

1 in 5 Facebook Employees Worked at Google - GlennKelman
http://blog.redfin.com/blog/2010/10/one_in_five_facebook_employees_has_no_imagination_whatsoever.html

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raquo
Not everyone wants to be in a startup. People running from Google to FB may be
doing it for a different culture, for more money, or for a slight change in
what they're doing. There's nothing wrong with that.

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unshift
here's a shocking revelation: facebook is pre-IPO and employees who get stock
options stand to make a decent amount of money.

i know it's almost taboo around here to suggest that someone could even
consider switching jobs for better pay/more potential stock upside vs.
considering only some sort of imaginary "passion" for their job, but that's
how it works.

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timr
Just because you join a company pre-IPO doesn't mean that you automatically
get rich. If Google employees are really jumping ship for Facebook IPO riches,
then I sincerely hope they've been given truckloads of stock units, because
joining as employee 1200-whatever at Facebook means that there isn't much
upside left in the share values.

In particular, if you start at Facebook today, the stock units you get are
being sold on secondary public exchanges at frothy values. The stock is as
close to fully and fairly valued as it's going to get short of an IPO.

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unshift
you don't have to get rich for it to be worthwhile.

i joined a company a year before its IPO, got a modest number of shares, and
it amounted to a nice little bonus every month. didn't make me rich but
allowed me to build up a lot of savings while paying down my mortgage. it's
totally worth trying to get into that situation if the option is available.

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bretpiatt
It isn't about imagination. It is the cycle of the valley. Mature companies
have employees go to found their own companies or join other pre-IPO startups.
Working for Google you'll have a great career and quality of life but going to
Facebook has the potential to make you quite a bit more money through equity.

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joezydeco
So is that the true motivation for all of these xooglers? Cash in on
_something_ before they're completely burned out?

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nanijoe
The article makes the underlying assumption that the single most important
factor for deciding where to work , is how exciting the new job is, compared
to the old one. I real life, people take a lot of 'other things into
consideration when making such decisions. 'Boring' things like money, career
advancement and job security usually rank above 'the excitement' of the
opportunity.

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GavinB
In the modern business world, you often have to jump organizations to get more
money or the position suited to you. That's how an efficient market works.

People are jumping back and forth between Google and Facebook _because_ they
are so similar, but may offer differences in the exact position and
compensation offered.

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dstein
The bottom line is this - if you were to place a bet (as in betting your
career) on which company will be dominant 20 years from now and which will
become yet another dying Internet fad, I'd bet in favor of Facebook.
Absolutely everyone overestimates Google's chances of continuing to dominate
forever.

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maw
Do you really think so? Google handily passes the "actually does something
useful" test. Facebook, not so much.

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tlack
One way of looking at it: Facebook has changed the way people communicate and
socialize with each other. I think in some ways that is more fundamental than
what Google has done - change the way people search. Furthermore, Google has
seemed to have trouble innovating in the past couple years, but Facebook has
been accelerating the pace of its innovations.

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nostrademons
FaceBook is 6 years old and has roughly 2000 employees. Google was 6 years old
and had roughly 2000 employees in 2004. Does anyone remember what Google
introduced in 2004 and early 2005, and how revolutionary they seemed at the
time? GMail, Orkut, Local, Books, Scholar, Maps, and Code ring a bell?

There seems to be an inflection point in just about every major tech company's
history. First they have to dominate their initial core market. Then they need
to figure out how to make money off it. Then they can use the data gathered
from their core, and the top-notch employees they hire with the money, to
launch lots of innovative side projects. Then everybody starts taking their
innovative products for granted, but they make so much money that management
can't justify letting people work on further innovative side projects that
will fail 90% of the time.

FaceBook is currently in stage 3. Google would be in stage 4, except that the
founders still actively push through projects like Wave and Instant and self-
driving cars. I predict that ten years from now, both companies will be in
stage 4, and the new hotness will be some company that hasn't been started
yet.

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tlack
Ok, so does that mean you'd rather work at Google instead of Facebook? Right
now, Facebook is doing stuff that is more interesting for programmers I
suspect.

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nostrademons
Considering that I do work for Google and have been contacted in the past by
FaceBook recruiters - yes, I'd rather work for Google. FaceBook has some cool
technology, but so does Google, and I'm more excited about Google's overall
mission.

