
Former Googlers on how they knew it was time to quit - epall
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-leave-google-2018-10
======
brantonb
>Interviews

One of the people featured is a friend and former coworker at a different
company. When I sent him this link, he said they never talked to him. They
just pulled info off of his blog.

~~~
cjhopman
"Interviews" doesn't actually appear in the text of the article or its title.
What does appear in the text is a very clear description of where the
information came from.

"We spoke to several former Googlers to find out why they left the company,
compiling their responses with those of other former employees who have
written about their departures publicly."

I'm am, once again, quite impressed by hn's top comments.

~~~
ukyrgf
I left my tab open long enough to still have the original title: "Interviews
with former Google employees to find out why they decided to leave
(businessinsider.com)"

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throwaway3643
In the era of Sundar it has become harder and harder to recommend Google as a
place to work to friends. Trust me, it is quite noticeable on the inside when
the company stops being run by the founders, and starts being run by an MBA
with no vision.

Posted anonymously to avoid work repercussions.

-Googler of > 5.5years

~~~
UncleMeat
The MBA hate on HN is insane. Engineers aren't magically better than
everybody.

~~~
Latteland
Many of us had the experience of working for a nontechnical manager. It's
always been surprising that companies think technical work can be managed by
an average non-technical manager. I had one great non-technical manager, he
just wanted me to explain what was going on and then let me do it, made
suggestions, kept me apprised of priorities. It's disastrous for beginning
devs.

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insertcredit
I worked at Google for close to 10 years. I resigned when I had made enough
money to retire comfortably (for the next 40 years) in a European city.

The first two years were enjoyable but then it started going downhill, fast.
Some close friends and co-workers had major implosions on the job and I was
burned out. Once I realized that Google would suck me dry if I let it and that
reality was completely different to the expectations I had going in, I found
ways to drastically reduce the number of hours I actually worked and spent the
rest (company time) doing things that contributed to my self-development (side
projects and reading books, mostly).

I spent the last ~5 years doing no more than two hours of actual work per day.
Needless to say, these were some of the best, most carefree years of my life.
My mind rebounded and it felt great knowing that I was screwing the company
that only viewed me as a commodity whilst getting paid top dollar. I am pretty
sure I wasn't the only one doing it, either.

~~~
notyouravgdoge
Was the burnout Google-specific, or do you think it would have likely happened
at other tech companies as well?

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outside1234
I left Google because I was working on a crank that was attached to a spindle.
It was super boring and what I was learning did not accrue to anything that
was valuable outside the company.

Otherwise it was a fine place to work. No better than Microsoft or Netflix or
the rest, but no worse either.

~~~
Latteland
That's basically what happened to me. I got bored after a while, working on a
small feature on v8 of something. Fixing bugs and not having much testing for
my system was a drag. The original leader of my mature product team was good,
but he left and then a first time overly confident bro was the leader. We
reported issues but new upper level management didn't matter.

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taneq
These responses seem kind of formulaic and bland. I don't know why but I
expected something juicier - these are mostly just people realising they need
to move on, for the same reasons most of us do.

~~~
ma2rten
I think they interviewed a biased sample: ex-googlers who want to promote
themselves.

~~~
taneq
Are there other kinds?

(I mean, how many skilled, driven, ambitious people don't want to promote
themselves?)

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rburhum
Anyone that has been lucky enough to be able to build and run any organization
with 50+ people knows that every month you will have new people joining and at
least someone leaving. That has nothing to do with your company culture or how
well you can retain good talent, it is just a numbers game.

Obviously any organization with thousands of people will have this happen at a
much bigger scale.

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zawerf
Similar thread from a week ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18192534](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18192534)

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siberianbear
For people outside Silicon Valley or still studying at the university, Google
probably seems like an awesome place.

It's just another Silicon Valley bigco. That's especially true now. In the
early 2000s, it was probably a very cool place. But all big companies get more
awful as they get bigger. I'm sure the bureaucracy and politics there are
stifling, like all bigcos.

I was happy at the other companies I worked at. I selected and targeted all
the companies I worked at, and Google wasn't one of them. I never answered the
voice mails from Google recruiters and never responded to their LinkedIn
messages.

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adamnemecek
> Everyone wants to work at Google

This circle jerk needs to stop.

~~~
TallGuyShort
Their recruiters genuinely think this, which is why I decline. They have no
interest in finding a good match between you and the company or why you're not
interested in one specific detail. They have an opening, and you are
privileged to even be contacted about the position.

~~~
adamnemecek
It’s not just recruiters, so many people working there seem to be legitimately
brain washed.

I just remembered this

[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/20/occupy-
fo...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/20/occupy-founder-
obama-eric-schmidt-ceo-america)

Like holy shit. It’s a joke I guess but like is it really?

~~~
TallGuyShort
Not far from the truth. Recently started working with a former Googler, and
almost every sentence starts with, "well at Google, we..." Well that's great,
but you realize we're in an entirely different market and business model,
right?

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user9182031
businessinsider.com requires disabling AdBlocking to view the article. No
Thanks.

~~~
mlpinit
Or you can use outline:
[https://outline.com/6LD6KV](https://outline.com/6LD6KV)

