I can see that.
My point is that there are many reasons for not wanting to work at a FAANG, even for someone like me who has worked in one and could work, I guess, in others. My reason is that I make enough money currently not to want to work there. I was working a standard 35-40 hours per week at a FAANG.
There are also many others in non-FAANG tech who make half my salary and work much more. And maybe I will be one of them at some point, there are no guarantees in life!
Why don't we all just join FAANG and make the big bucks? That's kind of a ridiculous statement on its face. There are multiple reasons why someone may not want to work for a FAANG company.
I do appreciate that FAANG companies are a bit like fly traps, collecting those sorts of people somewhere else so I don't have to work with them personally.
But understand, I am not asserting that FAANG companies are places nobody wants to work. I'm asserting that they are places I am not willing to work at. It's because I would be utterly miserable in that sort of working environment, and there is no amount of compensation that could make that tolerable to me.
Maybe, but when I say I don't want to work for FAANG, I really mean 3-4 of these 5 companies are definite NO, which biases me against the focusing my skills toward FAANG like interviews.
I've worked for companies who are FAANG+ and I would say I can't see any logic in being against FAANG+ companies that doesn't require individual examination of each. Saying you don't want to work for FAANG+ would probably mean you don't want to work for any for-profit corporation or any corporation in the tech industry.
I don't get it why people try very hard to get a job at FAANGs. Could it be because they would feel like they would become part of an elite, could it be because that once they have a FAANG company in their resume, they won't have to pass lengthy and stressful interviewing processes anymore and won't have to job hunt.
But there are many other software engineering jobs with at least as interesting problems to solve, at least as good payment, at least as good job security while being less stressful.
For me, hunting specifically a job at FAANG doesn't pay off.
I'd accept any job that meets my criteria of what I have to do, payment and stress level.
I've been at two FAANGs. They're all different and it varies by company and team.
Some the more general reasons to not work at one are
- The tech stack is idiosyncratic
- You won't necessarily be exposed to the same breadth of experience
- You won't know most people at the company
- Less agency as an engineer
- More organizational overhead
- You're not good at leetcode or don't want to put in the time
- Your work is often less connected to a tangible problem
- You're a cog
Reasons to work at one
- The pay
- It lends credibility to your resume
- Higher ceiling for star performers
- Stability
- Learn how things work at scale
- Better perks
Oh, one huge one: different people are better at different stages of a product's lifecycle. No time for tests, monitoring, alterting, or code reviews? An early startup might be a better place because they don't have time for those, either.
One could argue that being at FAANG provides far more income than 95% of other tech jobs, so OP might have a significantly larger financial cushion before they need to worry about the next paycheque.
This alone excludes most people from quitting first with nothing lined up.
I'm the OP and I don't mean to argue your experience, but my post was more pushing back on the idea that non-FAANG companies are desperate for people. In other words, I'm pushing back on the idea that anyone willing to work outside of FAANG for $100k-$150k should be able to find something super quick.
>There's prestige, salary, and quality of life that just can't be matched by any other tech companies.
To asses the quality of life you have to take into account : payment, time spent on the job and for the job, the amount of work, the prices in the area you live and work, the stress level, the interactions in the company and probably more.
I've done these calculations and for myself, job hunting for FAANG isn't worth. I would however not refuse to work for FAANG if that would match my personal goals, however working for FAANG would not be a goal in itself.
I hear this a lot, but most people -- even otherwise-startup people, even if they interview -- don't get to work at a FAANG.
And I think starting now at a FAANG is a lot less lucrative than people seem to think for the average (or even above-average) employee. Certainly nowhere near as lucrative as it was 7-10 years ago or more.
For every job that it's open in one of the FAANG, recruiters get thousands of applications. It sounds like many are trying, but the vast majority never gets a call back. Others cannot pass the interview. Others again are not interested in working in a very demanding environment.
I worked at a FAANGs, now I work in lower-tier tech company. I make 3/4 (low-ish upper tier) of what I used to make, I work 1/8 of the hours I used to work, work stress is non-existent. Many people, many reasons.
Educating people on available options at different companies is crucial. Everyone should know what companies pay well and what is required to join them.
However, we need to stop shaming people for having different career priorities than our own, or assuming that people are only making these choices out of poor judgment. As the parent comment explained, some people really do prefer to engage in non-FAANG career paths for various reasons. For many, it's as simple as not being willing or able to relocate to a location with a FAANG office, as few FAANG companies offer remote positions even after COVID.
Hey, just wanted to say I think you have a very fair perspective here, and I'm not sure why you got downvoted (perhaps your comment was perceived as rude.)
I'm actually not interested in working at FAANG. I don't want to live in California, I don't want the long hours, I don't want the stress, and the products and culture are not very interesting to me. The salary is pretty much the only selling point IMO.
However, you make a fair point: If I _did_ want to get into one of those companies, I would need to study CS (academically or non-academically).
I don't work at a FAANG, but I work at a company that wants to be like a FAANG. Now and even if I did work at a FAANG, I would feel 0 guilt. The only reason I don't apply there is because of work life balance, but I'd gladly program attack UAVs or eviction services if it got me a FAANG salary AND a good work life balance.
I sort of agree and disagree. I wouldn't agree with the idea that most FAANG engineers are not passionate by nature about their work.
What I would say is that the bureaucracy and bullshit one has to deal with makes it hard to maintain that passion and that many end up as TC optimizers in the sense that they stay instead of working someplace better for less TC.
That said, I am not sure how many would make different choices. Many who join a FAANG company don't have the slightest inkling of what it will be like and once they realize that they are tiny cog in a giant machine it's hard to leave the TC and perks behind.
But that isn't exclusive to FAANG. The problem with non-FAANG companies is they can have all these problems too - and don't have the benefit of being FAANG.
You could go work for some insurance company's cost center IT department and experience all of those same negatives while experiencing none of the positives that a FAANG brings to the plate to your career.
(For argument's sake, by "FAANG", let's refer to all similar "top" tech companies, not just the companies represented by those 5 letters)
......I don't know what to say. I know a few people are like this too. On the other hand, I think I do a lot of things for my employer and constantly learn/challenge myself, but don't make anywhere near FAANG SWE. I am trying hard to pass onsite FAANG interviews, and still failing. So I'm still Leetcoding now.
But hearing stories like this just kinda demotivates me and confuses me more. Most non FAANG companies have no interest in keeping people who wants to stay purely technical like me, so in the end I'll have to end up at FAANG/unicorns to get better compensation. But on the other hand, joining FAANG seems soul crushing.
I suppose that I shouldn't have said "literally" there. If a FAANG company were to offer me a million dollars for a day's work, and I only had to work for a single day, I'd be in.
But I know my own temperament, and enough people who work at various FAANGS, to know that if I had to work there for more than a couple of months, I would be utterly miserable regardless of the pay rate. I have worked at large international tech companies, and that's been fine, though.
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