My issue isn’t so much with having to influence people, but being in a situation where you’re always struggling against other people to do so, constantly being worried that a point you make in one channel will be repeated by someone else without attribution in another channel that’s more visible to people with more power, or worrying about someone who has more ‘juice’ with a manager talking down your work, when that manager doesn’t have the expertise to judge for themselves, etc.

I’ve had work experiences that were completely free of this sort of thing, but at small to medium-size startups. My current employer, not so much.

You’re right, of course, that I need to be assessing specific opportunities. I guess I’m just trying to see if there are any broad difference between public tech companies.