I'm curious: how would people compare the prestige of working at Fog Creek vs. the prestige of working at Google? Or one of the other big Internet companies - Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, EBay, etc...?
I remember Joel doing similar how-to-get-hired essays when I was in college. I was always like, "Pffft. Why would I want to work for a company that does bugtracking software?" Ended up taking a job at a financial software startup instead. I'm wondering if other people feel the same way or if I'm just a gigantic snob. (The two may not be mutually exclusive...)
I think that working at a company like Fog Creek or 37 Signals would be seen as highly prestigous, but only by a pretty limited audience: those that follow software development blogs.
Whereas working at Google, pretty much everyone who has touched a computer is familiar with who Google is.
So I guess it depends on what your intended audience is.
Twain once said something like "The most sought-after prize is the envy of other men". It's natural to want "prestige", but chasing after it kind of misses the point of life, no?
If you haven't done so, I recommend working for a small technology company with a strong engineering culture, staffed by smart & competent people who have nothing to prove. Worthwhile problems are fractal -- there's almost always more there if you keep digging.
It depends on what you do. Google definitely has more high profile jobs than Fog Creek, but also probably more grunt jobs than a typical small company.
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I'm curious: how would people compare the prestige of working at Fog Creek vs. the prestige of working at Google? Or one of the other big Internet companies - Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, EBay, etc...?
I remember Joel doing similar how-to-get-hired essays when I was in college. I was always like, "Pffft. Why would I want to work for a company that does bugtracking software?" Ended up taking a job at a financial software startup instead. I'm wondering if other people feel the same way or if I'm just a gigantic snob. (The two may not be mutually exclusive...)
I think that working at a company like Fog Creek or 37 Signals would be seen as highly prestigous, but only by a pretty limited audience: those that follow software development blogs.
Whereas working at Google, pretty much everyone who has touched a computer is familiar with who Google is.
So I guess it depends on what your intended audience is.
pretty much everyone who has touched a computer is familiar with who Google is
And they'll also generally think you're somehow in charge of search and e-mail at Google. :)
Kind of like having been in the Air Force and everyone asking you what kind of jet you piloted.
Twain once said something like "The most sought-after prize is the envy of other men". It's natural to want "prestige", but chasing after it kind of misses the point of life, no?
If you haven't done so, I recommend working for a small technology company with a strong engineering culture, staffed by smart & competent people who have nothing to prove. Worthwhile problems are fractal -- there's almost always more there if you keep digging.
To get to be part of an elite club which excludes others?
"I'm curious: how would people compare the prestige of working at Fog Creek vs. the prestige of working at Google?"
Improving PageRank (Google) > gluing APIs (anywhere) > editing project docs (anywhere)
It depends on what you do. Google definitely has more high profile jobs than Fog Creek, but also probably more grunt jobs than a typical small company.