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Comment by throwaway3643 | Hacker News Reader

In the era of Sundar it has become harder and harder to recommend Google as a place to work to friends. Trust me, it is quite noticeable on the inside when the company stops being run by the founders, and starts being run by an MBA with no vision.

Posted anonymously to avoid work repercussions.

-Googler of > 5.5years

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That's pretty much the destiny of any large corporation. There is almost no way around it.

The MBA hate on HN is insane. Engineers aren't magically better than everybody.

Same reasoning can be applied to Magically Better Administrators

Many of us had the experience of working for a nontechnical manager. It's always been surprising that companies think technical work can be managed by an average non-technical manager. I had one great non-technical manager, he just wanted me to explain what was going on and then let me do it, made suggestions, kept me apprised of priorities. It's disastrous for beginning devs.

Can you elaborate for those of us considering Google?

Can you elaborate for those of us working at Google and don't know what you are talking about?

OP said the place is noticeably different inside the company under the new leadership. How?

Microsoft seems like it could be a touch better under Satya than under Bill.

I guess the world is so different now that we can't make that comparison fairly. We can try to extrapolate what Bill Gates would do now based on what he did then, but we can't really know for sure.

The reverse is also true. Could Satya navigate the old Microsoft and deliver it as (still) one of the most valuable companies in the world?

But I digress. The point is, maybe Gates would've done just fine if he had chose to do so. Personally, I'm glad for B&M Gates Foundation's role in the world right now, so I'm kind of glad he didn't

even if nadella is an "MBA", he also have a bachelor's in EE and an M.S in computer science.

as much as he's a business guy, it really feels like he's a coder-first.

I’ve been at Google about as long as you, and I’ve heard folks say some variation of this since the day I started. Personally, while there may be political or spiritual changes further up the ladder I’ve noticed no real change in my day-to-day over the last five years.

Correlation isn't causation. Sundar is an MBA and not a founder - true. He's also the guy who was called to steady the ship when founders got bored and moved on to sexier things.

In my opinion, what you're experiencing is more to do with Google becoming a big, public company with a clearly defined mission statement. Unlike the Google of yesteryears whose mission was everything from self driving cars to domestic fiber internet.

All successful companies eventually find their boring but profitable mission and tool their processes around it

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