Promotions and tooling at Google (with Irina Stanescu, Ex-Google)

[@veerapaneniayyappa5492]

Very good talk and great points. Irina felt really candid in providing the helpful info.

[@manio143]

Very good talk. I very much agree that looking for growth rather than a promotion initially is very important, but once you have grown it is good to push on your manager for a promotion to highlight to them you want it and so they can work with you to address any gaps.

[@grpdv]

When you said you weren't promoted due to "a lack of impact" and were working "on a niche product" that wasn't connected to the rest of the infrastructure, it was quite obvious for me that the next rational step would be to leave that project (which you confirmed a few minutes later in the interview). This system of incentives encourages the outflow of driven individuals from less connected projects, which could be a limiting factor for the company.

[@jaythefox]

Google isn't growing anymore. Promotions will just be a way for incumbents to maintain their power and exclude newcomers as much as possible. It's all a question of trade-offs. If you want a high salary and low opportunity, work at Google. If you want a low salary and high opportunity, work at an earlier startup.

[@eugeneyaroslavtsev9046]

Have you not seen the Gemini team? NotebookLM, prompt caching, search grounding, insanely good model prices, Gemini rolled out across huge amount of Google Workspace products. I'm not a fan of the 2010s Google culture at all, but this is not the same Google - Sergey Brin is back. Everyone I know on Gemini team is just *intense* and grinding non-stop - Sergey included, just look at him in this video, as well as what he said specifically to your point: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jquuapWuaKiGhqc

[@pragmaticengineer]

Just a note that this was the exact perception about Microsoft around 2010. Since then, that company is several times its former size (in terms of products, reach of developers, revenue etc). The reality of any large company like Google (with 100K+ people, likely 10K+ teams) is that there are standout teams that get epic things done, and ones that are less impactful. Think about e.g. teams working on KZbin (this very platform that keeps growing!), cutting-edge Android features, Gmail (the #1 email service, and growing), Gemini (looking like it wants to be a serious OpenAI competitor - at least trying!) and many others. I'm not saying one should not consider startups: just that the perception of "Google isn't growing" seems incorrect? It's growing by headcount, revenue, market share in several areas etc.

[@mriz]

​@@pragmaticengineer Google just publish AlphaFold 3 model source code on GitHub 😅

[@Danielm103]

"it was googly"

[@eugeneyaroslavtsev9046]

「they brought a little of the Google culture in, so in _2018_・・・ *desperately tries to maintain composure*」