
Facebook Stealing Googlers At An Alarming Rate - nickb
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/21/facebook-stealing-googlers-at-an-alarming-rate/
======
sbh
I don't think this has anything to do with the engineering challenges they
have to solve at Facebook or the fun working environment. As that code-leak
incident hinted some time ago, Facebook probably isn't more than a huge pile
of spaghetti php-code. The only motivation of people for switching is greed.
Facebook is pre-IPO, so stock options can potentially make some employees
millionaires in case of a good IPO.

------
mxh
From the article: "Entrepreneurs want to work at the hottest place on earth
and right now that's Facebook."

I see at least two false statements in that sentence.

~~~
olefoo
Yes, I don't know about the rest of you but I'd rather be working on what will
be the hottest thing around in a year's time. Catch the wave _before_ it
breaks.

~~~
imsteve
Google's big wave came and facebook's hasn't. What's your point?

~~~
Goladus
If an entrepreneur goes to work for an established company, he ceases to be an
entrepreneur.

~~~
imsteve
yeah I read that comment as the opposite.

------
Goladus
Some days, Tech Crunch seems more like a gossip tabloid than a serious news
source. I once heard someone describe TV news as an ounce of fact poured into
a sea of speculation, and this isn't the first TC article I've read that's
gotten really creative with the speculation part.

------
icky
I'm not alarmed. Are you alarmed? ;-)

------
hello_moto
This reminds me of a conversation I had with one of the Microsoft VPs. When
asked about Google free lunch and recruiting tactics, he replied: "That's the
culture in Silicon Valley. What's frightening is that people come and go
within 2-3 years"

These googlers came to my school and advertising how proud they are working at
Google. Now we know the truth (^_^).

------
ardit33
"They are going back to Microsoft!" -- facebook has a lot of ex-microsofties
already. Anyways, I hope it doesn't get polluted too much with the ms
mentality. The facebook experience and the newsfeed are loosing their
simplicity and looking more and more like windows live.

~~~
hello_moto
For a side note: Google products start to look boring. No new features. No
wonder they're losing their employees; nothing more to do.

~~~
coffeeaddicted
Does Facebook make anything interesting (from a programmers perspective)? I
know a lot of cool stuff coming out of the google sweatshops, but I couldn't
name anything interesting from Facebook. Am I missing out on something?

~~~
hello_moto
Search, GMail and Maps are the only 3 things I used. I don't even use
Calendar, My Maps or their Cinema search whatnot. That's pretty much their
products that I know of (and most of my friends outside Valley)

~~~
coffeeaddicted
That's already three more applications than I could name from Facebook :-)
That wasn't a rhetorical question, but I've really no idea what would make
Facebook interesting for a programmer.

Google on the other hand is teasing me regularly with brandnew interesting
API's (for which I never find the time to really check em out).

~~~
altay
A lot of programmers seem to think the Facebook API is pretty interesting...
and they've found the time to check it out, too.

~~~
coffeeaddicted
Thanks, that's the stuff I was searching for. Facebook ain't that common here
in germany and I'm no webdeveloper, so I didn't know until now about this API.
I only had found the Facebook website which completely failed to impress me
and if the name wouldn't drop so often I would probably not even have taken a
second look.

Well, time for new API's... maybe next year. If facebook is still the hype in
2008 ;-)

------
amichail
How much freedom does Facebook provide for its software engineers? Do they get
something like 20% freedom?

~~~
mynameishere
FYI that 20 percent thing is a trick for keeping potential entrepeneurs from
quiting and starting their own companies.

~~~
boucher
From what I understand, it's not even that real. That is, if you can get all
your work done in 80% of your time, then you are free to work 20% on whatever,
but most people don't end up doing it because they have to spend 100% of their
time (or close to it) on official work.

~~~
plinkplonk
but, afaik, you can club all the personal time you don't use and take it as a
continuous block of time, perhaps between projects. Anyone working for Google,
please clarify!

~~~
neilk
I don't work there any more, but you are correct. Many successful products
started with banked 20% time.

However, most individual 20% projects are not standalone projects. They are
often tools or components or features or mini-sabbaticals with other teams.

It is more possible to entrepreneurial at Google than any other company I know
of. The workload _is_ really high, but even so, the main barrier to effective
20% time is still oneself. Even at Google, most people talk about their
brilliant ideas and don't do anything about them.

------
hhm
They are going back to Microsoft!

