I suppose that I could argue that complaining about an incompetent former employer does literally no good for one's future career prospects. It can only hurt you, and that lack of foresight may be considered "unprofessional" by not considering your own best interests.
(some companies won't care about his rant against Samsung, but some other bigcos will. No company will actually give him bonus points for his public complaints, so overall the blog is purely a net negative for his future career transition prospects)
There is something to be said for opening discussion about coding practices in large companies. His essay was descriptive. Even if it did hurt his own personal career prospects, having it out there helps the community better understand what is expected at certain jobs. If I were a new CS graduate, this sort of information would be immensely helpful in deciding whether Samsung was right for me. I think that, from a global standpoint, his essay was a good thing. I'm not disagreeing with you, of course -- he may have hurt his job prospects for certain companies, but it sounds like he wouldn't be happy working at such companies anyway, so it seems for the best.
He didn't say they're incompetent, to the contrary, just that he didn't like it, and that being directly involved in something that makes more sense to him is more fulfilling to him in the meantime. So yes, he won't be hired by people without reading comprehension who snoop around on blogs, but what makes you think those are particularly productive anyway? And how is this relevant for someone looking to start his own business? And even if that wasn't the case, how are only "bigcos" viable employers, and how can you equate them with "all companies" on top of that?
Bigcos aren't the only ones who would be turned off by this post - I do due diligence daily on new employees at a small dev shop, we work startup hours and get dirty when it comes to the work we do (I do mindless crap daily that feels like I should have an intern that does it for me).
The op's post wreaks of entitlement and puts doubt in my mind that he'd be able to sit for 5 hours and setup staging servers, or batch review and comment code so new employees can follow quickly, or do one of the 100 other small, time-consuming, mundane tasks that we all get stuck doing sometimes at ANY size company level.
Then he wouldn't be a fit for you company, just as you probably wouldn't be a good employer for him.
It goes both ways. If a person takes a stand like that (basically stating not liking dysopian work environments, bad tools and major bureaucracy), he might make himself not available to such environments, but yet open doors to other ones.
The other thing you forget is that this guy is pretty young and still maturing up. Almost no level headed manager will read too much into it few years down the road.
As a co-worker, I like this type. They are more likely to reject bureaucracies, and seeking efficiency. These types tend to be more motivated on getting things done, and taking joy in their productive work, and not useless work.
Having seen myself how Samsung engineers work (mostly Korean teams), long hours culture, sleeping in their desks (shows you are working hard!), producing buggy code at night, then fixing their own crap in the morning (inefficient tail chasing), I would never work for that company either. *
*(Unless they pay me a 7 figure salary, I have a price after all)
I am not sure about that. From the article: "Secondly Samsung as a corporation is a place of absurdity where doing unnecessary things for about 40% of time is a rule"
That's not necessarily true - people like to hire people like themselves, there are a good number of people in the small company world that think similar things about working for a big company but don't say it. If he's otherwise qualified, it's pretty likely that one of them would want to hire him.
It's unprofessional because in the real-world you're OFTEN (of not most of the time) tasked with tasks that you believe are below your skill-set (or non-world changing as the author put it).
The reward for the hard work is usually being elevated to a project you're proud of, or work you enjoy (sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn't - that's the workforce - if you're in a situation where you don't see upward mobility, you usually switch out from Co. A to Co. B that'll grant you what you're looking for).
We may all feel the way the poster did at one time or another ("eerrrg my job sucks..."), the difference is we don't write negative, public posts against the company that we worked for (especially considering Samsung's probably recruiting, and there's a "talent shortage" in mobile development at-the-moment).
Good luck clearing due diligence for a job at a large reputable company in the future.
Sidebar, it's not a matter of age either, it's professionalism that he should have known - I'm 23, been in the workforce for 5 years, and I wouldn't be caught dead writing a post like this...
It's unprofessional because in the real-world you're OFTEN (of not most of the time) tasked with tasks that you believe are below your skill-set (or non-world changing as the author put it).
The reward for the hard work is usually being elevated to a project you're proud of, or work you enjoy (sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn't - that's the workforce - if you're in a situation where you don't see upward mobility, you usually switch out from Co. A to Co. B that'll grant you what you're looking for).
Do you realize how disgusting and condescending an arrangement this is? It's "you're a prole, so if you really grovel I'll throw you a bone now and then, if I feel like it; if not, too bad, and that's what you get for being a prole". Fuck that.
By the way, I don't think you're one of the bad guys. I think you're too young to realize that you're defending the bad guys, or at least it comes off that way. At your age, I don't think you've been burned badly enough to know what you're talking about. You may have been laid off, but you haven't had the CEO of a 100-person company spend years stalking you and trying to ruin your reputation. Once you start having experiences like that, you'll know the assholes running this game for what they really are.
the difference is we don't write negative, public posts against the company that we worked for (especially considering Samsung's probably recruiting, and there's a "talent shortage" in mobile development at-the-moment).
Speaking honestly about a negative work experience is a good thing for society, because it allows talented people to allocate their energy to more appreciative companies that will give them better work, rather than wasting their talents on low-level, parochial people-pleasing.
This is like the refusal of some newspapers to print Bush's involvement in the wiretapping scandal of 2004 because it "might affect the election". That's the fucking point! You're supposed to give people information that will help them make better (political and economic) decisions. The prohibition against "bad-mouthing" previous employers by being honest about them is the same thing. It's just fucking oppression and intimidation at this point, not "professionalism". Back when the professions meant something because companies took care to be decent to their people, it was different. But now "bad-mouthing" is almost always second-strike. People don't disparage ex-employers lightly. In all the cases I know about, the ex-employers deserve much worse than they got.
> Do you realize how disgusting and condescending an arrangement this is?
It's a pretty basic workplace dynamic. If you really have to get away from it, you stay out of the workplace.
In freelancing or contract work, you're in the workplace, but are free to turn stuff down and be difficult because there's no long-term investment, you come on board and start contributing immediately. If they treat you poorly, just tell them to take a hike and go find something else.
The real problem is people let themselves be taken advantage of, because they often leave themselves with no options but to take abuse until they crack and do something that gets them fired.
If your immediate supervisor has shown signs of being a sociopathic asshole, you start making connections with other people, spread out your influence on the company. That way when things get real bad you can complain to someone who already knows you. Not make long diatribic rants about how ugly things are. One of these strategies offers options, the other limits them.
Child? I would call it "rather wise for that age". Have you ever worked on a farm, by the way?
Unprofessional? Define "professional", then.