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Comment by kamaal | Hacker News Reader

>>VP realized he was so full of crap that he fired him

That's strange, because VP's are themselves full of crap. Its exceedingly rare that you can find a good VP.

Most VP's haven't done anything 'real' in years. And generally never have context on what they are doing, why they are doing, or even why its necessary. Two to three difficult questions in a row and they many not even be able to explain why they or their title should even exist.

Most VP's get hired through their network and survive by means of their network. The middle to senior level management is generally the most hopelessly inefficient part of the whole hierarchy chain, while being the biggest money sink in terms of the compensation and benefits.

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This is completely opposite of my experience in the industry.

Stephen Sinofsky is famous for sending people bug reports with the line of code that was causing the windows bug. My presentations to Harry Shum were the highlights of my time in Bing, as he was both interested and insightful. My conversation with Satya Nadella about incentives and alignment of the OSD organization taught me a lot about how the businesses operated.

I've met and worked with vice presidents in Microsoft, Google, and Facebook and every time I been impressed with their levels of interest, insight, and passion for the product.

There may have been a time with being a vice-president was a parking title and reward for a lifetime of work, but that time has passed.

I never said every single VP ever was like that. But exceptions only prove the rule.

>>but that time has passed

Hardly!!!!. You have worked at nearly every outlier company, there is. And you think culture you've seen there is the norm.

If there is any famous company with awesome executives, you will hear about them. You will never hear about those that crash and burn because of bad executives. Which are far more common than the ones that win.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rul...

Now sure when you were at Microsoft, but Sinosfky and Nadella were division Presidents, not VPs. It is much easier for a VP to get away with being full of shit.

And the good ones often get squeezed out because their focus is on the company instead of politics. Really a sad state of affairs.

I'm convinced that most companies survive in spite of their management. At least in the US.

Oh, this VP was full of crap, and borderline abusive of his staff. But it leads to great stories.

This so much.

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