what's going on?
hi everyone. it's been a hectic two weeks but i'll have some new posts ready soon. if you want up to the minute updates, just subscribe to my RSS feed. in the meantime, to take advantage of the traffic, i've added adsense to my website on the sidebar. don't worry, all proceeds will be going to charity :).
also, i want to thank those in the community that have been so supportive. for those who are leaving disparaging comments: if you want to have a real conversation, i'm open. don't be an anonymous troll - stand behind what you say and put your email address on it.
thanks and stay tuned...
also, i want to thank those in the community that have been so supportive. for those who are leaving disparaging comments: if you want to have a real conversation, i'm open. don't be an anonymous troll - stand behind what you say and put your email address on it.
thanks and stay tuned...
posted by markjen at 2/09/2005 04:07:00 PM
32 Comments:
Don't let the man get you down. I mean, google is cool and all that, but they're still a big corporation, and hence they are "the man".
mark... whas goin on? call me
i'm sorry you got fired.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Doc, hablas español? Dime la verdad, esto de Google y todo lo demás ¿era para probar si Google desactivaba tu blogger? o ¿para llegar a la fama al menos por unos meses? Si deseas escribirme simplemente busca mi perfil y cambia el @usa.net por @email.com o el dominio de tu correo que indicas y ahí nos vemos, en inglés si prefieres.
Por cierto buen negocio eso de los anuncios eh...
Saludos y suerte, por cierto ¿qué edad tienes?
I have been trying to get hired at google for two years. I can't believe the opportunity you wasted by being a little too verbose on your blog.
I've been reading through it and while I can understand your desire to share the details of working at a place like Google, it's completely inappropriate to tell the world about a Google sales meeting, or to go into detail about the (free) shuttle with broken internet access, or to opine about the more sinister/manipulative reasons behind Google's benefits packages. Of *course* the generous benefits packages is to make you more productive. Why else would a company give a hoot about its employee morale?
You shared things in your blog in a public forum that are best shared with friends and family over drinks. I'm sorry that you got canned, and while I think they were a little harsh, I don't think the company was out of line.
Aww man! This thing sucks... So, did google lose it's competitive edge or what? This isn't quite right!!
hey mark... sorry about the termination... good luck for the future!! :P
Mark. I think your open, disruptive, yet ingenious wit would be significantly better utilized in a young, thriving, innovative and ground shaking company. We need to talk and make your position and command more Relevant. Email me when you are ready to put things in high gear.
I worked for google...it's crap. I hope soon the rest of the world can see that.
Good luck, Mark, There's another future outside Gugol
Good luck Mark! Whether Mark made a mistake or not isn't really the matter - getting fired is a pretty traumatic experience and can give you a huge dent in your self-esteem.
Chin up... and best of luck.
i cant help wondering if Google are starting to lose their edge - they could have handled this a bit better. Whether you think Mark deserved to be fired or not, it's all bad PR for Google, and has taken the shine off their cuddly "dont be evil" image.
I read somewhere that Google HR got 400 complaints from Googlers about Mark's postings - so , rather than confront Mark directly, these Googlers went behind his back and complained to HR anonymously. Oh dear - doesnt that sound like any other big corporate , doesnt it?
Hey Mark;
This truly sucks. I don't believe that you've done anything horrifically wrong - maybe a little dumb, but nothing wrong and worth being fired over. I've lost a lot of faith in Google as a company because of this case, and I hope you set the story straight in regards to what happened.
Good luck for the future, please keep blogging, and keep your chin up.
Mark, on behalf of the rest of the blogosphere I apologize for all of us pointing the spotlight at you. We believed Google would utilize you to improve its image, when instead it decided to prove that image is well-deserved.
Google has a corporate culture that believes that its people are smarter than anyone else and that no one else deserves to work there, and no one deserves to know what goes on inside. Mark came in and started speaking to the world, and that frightened 400 Google employees who like things as they are, and didn't want someone ruining the bubble they've built. So they canned him.
Yes, Mark posted things that can warrant a firing. He wasn't the first to, and he won't be the last. He wasn't fired because of anything he said. He was fired because he was new and threatening the company with change and progress and accountability. There is no "right" in that reason, just a corporate culture that wants to live in its bubble and make its money. Maybe they are entitled to it. Then again, there are going to be those like Mark that have their careers suffer as a result.
Hey Buddy,
This really sucks! Best of luck for your future.
Now you have worked with both Microsoft and Google, which is better you think?
Welcome back!
Probably more to this than meets the eye.
That said, Google sure looks to me like a company with a lot of money and no plan. Running round buying things, launching things, giving out free lunches. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Remember, there have been plenty of multi-billion dollar companies in the recent past that no longer exist.
I thought Google's thing was 'do one thing and do it well'. Now they do about twenty things, and it's hard to see what the mission is.
Still Googling though ...
AKA Moron
"Besides getting canned less then a month after getting hired, the funnier thing is Mark using this blog to financially gain. ..."
From the Blog.
"don't worry, all proceeds will be going to charity :)."
Read the blog before you post.
Hi Mark..just wanted to let you know that you got a good thing going on here, I believe what Google did was outrageous and a knee jerk reaction, I can't believe the guys who bought Blogger actually fired an employee for using that very service, Goggle's becoming more and more like an army camp and is ebbing away from the democratic system it claimed to be.
I'll be visiting regularly and I wish you the best with this blog.
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Okay, so I see what's been pointed out... eh, doesn't seem like that big a deal. But hey, I've been surprised so much by the actions of people here in the US lately... the gulibility, the fundamentalism, the blind following of corporate and political icons... ek. I'm moving to anothe country.
8-)
Charlie
Fired For Blogging? Not Exactly...
http://techdirt.com/articles/20050209/1345226_F.shtml
Mark Jen & Office Politics 101
"Since Google blogger Mark Jen got the ax there's been a lot of talk about whether or not the move was fair on Google's part.
Naturally this leads in to the bigger issue of whether or not employers have the right to lay down policies outlining acceptable blogging behavior (or, to put it more bluntly - censor their employees).
Among all the buzz (i.e., articles cobbled together from what little we've heard from Jen) comes this dose of common sense from Techdirt. The post takes a step back, removing the method of delivery (blogging) from of the equation and focusing on the content (what Jen actually said).
We agree that Jen was fired for what he was saying, not how he was saying it. What he was saying was negative stuff about his employer that included bagging on his compensation (big no no), disclosing the details of his compensation (even bigger no no), and describing HR policies and procedures of a company notorious for its secrecy.
Is it any wonder he got fired? Are we taking crazy pills here? Anyone with the most rudimentary knowledge of office politics and acceptable standards of behavior knows this stuff.
And if Jen doesn't know, then why? Aren't Google employees supposed to be the cream of the crop? If he didn't realize that word gets around in the blogosphere, what's he doing as an Associate Product Manager, where one of the main tasks is, as Jen himself puts it, "Coming up with new offerings that would revolutionize the way people use computers and the internet." Hard to revolutionize with your head where the sun don't shine.
Bottom line: The cardinal rule of office politics hasn't changed - whether you're gossiping over cocktails with a coworker or blogging by yourself in your basement - what you say can (and will) come back to you."
http://searchviews.com/blog/searchviews/archive/2005/02/10/470.aspx
Anyway, Marc, I'm sorry that you got fired...
"I can't believe the guys who bought Blogger actually fired an employee for using that very service."
He wasn't fired for using the service, he was fired for misusing the service.
Their ownership of Blogger doesn't mean their employees can do anything with it. Just like a Microsoft employee could be fired for writing a virus, even if they wrote it with Microsoft Visual C++. If a blogger divulges sensitive company information, it doesn't seem all that unreasonable to let them go.
As a famous standup comic and writer once said "sounds like vu deja all over again".
Google is walking noisily in the same footsteps that the Netscape investors once stepped. Search engines are a commodity. Semantic search is what people really need. It's all about fuzzy logic. You can punch up ads on keywords all you want but that only covers a small percent of "googling".
I give this company no more than 2 years before its supplanted by new technology. Sounds like Netscape all over again
But Google is not the end of the world. Is it?
Ah you'll find something else. :) Just smile as if nothing is getting to you.
Mark: this is the best thing that has happened for you. Think positively. If you had NOT blogged the Foo--you would not be getting so much of attentions. Secondly, you now know the ramifications of bloggin with 'comman sense culture'
Harverst your experience and momenents.. Don't let go.. and keep your passion going.. Nobody but yourself can break your soul.. protect that with all your might.. We are here to support you dude
all the bets
For all the people here saying google is doing evil, please answer this question....
Would any company risk to hire Mark anymore ?
Assuming he continues his actions.
hmm.. doesn't Google own (at least partially) blogger/blogspot? ..no chance in keeping something posted here hidden, if that's the case.
whooo hoooo, i got my name on this blog finally.
Viral said...
"I dont understand. Where in his blog does he say he got fired? I dont think he got fired. I read Mark's last few posts over and over again. I just dont get it."
Hey, what does "I got terminated from Google" in the blog mean to you?
Google change the way we look the Internet, look at Microsoft, Yahoo and lot's of other online portals, look how do they changed the way they advertise, how they design their search interface, it's all because of Google's influence, they saw simplicity at it's very best. If companies like Microsoft and Yahoo are still dominating the search market, those companies would outsmart us consumers, releasing beta software's as a full blown software, where's the integrity of that?, that would only provide us slow unreliable information source that would only add up bad repution of the internet. They would only think about their own benefits.
There's no other company that is dedicated to bring useful information to the people other than Google, with integrity of it's software, and provide fully tested products. There's no other company that would spend it's money to scan library books and expired copyrights books that would be available online, Google is the only company that provided us with that kind of approach to the internet.
Don't let Microsoft consume you Google, One day I want my children to read scanned books at Google, One day I like my children to have their own blogs, I won't subscribe to Microsoft services like Encarta, coz all they want is our money. I rather browse the Wikipedia, and contribute about what I know.
I'm sorry man, but I think your a timebomb inside Google, threatening to explode anytime you found useful to say.
hey mark..henry shih here...the younger.
emily liu just filled me in on your termination story. we haven't really kept in touch but i just want to offer my verbal and moral support. as a former diarylander who just switched over to blogspot, and an outspoken who embraces chances to criticize the status quo, i find your story regrettable but inspiring. life aint fair, but there's nothing to do but to do whats right, right? never stop kicking ass, mark. you always have=]
--henry
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