Hacker News Reader

Comment by CodeCube | Hacker News Reader

But really, why be bored? If you find yourself bored, just use the new resources you have at your disposal to do something interesting! Being part of a large company comes with a number of benefits, whether it's access to smart folks, or access to IP, or access to infrastructure, etc etc ... you have an opportunity in front of you. Use it!

View on HN

This is true. Thanks for the motivation. I'm hoping that I can pair with someone for the 20% time to try to launch a new project and satisfy my appetite for "starting up".

I didn’t think 20% time was still a thing?

It is. Most people don't have a 20% project though. It means less time to work on the things that might get you promoted.

But you can have one of you want one.

Sounds like you have internal knowledge of this process ... how does it work, do you have to formally tell your boss that your fridays will be spent on 20% time? do they need to give you permission? or do you just have to sneak the time in at your discretion?

The normal way it works is you accept a 20% role from another team. Teams post 20% opportunities in the same way they post transfer opportunities internally. You talk to the hiring manager and see if they'd like to "hire" you.

A common reason people do 20% work is to test the waters of another area of the company. It's also a kind of tryout for you.

You do tell your manager in this case, yes. They're not supposed to say no. Hard to say what the range of responses is in practice. In my experience managers are supportive of this.

If you intend to find meaning in your 20% time I would advise you to find a way to make your project fit in to some greater picture outside the company. The FOSS community has seen a lot of side projects come out of Google and wither in a world that can’t really take advantage of them. Finding collaborators within Google should be a lower priority. It’s not quite as self-directed but you still have great latitude in choosing what to do and a better shot at making an impact on the world.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com