I worked at Google as an SRE. I'm at Meta now. I always disliked all the swag (goes straight into the trash) and parties and travel. But I'm a suburban mom so I don't need more junk and I like to be home with my family. Remote work is all the perks I'll ever want or need. Maybe tech companies should hire more suburban moms. We can be placated with boxes of wine and zoom yoga classes lmaooo.
> Remote work is all the perks I'll ever want or need. Maybe tech companies should hire more suburban moms.
TBH, as a hiring manager outside of a FAANG, "mid-career parents who want to work remotely" is really the sweet spot for me.
I can't offer enough compensation to compete with FAANGs for new graduates of elite universities, so I have to look at lower tier institutions. That's not to say they're bad or anything... I and many of my best employees dropped out of state schools. But generally, the ceiling is lower, and identifying a new graduate's value is really hard.
And because I'm at a tech company which is not in a super exciting tech hub, I have to be exceptionally remote friendly to land good candidates.
But the thing is: there are tons of employees out there who are smart, get things done, and want to clock out for the day with enough time to cook dinner and play with their kids. We've even hired a few ex-Amazon/Googler's who left because the pay was great but they wanted to have a family.
I selfishly find myself hoping that remote work isn't embraced by those places, or else I'll lose my hiring edge.
As a mommy who is thinking of having another child the thing that would make me leave Meta would be part time work. If I could work remote 3 days a week I would take much lower pay. Even though I have a track record of saving companies a lot of money with my projects and a great resume it feels like nobody wants to considering hiring me at 3 days a week. I'll keep trying, or eventually I'll leave the tech industry and do something for myself where I can bill clients directly....
You should sell the swag. Apparently there are people across the country who buy/collect corporate swag. Especially swag of ones that are dead startups or failed businesses.
I suspect that, like many things the right person would want but which don't have a lot of intrinsic value, connecting them to someone who would actually put cash on the barrel is probably more trouble than it's worth.
I have sold on eBay and it's a pain in the neck especially for a random one-off sale, and I'm probably not going to get >$100 for a random box of tech swag--which is what it would have to be for it to even start being worthwhile. I also have a big stack of laserdiscs. Same thing.
