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On the even of 5 years of employment at one of the Silicon Valley giant, it has been great 5 years but left me a lot of doubt, uncertainties and questions to myself over contemplation of regarding what Silicon Valley real means, what is it its core and is it really what it looks like on the surface, depicted, molded and presented through news channel, media outlet? Is it really disruptive, vibrant, startup culture or software giants with world-class software as repeated from time to time, endlessly.
It certainly does when one looks at certain way, but from newer implants like me, I also see issues, specially if my current employer can be a good example.
I got a great pay, afforded certainly comfortable lifestyle here and really enjoyed, but some aspect of the working culture seems weird, sometimes just not right.
At first, I had a lot of learning opportunities, opportunity to meet lot of people, very technical and healthy atmosphere, most likely because department I have worked has just been forming, being born and has not had its own established culture and parallelled with amazing growth.
Over the years however, gradually, I felt like management has gone greedy, millions of revenue our department has been channelled to others with not much for the regular employee awards (typical at enterprise). But worst of it was trend started to form that they are definitely having employees to do a more and lot more jobs with much and lesser resources. So these days, no matter what the will, just because of sheet amount of work, there is not really a quality in it no matter how hard the trying is. Definitely the management has been emphasizer of statistics, numbers rather than emphasize on quality, robustness and responsibility. I am not sure if this is a typical on other companies in Silicon Valley.
Complaining up is mostly futile, they will listen but will never act on it. Meantime, it has really become an environment like a sweatshop or treadmill. Our partners upgrades their product that we integrate into at a much higher and ever faster pace with lot of bells and whistles and we are trying to catch up, management pushing us on timely delivery so that revenue can be captured. But dont get me wrong, lot of product we ship and lot of partners product integrate is loaded with crapware, bugs, defects that they never take care of. It does not take professional to see, from the X version to X.1 version the chronics defects will carry on and on. The old working features are torn apart and replaced with something "newer" that messes up the things even more. Things are all and so much common in software industry.
At feels like there are so many incompetent and unscrupulous engineer who does not care is infiltrated every corner of the company, be it my place, or partners, it is just clear that I have been talking to more people who does not give a crap than who does over the past years. I can run into monthly or weekly an distinguished engineer who holds Ph.D or MS. degree but fails to understand and process basic English sentence, because of it, ball dropping are so commonplace. But then I can shift the responsibility to again the management in how they are managing people, I am certain that some of the "dont care" folks has just give up on doing great simply because it makes no difference and others who are simply "born" with don't care attitude. When we hire a fresh, new graduate with amazing degrees and then I watch them slow down and eventually they are unable to do a simple tasks and does not think ciritically as they should do and certainly used to do in college, and join the armies of ball droppers, I sometimes wonder what has gone wrong with them. Is it like once they reach a good salary, it is time for complacency?
Over the years, I have talked to management in a various different ways to improve the process, efficient, accountability but given the circumstances i think it is mostly fallen on deaf ears. So after years of unparalleled growth and many good people leaving our company, our department which has been used to enjoying to be a fastest growing segment in our whole company has experienced the first quarter of sales DECLINE leaving many heads scratched.
I am contemplating: I have been trying for years to make some difference, but whatever I do is just not. Perhaps I should jump the boat. May be I need new experience, new culture and something new to learn. But the question inevitably arise is, is what I describe here is a common corporate culture and the way of doing business here? What if I just go to some other places hoping to get better job done will just ended up in same place.
So my grand question is:
What are really good companies in SJ that has bit of a stricter software development practice that has some accountability?
What are good companies where management will not rush to market their product and take time to bring it to great standard and push reall hard their employees?
What are good companies management really listen and respond well to employees?
What I work here is a multi-billion dollar company, I got a feeling that bigger companies are mostly like it, may be I can try my luck with more bit more nimble, bit smaller and startup company that has great potential and sustaining desire to uphold the standard consistently. The trouble is that whether particular company is bad or good, they will always tout themselves as best, our company, culture product blah blah is out-of-this world, so to really find a great place to work, it has to be found through word of mouth, legwork and scouting.
On the even of 5 years of employment at one of the Silicon Valley giant, it has been great 5 years but left me a lot of doubt, uncertainties and questions to myself over contemplation of regarding what Silicon Valley real means, what is it its core and is it really what it looks like on the surface, depicted, molded and presented through news channel, media outlet? Is it really disruptive, vibrant, startup culture or software giants with world-class software as repeated from time to time, endlessly.
It certainly does when one looks at certain way, but from newer implants like me, I also see issues, specially if my current employer can be a good example.
I got a great pay, afforded certainly comfortable lifestyle here and really enjoyed, but some aspect of the working culture seems weird, sometimes just not right.
At first, I had a lot of learning opportunities, opportunity to meet lot of people, very technical and healthy atmosphere, most likely because department I have worked has just been forming, being born and has not had its own established culture and parallelled with amazing growth.
Over the years however, gradually, I felt like management has gone greedy, millions of revenue our department has been channelled to others with not much for the regular employee awards (typical at enterprise). But worst of it was trend started to form that they are definitely having employees to do a more and lot more jobs with much and lesser resources. So these days, no matter what the will, just because of sheet amount of work, there is not really a quality in it no matter how hard the trying is. Definitely the management has been emphasizer of statistics, numbers rather than emphasize on quality, robustness and responsibility. I am not sure if this is a typical on other companies in Silicon Valley.
Complaining up is mostly futile, they will listen but will never act on it. Meantime, it has really become an environment like a sweatshop or treadmill. Our partners upgrades their product that we integrate into at a much higher and ever faster pace with lot of bells and whistles and we are trying to catch up, management pushing us on timely delivery so that revenue can be captured. But dont get me wrong, lot of product we ship and lot of partners product integrate is loaded with crapware, bugs, defects that they never take care of. It does not take professional to see, from the X version to X.1 version the chronics defects will carry on and on. The old working features are torn apart and replaced with something "newer" that messes up the things even more. Things are all and so much common in software industry.
At feels like there are so many incompetent and unscrupulous engineer who does not care is infiltrated every corner of the company, be it my place, or partners, it is just clear that I have been talking to more people who does not give a crap than who does over the past years. I can run into monthly or weekly an distinguished engineer who holds Ph.D or MS. degree but fails to understand and process basic English sentence, because of it, ball dropping are so commonplace. But then I can shift the responsibility to again the management in how they are managing people, I am certain that some of the "dont care" folks has just give up on doing great simply because it makes no difference and others who are simply "born" with don't care attitude. When we hire a fresh, new graduate with amazing degrees and then I watch them slow down and eventually they are unable to do a simple tasks and does not think ciritically as they should do and certainly used to do in college, and join the armies of ball droppers, I sometimes wonder what has gone wrong with them. Is it like once they reach a good salary, it is time for complacency?
Over the years, I have talked to management in a various different ways to improve the process, efficient, accountability but given the circumstances i think it is mostly fallen on deaf ears. So after years of unparalleled growth and many good people leaving our company, our department which has been used to enjoying to be a fastest growing segment in our whole company has experienced the first quarter of sales DECLINE leaving many heads scratched.
I am contemplating: I have been trying for years to make some difference, but whatever I do is just not. Perhaps I should jump the boat. May be I need new experience, new culture and something new to learn. But the question inevitably arise is, is what I describe here is a common corporate culture and the way of doing business here? What if I just go to some other places hoping to get better job done will just ended up in same place.
So my grand question is:
What are really good companies in SJ that has bit of a stricter software development practice that has some accountability?
What are good companies where management will not rush to market their product and take time to bring it to great standard and push reall hard their employees?
What are good companies management really listen and respond well to employees?
What I work here is a multi-billion dollar company, I got a feeling that bigger companies are mostly like it, may be I can try my luck with more bit more nimble, bit smaller and startup company that has great potential and sustaining desire to uphold the standard consistently. The trouble is that whether particular company is bad or good, they will always tout themselves as best, our company, culture product blah blah is out-of-this world, so to really find a great place to work, it has to be found through word of mouth, legwork and scouting.
Welcome to the world of software. Stop viewing it as a "world-changing force for potential good" and drinking the koolaid, and just view it as a job and money source. Dont be loyal as very few companies will ever be loyal to you. Be han solo, not idealistic like luke. Total mercenary attitude. Look for another job, but do it with the knowledge that the next company will eventually disillusion you as well. I cant answer the "what company does it right", because your story sounds like every coder in silicon valley. And im including people from all the big, successful household names. The model is "ship, then fix". And grind down your employees and replace them with h1bs at cheaper cost. Try and keep them at the office with free food, video game rooms, beer busts, etc. Also, unless you are at a place with lots of growth and uppward mobility, if you stay more than three years you are leaving money on the table as another company will likely pay more for your experience.
And stay grateful that you make coder money and arent working at target and trying to survive on a quarter of the dough in one of the most expensive places on the planet.
At first, I had a lot of learning opportunities, opportunity to meet lot of people, very technical and healthy atmosphere, most likely because department I have worked has just been forming, being born and has not had its own established culture and parallelled with amazing growth.
Over the years however, gradually, I felt like management has gone greedy, millions of revenue our department has been channelled to others with not much for the regular employee awards (typical at enterprise). But worst of it was trend started to form that they are definitely having employees to do a more and lot more jobs with much and lesser resources. So these days, no matter what the will, just because of sheet amount of work, there is not really a quality in it no matter how hard the trying is. Definitely the management has been emphasizer of statistics, numbers rather than emphasize on quality, robustness and responsibility. I am not sure if this is a typical on other companies in Silicon Valley.
It's called capitalism. Every corporation in the world is like this because they all have the same incentive: maximize profits. If it felt different to you at first, that's because they do effective brainwashing.
boulder2015 has great comments, agree on all of them. There are a ton of jerks and bad cultures and phony attitudes all over silicon valley. Just like every other industry.
Sure, the best companies are a bit more interesting than most, and there are some good ones, but people need to get the stars out of their eyes.
Even great companies like Apple or Google have some teams run by jerks who are terrible to work for. You just have to be strategic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boulder2015
Stop viewing it as a "world-changing force for potential good" and drinking the koolaid, and just view it as a job and money source. Dont be loyal as very few companies will ever be loyal to you. Be han solo, not idealistic like luke. Total mercenary attitude. Look for another job, but do it with the knowledge that the next company will eventually disillusion you as well.
boulder2015 has great comments, agree on all of them. There are a ton of jerks and bad cultures and phony attitudes all over silicon valley. Just like every other industry.
Sure, the best companies are a bit more interesting than most, and there are some good ones, but people need to get the stars out of their eyes.
Even great companies like Apple or Google have some teams run by jerks who are terrible to work for. You just have to be strategic.
When looking at employers, don't fall for the "halo" image of the organization - instead, focus on the group and the people, the culture itself - and see if it's a match for you.
Tesla Motors may have a very sexy, glamorous product and technology, but it's also known for having poor work-life balance and a relatively chaotic organization, for example.
Agreed, all-inclusive and optimisic mentality does not work when working in tech industry, you just end up burning with mountain of frustration, better to socialize with few and select good folks and keep others away.
On the even of 5 years of employment at one of the Silicon Valley giant, it has been great 5 years but left me a lot of doubt, uncertainties and questions to myself over contemplation of regarding what Silicon Valley real means, what is it its core and is it really what it looks like on the surface, depicted, molded and presented through news channel, media outlet? Is it really disruptive, vibrant, startup culture or software giants with world-class software as repeated from time to time, endlessly.
It certainly does when one looks at certain way, but from newer implants like me, I also see issues, specially if my current employer can be a good example.
I got a great pay, afforded certainly comfortable lifestyle here and really enjoyed, but some aspect of the working culture seems weird, sometimes just not right.
At first, I had a lot of learning opportunities, opportunity to meet lot of people, very technical and healthy atmosphere, most likely because department I have worked has just been forming, being born and has not had its own established culture and parallelled with amazing growth.
Over the years however, gradually, I felt like management has gone greedy, millions of revenue our department has been channelled to others with not much for the regular employee awards (typical at enterprise). But worst of it was trend started to form that they are definitely having employees to do a more and lot more jobs with much and lesser resources. So these days, no matter what the will, just because of sheet amount of work, there is not really a quality in it no matter how hard the trying is. Definitely the management has been emphasizer of statistics, numbers rather than emphasize on quality, robustness and responsibility. I am not sure if this is a typical on other companies in Silicon Valley.
Complaining up is mostly futile, they will listen but will never act on it. Meantime, it has really become an environment like a sweatshop or treadmill. Our partners upgrades their product that we integrate into at a much higher and ever faster pace with lot of bells and whistles and we are trying to catch up, management pushing us on timely delivery so that revenue can be captured. But dont get me wrong, lot of product we ship and lot of partners product integrate is loaded with crapware, bugs, defects that they never take care of. It does not take professional to see, from the X version to X.1 version the chronics defects will carry on and on. The old working features are torn apart and replaced with something "newer" that messes up the things even more. Things are all and so much common in software industry.
At feels like there are so many incompetent and unscrupulous engineer who does not care is infiltrated every corner of the company, be it my place, or partners, it is just clear that I have been talking to more people who does not give a crap than who does over the past years. I can run into monthly or weekly an distinguished engineer who holds Ph.D or MS. degree but fails to understand and process basic English sentence, because of it, ball dropping are so commonplace. But then I can shift the responsibility to again the management in how they are managing people, I am certain that some of the "dont care" folks has just give up on doing great simply because it makes no difference and others who are simply "born" with don't care attitude. When we hire a fresh, new graduate with amazing degrees and then I watch them slow down and eventually they are unable to do a simple tasks and does not think ciritically as they should do and certainly used to do in college, and join the armies of ball droppers, I sometimes wonder what has gone wrong with them. Is it like once they reach a good salary, it is time for complacency?
Over the years, I have talked to management in a various different ways to improve the process, efficient, accountability but given the circumstances i think it is mostly fallen on deaf ears. So after years of unparalleled growth and many good people leaving our company, our department which has been used to enjoying to be a fastest growing segment in our whole company has experienced the first quarter of sales DECLINE leaving many heads scratched.
I am contemplating: I have been trying for years to make some difference, but whatever I do is just not. Perhaps I should jump the boat. May be I need new experience, new culture and something new to learn. But the question inevitably arise is, is what I describe here is a common corporate culture and the way of doing business here? What if I just go to some other places hoping to get better job done will just ended up in same place.
So my grand question is:
What are really good companies in SJ that has bit of a stricter software development practice that has some accountability?
What are good companies where management will not rush to market their product and take time to bring it to great standard and push reall hard their employees?
What are good companies management really listen and respond well to employees?
What I work here is a multi-billion dollar company, I got a feeling that bigger companies are mostly like it, may be I can try my luck with more bit more nimble, bit smaller and startup company that has great potential and sustaining desire to uphold the standard consistently. The trouble is that whether particular company is bad or good, they will always tout themselves as best, our company, culture product blah blah is out-of-this world, so to really find a great place to work, it has to be found through word of mouth, legwork and scouting.
Agile can work however there needs to be upstreaming of quality assurance. With partners it's more tricky. Partner agreements need to explicitly detail deliverables and life cycle requirements. Perhaps a quality council between your firm and partners may help to improve the situation.
My input would be that you need to change jobs. There is always a plateau past a point. Large conpanies do get to become like you describe. Either change your role or job.
i have interviewed several candidates and i can attest many of those interviewers definitely can not reason and think critically more than average 5th graders and has great difficulty understanding plain english, yet they interview so carelessly probably based on the assumption employers should be poaching for them. I am surprised how many I ran across.
Computer work has definitely gone the way of the sweatshop. Take the Agile development model (just-in-time manufacturing) and lay cheap immigrant labor on top of it and now your "innovative, collaborative" environment just turned into a factory. This allows companies to run lean and therefore you are no longer valued as creative talent, simply a replacable cog in the machine. The better you are, the more time you'll spend compensating for weaker cogs and the faster you'll burn out. If you're skilled, you'll never, ever see the big payday. They need you in the trenches.
IT / development has been ruined for quite some time now. I'm trying to get as much cash out of it as possible until all of the jobs are either overseas or automated away.
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