A little bit of my background, I’m a software engineer with less than 4 years of work experience. I ask this question because recently I got a senior software engineer offer from Netflix but I don’t know if I should take it. I heard that they pay really really well but they also fire people like crazy, like 2 mistakes and you’re out. Most of the engineers on the team I interviewed have over 8 years of experience, will I be considered not an A+ player compared to them? In Netflix’s culture deck they say that they fire adequate employees right away and only keep superstar engineers.
My major concern: Job security is very important to me not because I have a family to raise but because I’m on H1B work visa, which means if I got fired I would no longer be able to stay in US unless I could get another employer to sponsor my visa within a month. I’m basically happy with my salary at my current job and I don’t want to ruin my career just because I take the bad money from an unstable job. Another thing is that under such pressure and fear of losing job, will one grow as an engineer? I always think that engineers learn a lot from mistakes, if one is not allowed to make any mistake, how do engineers at Netflix grow?
Since Blind is an (to some extent) anonymous society, can someone tell us about how it really feels like to work at Netflix? Is the culture of fear real? Is the pay really worth the workload?
And to those who got fired by Netflix, how long did you stay there before you got fired? And what happened before you were shown the door? Is real that Netflix is basically zero-tolerant to mistakes?
comments
Seek a company where you can stay for at least a decade, if you plan on getting the green card.
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Netflix pays well and treats you well. And everyone will want to hire you after you worked for Netflix.
You will be judged per your own work, not for how much years of experience you have.
But it is impressive that with just 4 years of experience you were offered position.
Final decision is only yours, but this is big opportunity.
If you heard about unlimited leave? It is true. It all depends on you.
If I’m judged per my own work, I’m guessing I’ll need to push back when my manager gives me a task that’s way beyond my ability, I hope that won’t be translated into “adequate player” though.
The demands are going to be more along these lines. Not whether you’re an uber engineer. They’re looking for strong generalists. That’s why they only hire senior engineers.
Netflix believes in fail fast, folks who have made big mistakes are still here. We don’t fire because someone makes a mistake. We look for ability to learn. If making mistakes becomes a pattern and person does not self realize the severity etc then it does become an issue (should be the same in many other companies as well which want to move fast).
Someone mentioned about Netflix turnover rate and it is on par with the valley so it’s no added risk from that perspective.
Remember Netflix is just as much investing as you to ensure you are successful in your job. It takes a lot of effort to find good engineers and we don’t want to jump the gun on letting someone go but at the same time if it is clear (takes a few months/qtr in most cases) that the engineer is not and will not be successful in the role then it is better to make the change.
PM me if you have questions.