Popping a cap in this job.
May. 23rd, 2006 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tithoniumOk, I shame myself. Two friends-only posts in one week! Remind me to link 'is disgusted by' to myself.
So, PopCap seems interested in me. We haven't had a formal interview process yet, but I don't have any significant worries on that score.
I'm interested. I'm tempted. I'm very tempted.
But I need to ponder a bit. I hate to be all money-centric, but I have gotten used to my lifestyle. The bottom range of what they're talking about for salary is what I've just been raised to at Amazon, which is nice. I took a pay cut to move to Amazon, it'd be kinda nice to take a pay RAISE to move somewhere else. On the other hand, I can probably expect some $20k this next year from stock. I don't think I could expect that from PC. On the other hand, PC has individual- and company-performance based bonuses. Tho, even the highest percentages mentioned for those wouldn't match $20k on top of $70k. So, effectively, this could be viewed as an overall pay cut. Monthly income would go up; annual income would go down.
On the non-money side, the closest thing to a team lunch we've had since I rejoined C7Y was when our PM left and he and I had lunch and Jim joined us. It was a /little/ better in CSS. Amazon felt more like a family once. PC is small. They have lunch. They have all-hands. In a room, not an amphitheatre.
Random thoughts:
Amazon: Employee discount. Crappy, but $100 is $100. Knowing about stuff before it's available. I /was/ enrolled in prime about 24 hours before it launched. eh, BFD. Having my hooks in things, giving myself special access and privileges. From outside, I can't give myself short URLs. I'm a fairly sizable fish in a large lake. My projects are entirely driven by middle and upper management; my list of things I should do keeps growing as I never have time to go do them.
Popcap: I don't actually spend all that much time gaming. I would never label myself a gamer. I spend too much time writing code to actually play games. I could, potentially, theoretically, carpool with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
loree. Popping down to westlake or else-downtown for lunch would be even more convenient than it was at US2 (after the tunnel closed, at any rate). In fact, the office is more or less right between loree and our hair dresser. Talk about convenient. Good view, too. Can't see my house from there; there's another building in the way. I'd be a small fish in a very small pond. They've got a list of things they need, but it sounds as if, to a large extent, I'd be responsible for my schedule and task management (so long as I'm getting them what they need). I'd kinda be my own little thing, to an extent. Which is good and bad. I hate writing specs. Hate hate. Hate, hate, hate.
Amazon: I have a cave. I have an office space that is bigger than almost anybody's office space in the company. Jeff probably has more space. I hope he does. The senior VP in the office next to me, his space is, I think, a little smaller. Tho, granted, he has two /other/ offices in other buildings. But for my level, I have a /great/ space. Bigger than any of the standard offices, and NOT shared. I've got my curtains up over the door, I've got a giant desk, I've got my four filing cabinets, two servers, three terminals (laptop, with extra LCD, sedna, and another LCD connected to the servers), room for a couch, a bookshelf.. I've got a LOT of stuff in here, and there's plenty of room for it all. And they'll never stick anybody else in here. Nobody would want it, for one thing, and I'm pretty sure if I put my foot down and said no that it wouldn't happen.
Popcap: I'll have a cubicle. They should be getting more space eventually, and there'd probably be something better available then, but it sounds as if, for the predictable future, I'd be in a cube. In their well-lit cube farm. Tho, I do have rather a lot of fabric, and a staple gun. Probably wouldn't be too hard to make a tent to go on top of the cube. No where to put most of my stuff tho. Need to ask what sort of hardware I'd be getting.
I've been composing this for 5 hours now. I'm going to post it and if I think of more, I'll post again.
So, PopCap seems interested in me. We haven't had a formal interview process yet, but I don't have any significant worries on that score.
I'm interested. I'm tempted. I'm very tempted.
But I need to ponder a bit. I hate to be all money-centric, but I have gotten used to my lifestyle. The bottom range of what they're talking about for salary is what I've just been raised to at Amazon, which is nice. I took a pay cut to move to Amazon, it'd be kinda nice to take a pay RAISE to move somewhere else. On the other hand, I can probably expect some $20k this next year from stock. I don't think I could expect that from PC. On the other hand, PC has individual- and company-performance based bonuses. Tho, even the highest percentages mentioned for those wouldn't match $20k on top of $70k. So, effectively, this could be viewed as an overall pay cut. Monthly income would go up; annual income would go down.
On the non-money side, the closest thing to a team lunch we've had since I rejoined C7Y was when our PM left and he and I had lunch and Jim joined us. It was a /little/ better in CSS. Amazon felt more like a family once. PC is small. They have lunch. They have all-hands. In a room, not an amphitheatre.
Random thoughts:
Amazon: Employee discount. Crappy, but $100 is $100. Knowing about stuff before it's available. I /was/ enrolled in prime about 24 hours before it launched. eh, BFD. Having my hooks in things, giving myself special access and privileges. From outside, I can't give myself short URLs. I'm a fairly sizable fish in a large lake. My projects are entirely driven by middle and upper management; my list of things I should do keeps growing as I never have time to go do them.
Popcap: I don't actually spend all that much time gaming. I would never label myself a gamer. I spend too much time writing code to actually play games. I could, potentially, theoretically, carpool with
loree. Popping down to westlake or else-downtown for lunch would be even more convenient than it was at US2 (after the tunnel closed, at any rate). In fact, the office is more or less right between loree and our hair dresser. Talk about convenient. Good view, too. Can't see my house from there; there's another building in the way. I'd be a small fish in a very small pond. They've got a list of things they need, but it sounds as if, to a large extent, I'd be responsible for my schedule and task management (so long as I'm getting them what they need). I'd kinda be my own little thing, to an extent. Which is good and bad. I hate writing specs. Hate hate. Hate, hate, hate.Amazon: I have a cave. I have an office space that is bigger than almost anybody's office space in the company. Jeff probably has more space. I hope he does. The senior VP in the office next to me, his space is, I think, a little smaller. Tho, granted, he has two /other/ offices in other buildings. But for my level, I have a /great/ space. Bigger than any of the standard offices, and NOT shared. I've got my curtains up over the door, I've got a giant desk, I've got my four filing cabinets, two servers, three terminals (laptop, with extra LCD, sedna, and another LCD connected to the servers), room for a couch, a bookshelf.. I've got a LOT of stuff in here, and there's plenty of room for it all. And they'll never stick anybody else in here. Nobody would want it, for one thing, and I'm pretty sure if I put my foot down and said no that it wouldn't happen.
Popcap: I'll have a cubicle. They should be getting more space eventually, and there'd probably be something better available then, but it sounds as if, for the predictable future, I'd be in a cube. In their well-lit cube farm. Tho, I do have rather a lot of fabric, and a staple gun. Probably wouldn't be too hard to make a tent to go on top of the cube. No where to put most of my stuff tho. Need to ask what sort of hardware I'd be getting.
I've been composing this for 5 hours now. I'm going to post it and if I think of more, I'll post again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: popcap
Date: 2006-05-23 11:54 pm (UTC)Re: popcap
Date: 2006-05-23 11:58 pm (UTC)Re: popcap
Date: 2006-05-24 12:26 am (UTC)A few more things to think about...
Date: 2006-05-24 12:00 am (UTC)Any interpersonal (friends/whatever) differences between the two?
Re: A few more things to think about...
Date: 2006-05-24 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 01:18 am (UTC)That sucks. I know what you mean, though. When I was there, the best time ever was when we had our whole group in Pacmed and got lunch together all the time.
I envy your cave, too.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 05:13 am (UTC)You should come visit.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-24 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-29 08:11 am (UTC)