Two cents - do vent in public, and do share salaries. These things actually help other engineers, though I'm sure they don't help career directors and VPs. Let's not pretend to be stupid when we aren't.
After leaving a certain well known tech company, I also wanted to reflect honestly on the experience of working there. I tried to be honest, in a blog post you can probably find, about the problems with the place as well as moments when I wasn't at my best and could've done better.
Later, when I decided to go back to work, a prospective boss found the post and basically didn't hire me over it.
In this case, I felt fine about it. I could stand by what I wrote, and this person's not getting it was a signal for me that he wouldn't be a great boss.
But if I had written a rant and dropped some f bombs, I might have felt more silly.
Great respect for Rachel, I love her blog and she's clearly an amazing person and I wouldn't presume to tell her what to do. But, other readers, you're not Rachel. Consider your actions.
Everyone else: if you can't stick your neck out, DON'T.
(Also, some people want to hire you because you're a straight shooter and you don't stand for bullshit. It's not burning bridges, it's finding the ones that weren't worth a damn in the first place. The good ones will still be there, and will be even stronger for it.)
A serious heartfelt THANK YOU for doing this.
> Also, some people want to hire you because you're a straight shooter
Absolutely!
Life's too short to work with people who are not looking out for you. Life's too short to work with people who think they are pragmatic by being deliberately ambigious or outright misleading.
Just move on, if you can. There is more than one team out there thats exactly what you're looking for.
It might take time and effort on your part to find them, but with enough effort you will.
There absolutely are people who want to build a solid business.
Part of building a solid business is building solid relationships.
Evidence? Every company, that failed to build solid relationships, no matter how big to fail they were in the past, are nothing today.
If everybody suffering also left, the problem people they are all supporting would drop right through the floor.
Your (ex)coworkers will just apply where you happen to currently work. It happens organically without any suggesting or prodding.