Quite often in life, we get puzzled as to which career to choose or which company to go for a thriving future and the same happened with this guy. As we all know, Internet is the best platform where you can get the finest answers to all your problems. Hence, just to get the best advice and solution to his confusion, this engineer posted his query on Quora:
Below is the complete question written by the engineer:
“Here’s the breakdown of the pros.
Uber
Pros
- Uber has people with amazing credentials working there (people from MIT, CMU, Facebook, Google). There is a lot of opportunity to learn from these folks. At the same time, I think that it will be really tough to stand out.
- I really believe in Uber’s product. Its a great idea and the thought of what they are planning in the future excites me.
- This is the biggest factor for me: Uber has a really good reputation. I think that working at Uber will really help me move to companies like Google and Apple, which is something that I want to do in the distant future.
Cons
- The biggest con for Uber is that their attitude towards me so far has been: “we don’t really need you. but here is your offer”. They really don’t seem to care as much, and I can understand why. Uber attracts top talent and they can easily find someone to replace me
Zenefits
Pros
- Zenefits has a great team. I really enjoyed talking to the people. They are people I think I would be more happy to work with
- I definitely think I can add more value to Zenefits. I have some great ideas that I will hopefully be able to pitch to upper management.
- Upper management is accessible. I can speak to top people (CEO, CTO) which is really nice.
- The job itself allows for more creative freedom, and with it more responsibility. However, it isn’t as technically challenging. At Zenefits, I will be more of a developer than an engineer (thats what I think at-least).
- Zenefits seems to be really aggressive in trying to keep me. They have tried really hard to make me choose them over Uber. And they are paying me a better salary by about 15k (where Uber completely refused to negotiate).
- They also have an office in Canada, and they have promised to relocate me there if I don’t get the H1B visa. When I asked Uber about this, I was told that it depends entirely on the performance review and manager (basically whether I am worth the trouble of relocating). Zenefits seems to be claiming that if I am an employee there, they will help me out and get my back.
Cons
- My biggest problem with Zenefits is that it isn’t a buzzword like Uber. Most people won’t know what Zenefits is (or so I think). I think that this isn’t as exciting a brand name to have on your resume when applying to the likes of Google.
I would really love to get some new perspectives into this. Thanks!
Edit clarifications: For whatever its worth at this point, one thing I do want to clarify on is that I have no specific aspirations for Apple, Google..etc. I think highly of both Zenefits and Uber. I didn’t apply to either of these companies with the mindset that I am settling for anything less than what I want. I don’t see these opportunities as placeholders! Rather I was thinking along the lines of: if and when I move on to the next opportunity, which company will help open the most doors for me and also if these are things that should matter when making such a decision. It was purely a quest to find out how these choices could impact my career. I realize that this wasn’t put together very well on my part.”
He received reply from many people including Uber as well as the CEO of Zenefits who simply revoked his offer to work at Zenefits.
Here is the full reply by the CEO of the company:
“Definitely not Zenefits.
Mostly, it seems like where you really want to work is Google (“I think that [Zenefits] isn’t as exciting a brand name to have on your resume when applying to the likes of Google.”). You should just apply there. If you’re able to pass our engineering interview, I’m pretty sure you could get a job there.
There are two things about this answer that make me think you wouldn’t be a great fit here….
1) We really value people who “get” what we do and who *want* to work here, specifically. It’s not for everyone, but there are enough ppl out there who do want to work here that we can afford to be selective. One of our company values is to have a bias towards action — which means that when people are hesitating / going back and forth about whether they want to work here, we usually view that as a bad sign.
2) We don’t have terribly high regard for ppl who would choose where to work based on “buzzwords” and how big a brand it is (or simply to position themselves for later in their career) instead of something more foundational about the opportunity, the challenge, etc.
Separately, I do think we have some enormous technical challenges at the company — most things done at scale, growing quickly, present large technical challenges sooner rather than later (for example — Uber is just a taxi-hailing company, right? What’s the big technical challenge there? Of course, if you’re the *biggest* transportation / taxi company in the world, suddenly these challenges reveal themselves….)”
And this is how he lost the chance of being recruited in one of his two preferred companies. What do you think about the whole happening? On one side, we prefer web and suggest the same to others for getting the easiest possible or rather perfect way out of a problem and on the other, we have this instance to take a lesson from. Should we stop putting up our query openly over the Internet? Share your views with regard to this all in comments.