<story><title>Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve worked for startups for 10 years and recently joined a FAANG company. Compensation and stability were part of my motivation, but the biggest reason was the assumption that I would be able to work with A+ players solving hard problems.&lt;p&gt;Instead, I&amp;#x27;m on a team that has and horrendous turnover and is staffed with below-average IQ people.&lt;p&gt;This company builds EVERYTHING in house, and the toolset is like going backwards in my career 10 years.&lt;p&gt;If I do want to stick this out and turn this team around, I&amp;#x27;m going to be working nights and weekends for at least a year - there&amp;#x27;s just too much to fix.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve told this to lots of people who work in other division (that I can trust) and they&amp;#x27;ve said the easiest thing is to just accept it as it is and coast. I&amp;#x27;ve never done that in my career and don&amp;#x27;t think I could do that.&lt;p&gt;Has anyone been in the same boat? I&amp;#x27;m told that it becomes easier to switch teams after a year.&lt;p&gt;I feel like I&amp;#x27;ve made a terrible decision and don&amp;#x27;t know what to do next.&lt;p&gt;Any advice is appreciated.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>laurieg</author><text>&amp;quot;staffed with below-average IQ people&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure why your co-workers&amp;#x27; IQ is your concern. To come out of the gate with a comment like this sounds like you have a strong disdain for them.&lt;p&gt;Part of your reason for joining the company was the paycheck. I assume the checks aren&amp;#x27;t bouncing.&lt;p&gt;My advice is the same advice I would give to many people: Learn from your coworkers. Understand the problems that the team and the company face. Make incremental improvements.&lt;p&gt;If you really want to you can work late every day and at weekends. It&amp;#x27;s your choice. Bear in mind your job won&amp;#x27;t love you back.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tZqGafFdSbj5w34</author><text>I seem to be getting a lot of heat for this comment - fair enough, but I will expand on that.&lt;p&gt;Before joining this company, I hired and managed teams across various startups. I don&amp;#x27;t think I would be speaking out of turn to say in every company we looked for aptitude and intelligence. I don&amp;#x27;t know what my previous or current colleagues literal IQs are, but you know a highly intelligent person when you meet and work with one.&lt;p&gt;Through my entire FOUR MONTH interview process, I met a dozen people, all of whom would be considered highly intelligent. Maybe I am naive to assume that&amp;#x27;s what that interview process was designed for.&lt;p&gt;And to be clear, those folks I interviewed with and many other people around me are highly intelligent. But the people I work with on daily basis, whom I did not meet in my interview, are categorically less intelligent and honestly at the root of most of the problems I&amp;#x27;ve dealt with since starting.&lt;p&gt;Sorry if it is rude, but I think it&amp;#x27;s an honest depiction of the situation.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: I joined a FAANG and it is awful</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve worked for startups for 10 years and recently joined a FAANG company. Compensation and stability were part of my motivation, but the biggest reason was the assumption that I would be able to work with A+ players solving hard problems.&lt;p&gt;Instead, I&amp;#x27;m on a team that has and horrendous turnover and is staffed with below-average IQ people.&lt;p&gt;This company builds EVERYTHING in house, and the toolset is like going backwards in my career 10 years.&lt;p&gt;If I do want to stick this out and turn this team around, I&amp;#x27;m going to be working nights and weekends for at least a year - there&amp;#x27;s just too much to fix.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve told this to lots of people who work in other division (that I can trust) and they&amp;#x27;ve said the easiest thing is to just accept it as it is and coast. I&amp;#x27;ve never done that in my career and don&amp;#x27;t think I could do that.&lt;p&gt;Has anyone been in the same boat? I&amp;#x27;m told that it becomes easier to switch teams after a year.&lt;p&gt;I feel like I&amp;#x27;ve made a terrible decision and don&amp;#x27;t know what to do next.&lt;p&gt;Any advice is appreciated.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>laurieg</author><text>&amp;quot;staffed with below-average IQ people&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure why your co-workers&amp;#x27; IQ is your concern. To come out of the gate with a comment like this sounds like you have a strong disdain for them.&lt;p&gt;Part of your reason for joining the company was the paycheck. I assume the checks aren&amp;#x27;t bouncing.&lt;p&gt;My advice is the same advice I would give to many people: Learn from your coworkers. Understand the problems that the team and the company face. Make incremental improvements.&lt;p&gt;If you really want to you can work late every day and at weekends. It&amp;#x27;s your choice. Bear in mind your job won&amp;#x27;t love you back.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ChrisMarshallNY</author><text>I had the same visceral reaction to that comment.&lt;p&gt;I was fortunate enough to work in an environment, where I was the &amp;quot;below-average IQ person,&amp;quot; and I am &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; below-average, but I worked with some fairly smart cookies.&lt;p&gt;I know that some of my co-workers looked at me with disdain; but I was honored that most did not.&lt;p&gt;Working with frustrating people has been a very useful part of my career. As a manager, I had to make life-changing decisions for employees, and it was important for me to be empirical in my decision-making.&lt;p&gt;It appears that working for FAANGs is a &amp;quot;mark of distinction,&amp;quot; these days. I know they pay ridiculous salaries. I&amp;#x27;m pretty much aware of the working environment, and don&amp;#x27;t find the prospect enticing.&lt;p&gt;In NY, I know many, many folks that worked in the finance industry as brokers and traders. They got their licenses, and made a whole boatload of money in a few short years, while absolutely &lt;i&gt;destroying&lt;/i&gt; their mental and physical health.&lt;p&gt;They then left, when they couldn&amp;#x27;t stand it anymore, and used the money they made to start companies, doing the things they liked doing.&lt;p&gt;Maybe that could be the approach the OP may want to take.</text></comment>