How to Survive and Thrive in a BigCo
Given at J-Spring 2026 (Utrecht) on .
Working inside a 1,000+ person company is a different game from working in a startup, and most of the rules are unwritten. This talk walks through how a BigCo actually works, how to manage your workload and your projects, how to hide out to innovate, how to use mentors and champions, how to write a corporate deck (which is a different genre from a conference keynote), and - most importantly - how to manage yourself so the BigCo doesn't eat your life.
Slides
Resources
- How to Survive and Thrive in a BigCo - O'Reilly video series.
- The Business Bullshit Dictionary - YouTube playlist.
- Wolf in CIO's Clothing, Tina Nunno.
- Moral Mazes, Robert Jackall.
- The Culture Map, Erin Meyer.
- The Good Enough Job, Simone Stolzoff.
- Dell's Developer line turns 10 - Looking back at Project Sputnik's first decade, Barton George.
- Developer Toil: The Hidden Tech Debt - Susie Forbath, Tyson McNulty & Coté.