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Gergely Orosz

@GergelyOrosz

Jan 27

"Why is Google, Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft not jumping on the full-remote work bandwagon already?"

Because it makes zero sense for them to do something risky like this.

Let me explain, using the innovator's dilemma these companies are facing:

As an added constraint, all of these companies are easily 5-30x in headcount than their competitors who have announced full-remote.

Even if they wanted to, the effort would be this much more complex to execute on this.

Expect these companies to trail, not lead any such shift.

"I work at one of these companies and I've had enough. I'm quitting for full-remote."

Good on you, you should! But you'll find that

1. There are fewer places that pay similar compensation & brand.

2. As long as Google etc can backfill you, they won't move on their strategy.

Read 6 tweets

Gergely Orosz

@GergelyOrosz

Jan 26

On how every manager is different:

Manager: "I want you to take over leading this project."

Me: "No. I said before: we cannot get this project done: not without cutting scope or other, major changes."

Manager: "It's exactly why. You're the only one who's been saying this."

And that's the story on how I took over a seemingly impossible project, and eventually became a manager at Uber.

It was thanks to my manager valuing straight talk, and bringing alternatives to the table. He then took a risk on me. Not all managers are like this: I was lucky.

The story of the project: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/uber-app-rewri…

Read 4 tweets

Gergely Orosz

@GergelyOrosz

Jan 24

Remote work is not only creating more opportunities+better earning potential for many devs. It’s also turning software engineering into a much more competitive field.

Getting a a full-remote, highly paid/prestigious position means competing with people from around the world.

Hiring full-remote globally (eg using Remote, Deel or similar) increases the hiring pool by 5-20x for companies.

In practice, this means 5-20x more options for those perceived as the very top of the market. For many others, it means more competition, and higher expectations.

Full-remote work and global teams are also a fantastic “equalizer” in skills+confidence

Before I worked at Uber with SV teams: I always assumed those folks are better/ smarter than other regions.

Working together helped both “level up” & also understand what the global bar is.

Read 4 tweets

Gergely Orosz

@GergelyOrosz

Jan 17

"Alright, I've had enough: I'm going out on the market to test the waters."

This is what any sensible company should want to avoid right now.

And it's how our story starts. A long-tenured engineer at this small company got a better offer from outside and announces:

"I quit. I have a better offer by almost 60%. However, I really like the team and know how much value I bring to this company. I'd be happy to stay on for a 35% increase."

Management is in panic. Should they give in and retain? Or would this be a bad move?

The CEO consults external experts, and in the end decides to not match.

"We'll recruit off the market: it's a setback of maybe two months, but we'll be better off."

The engineer leaves. The job advert of "Sr Engineer at Company" is live.

But responses are disappointing.

Read 15 tweets

Gergely Orosz

@GergelyOrosz

Jan 14

"I worked at Big Tech for two years. Got promoted from Eng1 eng to Eng2 in a year. When I was not up for senior promotion, I left for a senior title at a small company.

I now fail to get senior offers at the rest of Big Tech and realize I had a great manager."

You learned.

"What advice do you have?"

Not what you want to hear.

Decide what you really want. Title or to learn?

Go to a place where you can see yourself learning and staying for 2-3 years. You have plenty of options.

You're only 2 years into a potentially 40-year career.

And here's an unconventional option that I have seen work well:

Go back to the first company to that great manager you had. I assume you left on good terms.

Works more often than you think.

Read 4 tweets

Gergely Orosz

@GergelyOrosz

Jan 13

One of the things working at Uber has taught me is appreciating the non-tech folks at a tech startup.

As much as I'd like to think that technology made Uber huge, in reality, just as much (if not more) of a success came from things outside tech: making things work on the ground.

Uber had city launcher teams who did incredible work with whatever resources they had.

The "ops" people would build DIY tools, and hack around things when the engineering team had no bandwidth to build.

E.g. we shipped iDEAL on Rides with zero new code, all powered by "hacks".

I now see some early-stage startups hire operations folks who do exactly this.

They sort things for customers, hacking around, doing manual work, using Google Sheets, Zapier etc.

When the work is too manual *and it's needed* only then do these teams build automated solutions.

Read 5 tweets

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