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by philipphutterer 1519 days ago
What do you think is the reason for that "orders of magnitude" in growth? Can one experience similar without working for a big tech? Is it a mental thing or rather the working environment with many highly qualified people around?
2 comments
Jensson 1519 days ago
Google give you a lot of responsibility, even as a junior. When a typical agile shop gives you tasks expected to take hours, Google gives you projects expected to take weeks and tell you to drive that project. And as you grow they give you bigger and bigger tasks.

So then if you need to meet someone, you contact them and schedule that meeting. If the project requires custom designs, you write that design doc. And if they add more engineers to the project, it is your job to get them up to speed and assign parts of the project to them so they can be productive. Basically, your job is to ensure things gets done.

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angarg12 1519 days ago
Mindset is necessary but not sufficient. Some environments encourage learning, while others discourage it. That's the trick behind the "orders of magnitude" sleight of hand. Is not that you learn 100 times faster in some companies (whatever that even means), but that in some places you don't learn anything at all, and in others you pick up bad habits that could count as negative learning.

For example one of my previous companies was very top down, siloed and hierarchical. One time I went to talk with a PM from a different team about the prioritization of certain customer features, and my boss got really pissed off. He told me I should never talk directly with anyone and should always communicate via him. This was also the kind of place where new ideas were shut down and opposing the main point of view could get you in trouble.

What about the opposite, people who have the environment but not the mindset? Some might coast years in big tech actively refusing to learn, but it is rare. Most often they will be put in situations that make them uncomfortable and will choose to leave (reorgs are common). Other times their performance will simply suffer if they aren't able to keep up with the team.

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