspberry pis, and/or a nerf gun).
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#97I wonder if this model would work better with a little bit of gamification.
Let me explain: You get fired for not performing. And the gamification part is you can get hired again in that same company, even same position, let's say, three or six months after you were fired.
You get your old salary, benefits everything. And the mental relief that being laid of is not permanent.
Then you work different this time, with the experience of having done this job before and the experience of being without a job too.
It would benefit Netflix a lot more than firing people in a permanent basis, IMO. And with these ultra high salaries, people would go back there.
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#98I really liked working at Netflix, but yeah... puhrty intense culture.
Also seems like the Hollywood office is becoming more "Hollywood", which might prove problematic for avoiding all of the dumb mistakes Hollywood people make.
With so much attention going to the content side of the biz, I also wonder if top engineers would feel more celebrated at Google, Facebook, or start-ups where their contributions are seen as the primary innovation driver of the business.
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#99"""One employee expressed the feeling that they live in fear of being fired every day at an executive meeting. A vice president named Karen Barragan was said to have responded: “Good, because fear drives you.” """ isn't this normal (for contractors?) i mean it is terrible (armies whose job is to kill people put a pot of effort into avoiding just such feelings) I do wonder why businesses so easily follow this route.
> fear drives you maybe it's interesting here that, in the last couple of days on HN, we've seen several stories to the effect that long-term chronic stress is literally damaging people's brains. given that, i wonder how a Netflix competitor might exploit the defects in this hiring/firing strategy.
Exactly my thoughts. In fact, from what I've seen companies where people lead "from the front", ie. by example, have much higher productivity and better retention of top performers than companies where the management goes around threatening people if they don't perform.
Re: Working at Netflix Sounds Like Hell
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are they firing "free-loaders" or people who are just worse at playing politics/self-promoting? We have extremely quiet people at work, few know what they do, but they're actually extremely productive, rarely make waves (good or bad), and help keep longer term goals. The "Rockstar" types join, get all excitable, make a handful of rapid (often good) changes, burn out, and leave. Likely to start again at their next wor…
I'm extremely quiet at work and don't really have any work friends at least in my department (helps stifle drama), yet am consistent with my productivity, have clear ticket queues every day or they're in a status where I'm waiting for a response from another engineer. I've had my manager tell me in 1:1's that people report me for doing nothing all day except listening to music. I've been here 3 years. I'm content wit…
How can this be? Do you have regular stand-up meetings?