Nellie Bowles for the Guardian:
Engineers look for “big problems” that will push them and for a culture that puts them at the center, Solomon said. He also noted that the best engineers like to work in “flow state” and keep creative hours, which Apple, with its long commute from San Francisco to Cupertino, doesn’t always allow.
“Apple’s not an engineering culture,” Solomon said. “Tim Cook’s done an amazing job running the company, but [Steve Jobs] was the guy everyone wanted to follow into battle.”
This is right for the wrong reasons – characterizing the challenges of the world’s most valuable company by how they’re perceived by a few professionals in the industry will inevitably fail to tell the full story. However, being that big is the source of Apple’s struggles in recruiting, retention, and quality.
Apple have a massive install base of massive software systems, and public expectations are the same as when they were selling iPods and represented 2% of the PC market share. And in order to retain their culture of “world-changing” perception, they have to keep everything a secret, presumably even from within.
That’s my charitable take on this peculiar piece from the Guardian. Apple likely do have problems attracting the world’s top talent, but when you have as much money in the bank as Apple do, it gives them a strong place to negotiate from. Additionally, engineers that bemoan the lack of free food and the rigid start times are likely not the kind Apple wish to attract.
John Gruber on the article:
The other problem Apple faces is that it’s not just any A-team talent that Apple needs, Apple needs A-team talent that understands and appreciates Apple’s design-focused culture.
As a software engineer, I’m very aware that right now, engineer’s have a lot of bargaining power because of their scarcity. Good engineers will always be scarce. That “engineering culture” that Solomon criticizes Apple for not having is probably more that Apple do not pander to entry-level candidates the same way Google or Facebook do with their silly hats and free lunches. But it won’t always be like this, as universities ramp up to meet the demand for software professionals, being a programmer will become more and more like being any other commodity professional. That’s my take of Apple supposed lack of “engineering” culture, because if you look at their actual engineering culture, it’s brought the world WebKit and Swift and, in many ways, the personal computer.