I’m an okay programmer. Not terrible, but not amazing. I’ve worked at basically no-name companies in the Bay Area for the past few years after college and have learned and grown a decent amount, but think I’d learn a lot more at more reputable companies where better engineers work. I’m not too interested in FANG for various reasons, but mostly because I’m pretty sure I don’t have the mental horsepower to survive there as an SWE even I cracked the interview. And that’s okay. I want to be a good engineer, but I don’t care if I’m not a world class 10x rockstar ninja with an impressive resume. My impression is that, for example, Salesforce is a pretty good reputable company with smart people and a relatively chill work culture. That’s the kind of place I’d like to work, so looking for similar tier companies.
Intuit, Twilio, Workday. Slightly better would be companies like Twitter, Dropbox, Box, etc but harder to get.
Sorry but we don’t have many smart people. You can get in and survive here without being rock star ninja but you need to master the politics. When you do master the politics and survive here, we’d call you rock star ninja.
What does it mean that you need to master the politics? I’m not the type to kiss ass and backstab coworkers, but am very charismatic and am generally likable to most people. Not sure if that qualifiers.
Most engineers who thrive here are ex-military. The company is pretty hierarchical. The management formation and engineers promotion are based on whether they like you or not, the actual performance comes next. You need to drink kool aid, if not management will start to push you out.
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I love the humility and ownership of this post. Thanks OP.
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