Ask HN: Is all of FAANG like this?

9 points by ta20200710 5 years ago | 6 comments

This last year I finally landed a SDE job at a FAANG company! However, I'm considering quitting because I am not happy.

The good: I get paid better than my last jobs. I can browse internal resources to satisfy my curiosity about how things work.

The bad: Basically no work gets done and there's no motivation to do any.

The dev tools, docs and tech debt impart such a slow iteration speed that even when I am working a full 8 hours, only a few very small changes get done, yet somehow this is even more than most of the rest of my team can muster during an entire week.

Because of this, I normally work about one day trickle out my changes during the the week. The other days I only open my computer for standup and if I get an IM. As far as I can tell, if I can be just barely the best on the team by doing there's nothing the company will offer me to work harder. If I get asked about why it takes long to make a simple change I can point to the environment and shrug my shoulders. Of course, it's possible the rest of the team is doing that too, but I have no way of knowing.

This amounts to a glacial development pace and when I look back at the progress made since I joined and estimate the cost to the company (salary, servers, etc) it's frankly disgusting. I don't feel what I'm doing is ethnically wrong, because the company is evidently pleased with my current productivity, but I find it unsatisfying and like a waste of my time on earth.

So my question is: Is all of FAANG like this? If the market value of such incompetence is a FAANG salary, how can I do good/satisfying work and get paid proportionally?

lhorie 5 years ago |

From your description, it sounds like you work at Amazon. I work in a SF tech giant but haven't worked at any of the FAANG companies per se. But from what I hear from ex-employees, the rest of FANG (and all tech giants for that matter) is fairly diverse (e.g. I hear there's a lot of overtime at FB)

Also, mind you that teams dynamics can vary a lot even within one company. You could try talking to coworkers you know to get a feel for how other teams function. You can obviously also apply at other companies, but then the team you ultimately end up at could be more of a gamble (e.g. I hear this is especially so at Google)

gregjor 5 years ago |

As a customer and user of the services offered by FAANG companies, I don't get the impression that nothing gets done there, or that they iterate too slowly. I get a lot of updates from Google and Apple, and Amazon introduces significant new features and services on AWS constantly.

I know people who work at those companies and I don't think of any of them as incompetent or lazy.

Big companies that support millions or billions of users can't move like startups, because they can't just break things for their large user base that depends on them. I think that would be obvious even before you got hired at one of those companies. I've worked for large companies and seen them adapt and innovate quickly, because they can attract top talent and organize their resources effectively. I've worked for small companies that should be able to turn on a dime but can't because they are personality cults or starved of resources, especially money and talent.

So maybe it's just you or your team.

bob1029 5 years ago |

I am not aware of any megacorp (FAANG or otherwise) that doesn't wind up sounding like your experience above. There is a certain degree of ownership and autonomy that is only possible when you work with a smaller team at a smaller organization with fewer policies and regulations around you.

If you are looking for excitement (aka stress/anxiety/massive payouts) then a startup might be more your speed. If you want a easy-going "don't rock the boat" experience, then I recommend sticking with what you have right now.

Stability in your current job may give you the ability to explore other interests. If you are in a startup and fully own a product, it is much less likely you will have the time & energy to pursue other interests.

captainredbeard 5 years ago |

Sorry, blaming productivity on dev tools and documentation is just an excuse. If you can figure out how to hack around them you will be superbly valuable. Consider it a game or challenge and try to win it. Good luck!

ta20200710 5 years ago | |

Right, that's how I get my work done so fast. Sure I could "be superbly valuable" but there doesn't seem to be any motivation to do so. The stick (a PIP) isn't going to hit me because I'm above average, and the carrot (additional compensation) is inevitable because I'm already a shoe-in for promotion as the top achiever on the team.

karmakaze 5 years ago | | |

The real problem here might be that you're not actually interested in your project/work. Given all what you've said, if I was still interested in my work, or found a way to make it interesting I would still go as fast as I can sustain. The environment and speed-bump obstacles can be demotivating if you don't find a way to block them out. Given the 'extra' time that you seem to have let's you solve problems in a round-about interesting way. Even if something starts out as a Rube Goldberg contraption it might lead to something else.