[apercu]

Look, I've never had to design, build or maintain systems at the scale of a FAANG, but that doesn't mean I haven't been involved in pretty complicated systems (e.g., 5000 different pricing and subsidy rules for 5000 different corporate clients with individually negotiated hardware subsidies (changing all the time) and service plans, commission structure, plus logistics, which involves not only shipping but shipping to specific departments for configuration before the device goes to the employee, etc.

Arbitrarily, 95% of the time the issues were people problems, not technical ones.

[bitexploder]

You are right but it misses the flavor of the problem. I was a consultant in infosec to F500s for many years. Often solving a problem involves simply knowing the right person that has already thought about it or toiled on the problem or a similar one. But when there are 100,000 engineers it becomes an order of magnitude (or two!) more difficult and that puts forth unique challenges. You can still call them “people problems” and they often may be. However if you try to solve them the same way you might solve it at a smaller engineering org you will get and be nowhere and be poorer for the time you spent trying it. Ask me how I know lol. The technical problems are also like that. Almost everything has an analog or similar thing to what you are probably familiar with but it is scaled out, has a lot of unfamiliar edges and is often just different enough that you have to adjust your reasoning model. Things you can just do at even a typical f500 you can’t just do at big tech scale. Anyway, you are directionally correct and many of these wounds are self inflicted. But running a company like Google or Facebook is ridiculously hard and there are no easy answers, we just do our best.

[apercu]

Fair, but just in case, the system I used as an anecdote is operated for a company that has 45,000+ direct employees and $25 billion annual revenue.

[Demiurge]

I have a similar perspective. I think after a few years, it's the people things that have always been the hardest part of the job. That's probably why in the interviews, we always say things like: communication is key, culture fit, etc.

On the other hand, the good part of the job is solving complex technical problem with a team.