Ownership Battles
I joined Google as a new grad just over a year ago and I’ve loved a lot of things - wlb, perks, culture. I’ve been re-orged twice to different teams (entire project lost support so teams were dissolved). My first team was great - working with my TL (L5) so I had a lot of freedom to design and take ownership of work. But on my second team, I was working with an L4 and he was awful about cooperating - quick to steal projects and feel threatened (I can give specific examples where he literally claimed my suggestion as his own). Unfortunately, my new team as of 3 weeks ago, I’m working again with an L4 and this individual literally copied and pasted a proto change that I made on my CL to a design doc where it’s a crucial component and gave me no credit or mention of the CL. How do I talk to my manager about this? The L4 does seem to be his favorite tbh. Based on other conversations I’ve had, ownership battles are a huge deal at Google because of perf. Can I hop ship to another FAANG / unicorn with 2 CMEs, hopefully an EE in March, then expect to come back at least L4? This sort of thing has ruined my experience and I also want more $$ haha TC: 170k
Water finds its own level. If you are doing great work and the other person isn't, it will be clear to your manager without you saying anything.
It's no excuse, but as strategically useful context, L4 is an "up or out" level, so if he's unambitious/mediocre and in his third year he might be under the gun. Do you not feel safe linking to your CLs from the design doc? A decent manager should notice this kind of behavior and should respond appropriately if the situation is brought to their attention, but decent managers are not by any stretch of the imagination universal.
That actually makes a lot of sense. I think it might come across as aggressive linking my CLs, but I’ll have the discussion tomorrow...
If the manager isn’t responsive, check out go/respect. Interviewing twice sounds like hell just to find internal movement.
You're being bullied. Talk to your manager and don't sugar coat it.
He favors the other guy because I’m new, but also maybe ethnic ties idk... thanks I will do that tomorrow
Keep a record of nearly exactly what you say as well!