
Ask HN: Is it possible to fight back against the “big 4” hiring fads? - fspear
This post got me triggered https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12348756 as I&#x27;ve experienced the same feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy after terrible interview experiences. I also know a lot of people who have either: quit tech or moved overseas, unfortunately this stupid fad of &quot;algorithmic&quot; puzzles has gotten out of control and it&#x27;s spreading like wildfire, because everyone wants to be like Google&#x2F;Facebook&#x2F;Amazon.<p>I can understand why some complex algorithm competency might be required at some of these companies but this alpha nerd &quot;dick-measuring contest&quot; needs to stop.<p>I am angry for the OP of the post above and for my own experiences as well as for many other fellow developers who have been through the same.<p>I think it&#x27;s time we fight back as a collective and tell the &quot;big 4&quot; and the big 4 wannabes to go screw themselves, however I feel powerless, frustrated and angry. We can&#x27;t continue to be complacent, enough is enough I say, let&#x27;s do something about this.It has gotten out of hand. I refuse to accept this as the status quo.
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JSeymourATL
> let's do something about this.

Career Capital Theory-

Research shows that the traits that lead people to love their work are
general, and can be found in many different career paths. They include things
like autonomy, a sense of impact and mastery, creativity, and respect and
recognition for your abilities. Once you recognize that these traits have
little to do with following a pre-existing passion, and can be cultivated in
many different fields, you can safely abandon the myth that there's a single
right job waiting out there for you.

On this subject, Steve Martin's advice is solid >
[http://lifehacker.com/5947649/steve-martins-advice-for-
build...](http://lifehacker.com/5947649/steve-martins-advice-for-building-a-
career-you-love)

~~~
throway21312
But how do you become _good_? How can you tell if you're improving? It's what
I struggle the most with as a student.

~~~
JSeymourATL
> how do you become good?

It helps to have Models. Who are the benchmark leaders in your field? How did
they get there? What exactly made-up their mythical 10,000 hours of practice?

Hold yourself up to the standard. Emulate the formula, add your own
ingredients. You'll know it's working if you feel stretched professionally.

Josh Kaufman has a brilliant take on acquiring new skills quickly >
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsGihiSE6sM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsGihiSE6sM)

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dozzie
First, working in Google, Facebook, Amazon, or Twitter is overrated more
likely than not. Remember that. You don't really need to work in a big company
to have fulfilling job that allows you to grow professionally and pays
decently. (Don't be greedy.)

Second, remember that interviewing is both way lane. It's not only a way for
employer to assess candidate, it's a way for a candidate to assess the
potential employer. Treat it as such.

This may be a cliché, but if all I got asked in the interview was some random
puzzles and nobody was interested in the work I had done in the past, I would
probably avoid such company. They don't seem to hire based on competency, so
I'm likely the first one with the ability to develop and deploy a well-
designed _system_ (completely different thing from _algorithms_ ). I don't
like to struggle with making each and every step. The same stands if they
_require_ specific education.

And the last thing, in current landscape there's plenty of jobs in IT and only
so many competent programmers, sysadmins, netadmins, or DB operators. It's the
employers who struggle with finding good candidates, not the other way around.

~~~
atmosx
Offtopic: The 4th _big_ is twitter? I thought it was Microsoft. I also thought
that there are at least a dozen companies above twitter as far _big_ goes in
any possible sense (revenue, salaries, dev happiness, etc.).

~~~
pyb
There is not a 'big 4' in tech, despite increasingly widespread use of the
term.

~~~
regulation_d
right? I was like, "hmm, I guess we're talking about accounting firms today on
HN. oh wait. wat."

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freestockoption
I've worked in some big names in tech. What I do notice is that sometimes
people go into these companies thinking they've made it and that they will
just naturally grow due to being at a big name co.

I've realized that most companies are similar and opportunities don't just
fall into your lap. Want a low growth job fixing bugs for 10 years? You can
probably get that at Google (or pretty much anywhere). Want a job where you
can develop the next big feature in Android? You can probably make that
happen, too.

If you want the latter, don't just sit there, fall into a routine, and fix
bugs all day thinking that one day a VP will knock on your door asking you to
be a Software Architect. Don't become complacent.

~~~
ljk
> _Don 't become complacent._

See this advice a lot, are there any tips on this? make more to-do list? set
goals?(how to know if goal is too high instead of myself being too lazy? etc)

~~~
freestockoption
For myself, I will often ask myself something along the lines of: "In my
current trajectory, will I be doing the same thing in a year? And is that what
I want and will I be happy with that?" So I try to imagine the different paths
I can take in my current trajectory and if none of the paths interest me, then
I know it's time to make changes. Try to draw out a 5 year plan on a
spreadsheet. Aim high, but be realistic.

My main point is, you don't need to work for a big N company to achieve your
goals (unless your goal is to simply work for a big N company). The sooner I
realized that, the sooner I was able to start working on my actual goals where
the actions are vastly different than those of "getting into big N."

e.g. I want to design software, but not necessarily at Google makes it a lot
easier to achieve than saying it _must_ be at Google. :)

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mrits
I have super flexible hours. A private office looking over Austin's green
belt. Free lunch. Ability to go to any conferences I want. With my salary I
can live just about anywhere I want in the city. Why the hell would I want to
work for a huge "big 4" ?

~~~
byebyetech
Where do you work sir ?

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wprapido
just avoid them. you really don't need to work for the big 4 in order to have
a fulfilling job and/or make good money. also you can avoid steve jobs wanna
be employers and execs. we are lucky enough that our industry provides lots of
diversity and we can be picky

~~~
jrnichols
I think that his point is that so many of the non big-4 places are trying to
mimic their hiring practices, and that's what the OP is wanting to go away.

I'm inclined to agree with the OP. Not every employer is going to be
Google/Facebook/etc, so they shouldn't try to hire like they are already.

~~~
wprapido
avoid them, too

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cbanek
I have to say I agree with all that - and on the company side, everyone also
says hiring is broken.

Overall, I think the process is just kind of silly, and I'm sure whoever comes
up with a better way will be able to make some good money as well.

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qaq
You do have an option of not working/interviewing for the big 4 or "wannabes".

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DrNuke
Problem is: if you are smart, being an employee just sucks. Realising this
opens a different class of problems to you (not to them, they are more than
happy to enslave and dumb smart people down).

