[ajhurliman]

Agreed. I think that being a great engineer in a big company has more to do with being at least moderately competent and being able to build political capital and drive change in a bureaucracy.

Many of the higher-ranking engineers I've seen at big companies weren't necessarily brilliant, but they were all well regarded.

[0xy]

You can be a genius savant engineer and still crash and burn at large companies because you can't politic. I've seen it.