Hacker News Reader

Comment by dack | Hacker News Reader

it was definitely a great place to work in it's heyday 10+ years ago, as I believe most of the FAANG companies were. It was so nice back in the day having companies you knew would be great if you could just get into them. Are there any companies like that these days?

View on HN

There are _definitely_ great companies out there, depending on what makes a place great FOR YOU. Working on great products with smart people? Yeah, there are places out there like that, and not always in the 'obvious' places. Great compensation? Yeah, there are places/industries that still offer that. Getting everything combined with one employer? That's more of a unicorn problem and you might have to compromise on something.

Can you name some? It always seems like some sort of open secret until its too late. There was some discussion about Oxide Computers being one of these companies.

I've been working mostly with embedded/IoT/backendCloud stuff lately, with a focus on embedded/IoT stuff and having spend about a month this year interviewing, the quality of companies and projects out there vary VASTLY. I ended up joining a manufacturing company that's adding some specialized robotics...stuff to their product line. Cool stuff and in a product domain I know a lot about. Great people, too. I heard about these guys because my former boss worked with them all before their start up got acquired by the MfgCo a while back. Definitely not the folks you'd peg for doing quality tech work, but they are. Compensation wasn't the best offer I landed, but it's good enough and I feel like I'm working with adults who know what they're doing and that's worth a lot to me.

Yes I would say that working in the United States at a Federally Funded Research and Design Center https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/ffrdclist/ are great companies if only you can get into them.

Also as long as you don't mind below market rates and job security tied to federal budget allocations. Or your paycheck disappearing for an unknown period of time whenever there's divided government.

If that's what you want then you can always start one.

Edit: it's interesting that this comment is being down voted on a site run by a VC firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs found their own companies. If you don't like working for Google or some other big company then start your own any you'll have complete freedom to set your own policies.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com