[lkrubner]

There was a stretch, I think 3 to 5 years ago, when it seemed that Etsy was on a hiring spree -- lots and lots of recruiters were reaching out to me and asking "Would you like to work for Etsy?" I was intrigued because I used to live in Brooklyn, just a few blocks from Etsy is. So if I worked there, I could have biked to work in about 10 minutes. That would have been cool.

But every time I asked about the tech, I was disappointed. They wanted me to come in and work on a bunch of PHP code. When I asked about the details, from the hiring manager, I was told that it was, basically, a big monolithic PHP thing. I've no idea if they later moved to microservices, but I have been traumatized by a few too many encounters with horrendous blobs of PHP. For me, its become a bit of a heuristic. If a company is apparently working with a big blob of PHP, I am wary. I need to hear very good things about that company, to offset that wariness.

More recently I've read criticisms of their search system. At the risk of indulging in "confirmation bias", I'll say this (bad search) is exactly what I would have predicted, based on what I'd heard 3 to 5 years ago.

[nikanj]

For me, it's the opposite actually. "We have a monolithic php thing" seems to signal "We made an MVP, found traction, and have been too busy to start from scratch". In contrast, "We have ultramodern microservices" is depressingly often code for "there's no real business here, so we have all the time in the world to polish the tech".

With the former using "old, boring" tools, as they have been battle-proven time and again, and the latter using $dailyhype, as that's the thing that looks best on your CV right now.

I guess this comes down to personal preferences, and whether you value the tech environment, or the business environment. I'd rather do unexciting work in a profitable company, than exciting work in a company with a writing on the wall.

[rixrix]

> I'd rather do unexciting work in a profitable company, than exciting work in a company with a writing on the wall.

this is a very good point

[ryanmarsh]

LOL, some of us like the thrill of a plane with one engine on fire, it appears some of us are happy safe on the ground.

[fred_is_fred]

I'll take the plane on fire but only if the airline is profitable. A plane on fire where the airline is bankrupt sucks. That was the second part of his comment. Working for a company that's growing with revenue is always better.