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Corporate Hell: A Memoir
A true story of one man’s survival in Corporate America.
Enticed by the promise of the great rewards that await software developers, Randy Zinn enters the corporate world during the exciting internet boom of the late 1990s—only to find that the challenges awaiting him have nothing to do with code and everything to do with people.
Whether it’s the incompetence of coworkers, getting thrown under the bus, or being set up to fail, Zinn faces the outrageous behavior with determination to keep his hopes alive. Along the way, he offers readers a rare peek into working with private companies that contract with the U.S. Military, Transportation Security Agency (TSA), IRS, and more.
Corporate Hell: A Memoir is an unforgettable account of an idealistic programmer’s coming of age, and a story of professional perseverance in the face of blind authority.
Enticed by the promise of the great rewards that await software developers, Randy Zinn enters the corporate world during the exciting internet boom of the late 1990s—only to find that the challenges awaiting him have nothing to do with code and everything to do with people.
Whether it’s the incompetence of coworkers, getting thrown under the bus, or being set up to fail, Zinn faces the outrageous behavior with determination to keep his hopes alive. Along the way, he offers readers a rare peek into working with private companies that contract with the U.S. Military, Transportation Security Agency (TSA), IRS, and more.
Corporate Hell: A Memoir is an unforgettable account of an idealistic programmer’s coming of age, and a story of professional perseverance in the face of blind authority.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 2, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 4, 2021
When one door closes another one opens. At least, this is the axiom spouted by people who have never truly experienced the buzz-saw wielding horror that is a dead-end job. This is the overriding theme of Randy Zinn’s Corporate Hell—a memoir from a man who seems to have made a career out of laying bare his personal and professional struggles. Are memoirs supposed to be interesting? Most seem to be reflections on events that happened in an author's life; invariably leading up some revelation, or at least an inspirational denouement. Corporate Hell does not follow this formula. It falls flat at times. The book seems to be a collection of reminiscences organized in such a way as to tell a linear story—a ten-year progression peppered with bad experiences and inspirational anecdotes.
Zinn’s narrative is straight-forward, almost to the point of being dry. However, anyone who has experienced the corporate culture can relate to the stories he tells. From prevaricating recruiters to personality clashes with power-tripping coworkers, it strikes a chord. This is the strength of the novel, the realism and relatability of his experiences. Zinn gives the reader a brutal glimpse a corporate culture. It is not a pretty picture. These vignettes are no shock to anyone who has worked for a major corporation. I found myself relating to some of the reflections, and I’m sure most readers will as well.
The highly technical nature of the narrative is one of its major weaknesses. Zinn is a computer programmer by trade—working on database driven applications. I have no idea what that is. There are sections of the book in which the author provides way too much detail regarding the intricacies of his avocation. While informative, learning about the nuances of running code for a customer database made my eyes glaze over and I swear I could taste copper. Narrowly avoiding long-term brain damage, I pushed on. This is not to say that the book does not contain grains of brutal truth. The dedication that the author shows in overcoming the difficulties presented by his various work environments is a credit to his professionalism.
Corporate Hell is not an easy read, but it is relatable.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Zinn’s narrative is straight-forward, almost to the point of being dry. However, anyone who has experienced the corporate culture can relate to the stories he tells. From prevaricating recruiters to personality clashes with power-tripping coworkers, it strikes a chord. This is the strength of the novel, the realism and relatability of his experiences. Zinn gives the reader a brutal glimpse a corporate culture. It is not a pretty picture. These vignettes are no shock to anyone who has worked for a major corporation. I found myself relating to some of the reflections, and I’m sure most readers will as well.
The highly technical nature of the narrative is one of its major weaknesses. Zinn is a computer programmer by trade—working on database driven applications. I have no idea what that is. There are sections of the book in which the author provides way too much detail regarding the intricacies of his avocation. While informative, learning about the nuances of running code for a customer database made my eyes glaze over and I swear I could taste copper. Narrowly avoiding long-term brain damage, I pushed on. This is not to say that the book does not contain grains of brutal truth. The dedication that the author shows in overcoming the difficulties presented by his various work environments is a credit to his professionalism.
Corporate Hell is not an easy read, but it is relatable.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
January 25, 2022
Randy and I have some similar experiences, even though our work was in different fields in the 1990s. Once Y2K came around, I switched fields, and saw very similar occurrences. I even worked in similar areas like Tysons Corner, Crystal City, and Quantico.
Yet I lived in NoVa, so driving to those places wasn’t as bad for me as it was for Randy. I also managed to go in the opposite direction, living in Alexandria and driving to Bethesda, MD. The American Legion Bridge we knew it well, my husband and I, as his parents lived in DC before moving to Fairfax, VA.
I was in an industry that hired people for a big job, proposed for the job, and worked said job, only to get laid off afterwards. I think I had almost 8 different jobs in a 10 year span, which includes a year off for Grad School. My self-esteem was dismal in those days.
I get what Randy was talking about with not working on his own strengths or future technologies that he wanted to work on. He had to do what his managers wanted him to do instead. That bait and switch, hiring you for what you think would be wonderful for your career, but eventually moves you backwards.
I think the only good part of working for these companies, besides the pay, was the 401K and other benefits. I’m pretty sure Randy was making more than me, and I never got above $42K in a science field. But I did manage to get a bunch of money in matched 401K, even starting with new companies. And just like Randy, most of those companies are now gone, or were enveloped into larger ones.
I do think that having a diary or journal was smart so that you could write down especially the bad parts, and not have to think of them again. Most of the horrific conversations I had with managers I blacked out on, because I didn’t want to remember them. But it made it harder to remember and learn from those experiences later on. Randy’s book helped me remember similar times.
One of the suggestions I have for Randy, as I got this advanced review copy, was to check some of the grammar and punctuation mistakes I found. Thankfully, there were only a handful.
The other suggestion is that, yes, you don’t have to read his other memoirs to understand this one. However , the guitar one about his disability/hand problems would help in understanding of the unusual use of a foot pedal. The mention of his future memoir of Consulting Hell in this book, it would have been nice to get an excerpt of that one.
I found this book very relatable, and I enjoyed the book. The low amount of errors helped, and the formatting read well on Kindle, an iPhone app of Kindle, and the desktop version of Kindle.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Five stars
Yet I lived in NoVa, so driving to those places wasn’t as bad for me as it was for Randy. I also managed to go in the opposite direction, living in Alexandria and driving to Bethesda, MD. The American Legion Bridge we knew it well, my husband and I, as his parents lived in DC before moving to Fairfax, VA.
I was in an industry that hired people for a big job, proposed for the job, and worked said job, only to get laid off afterwards. I think I had almost 8 different jobs in a 10 year span, which includes a year off for Grad School. My self-esteem was dismal in those days.
I get what Randy was talking about with not working on his own strengths or future technologies that he wanted to work on. He had to do what his managers wanted him to do instead. That bait and switch, hiring you for what you think would be wonderful for your career, but eventually moves you backwards.
I think the only good part of working for these companies, besides the pay, was the 401K and other benefits. I’m pretty sure Randy was making more than me, and I never got above $42K in a science field. But I did manage to get a bunch of money in matched 401K, even starting with new companies. And just like Randy, most of those companies are now gone, or were enveloped into larger ones.
I do think that having a diary or journal was smart so that you could write down especially the bad parts, and not have to think of them again. Most of the horrific conversations I had with managers I blacked out on, because I didn’t want to remember them. But it made it harder to remember and learn from those experiences later on. Randy’s book helped me remember similar times.
One of the suggestions I have for Randy, as I got this advanced review copy, was to check some of the grammar and punctuation mistakes I found. Thankfully, there were only a handful.
The other suggestion is that, yes, you don’t have to read his other memoirs to understand this one. However , the guitar one about his disability/hand problems would help in understanding of the unusual use of a foot pedal. The mention of his future memoir of Consulting Hell in this book, it would have been nice to get an excerpt of that one.
I found this book very relatable, and I enjoyed the book. The low amount of errors helped, and the formatting read well on Kindle, an iPhone app of Kindle, and the desktop version of Kindle.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Five stars
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews