4 ms·

There are more than 4 companies in Silicon Valley.

by twtw 8y ago

Hydraulix989 8y ago
The distribution is Pareto-like -- FANG compensation is at a 2-5x multipler compared to the modal Silicon Valley tech company. Coding talent at FANG relative to others almost certainly also follows a similar multiplier, given the market dynamics at work.
- paulie_a 8y ago
  No the fang talent is not exceptionally higher than anywhere else. Good but basically nothing special.
  - Hydraulix989 8y ago
    Talent concentrates, especially when incentivized by much higher compensation. One recent HN trending article even attributed wage competition with FANG as a cause of startup stagnation in the Valley. People don't work for "charity," especially in a high cost-of-living area, so the choice between FANG and others is a no-brainer when it means the difference between having roommates and not living in a converted living room -- or commuting two hours a day and living downtown. This means that the FANG companies' applicant pools become highly competitive, allowing them to be very selective about hiring the best talent. Similar dynamics happen with universities (Ivy League vs others), VC investors/accelerators (YC vs others), immigration (US vs others), and many other societal gateways. Sure, there are always outliers and exceptions (and they are, by definition, outliers and exceptions), so I'm speaking in the broadly general case.
    - nradov 8y ago
      There is no quantitative evidence that FANG engineering talent is higher than other employers. In fact, talent itself is largely a myth. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/07/22/the-talent-myth https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/07/22/the-talent-myt...
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    - nojvek 8y ago
      Fancy interviews doesn’t mean they always select the best out of the best. There’s good chances that even Jeff Dean would fail some interviews because “he’s not a good culture fit”. I work with a number of Xooglers and they don’t seem to be laying golden eggs every morning.
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      - Hydraulix989 8y ago
        I had a rebuttal in mind but I wasn't going to write it today until later when I unexpectedly wandered upon a section from one of pg's essays while showing them to a friend who was interested in startups: "Clumping Along with interesting problems, what good hackers like is other good hackers. Great hackers tend to clump together-- sometimes spectacularly so, as at Xerox Parc. So you won't attract good hackers in linear proportion to how good an environment you create for them. The tendency to clump means it's more like the square of the environment. So it's winner take all. At any given time, there are only about ten or twenty places where hackers most want to work, and if you aren't one of them, you won't just have fewer great hackers, you'll have zero." The essay then goes to lengths about Google. Jeff Dean has enough clout that he can just skip the interview process and get immediately hired by any company he wants. I even have friends who have pulled this off who aren't even nearly as capable as Jeff Dean.

There are more than 4 companies in Silicon Valley.

by twtw 8y ago

There are more than 4 companies in Silicon Valley.

The distribution is Pareto-like -- FANG compensation is at a 2-5x multipler compared to the modal Silicon Valley tech company. Coding talent at FANG relative to others almost certainly also follows a similar multiplier, given the market dynamics at work.

paulie_a 8y ago
No the fang talent is not exceptionally higher than anywhere else. Good but basically nothing special.
- Hydraulix989 8y ago
  Talent concentrates, especially when incentivized by much higher compensation. One recent HN trending article even attributed wage competition with FANG as a cause of startup stagnation in the Valley. People don't work for "charity," especially in a high cost-of-living area, so the choice between FANG and others is a no-brainer when it means the difference between having roommates and not living in a converted living room -- or commuting two hours a day and living downtown. This means that the FANG companies' applicant pools become highly competitive, allowing them to be very selective about hiring the best talent. Similar dynamics happen with universities (Ivy League vs others), VC investors/accelerators (YC vs others), immigration (US vs others), and many other societal gateways. Sure, there are always outliers and exceptions (and they are, by definition, outliers and exceptions), so I'm speaking in the broadly general case.
  - nradov 8y ago
    There is no quantitative evidence that FANG engineering talent is higher than other employers. In fact, talent itself is largely a myth. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/07/22/the-talent-myth https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/07/22/the-talent-myt...
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      [deleted]
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - nojvek 8y ago
    Fancy interviews doesn’t mean they always select the best out of the best. There’s good chances that even Jeff Dean would fail some interviews because “he’s not a good culture fit”. I work with a number of Xooglers and they don’t seem to be laying golden eggs every morning.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - Hydraulix989 8y ago
      I had a rebuttal in mind but I wasn't going to write it today until later when I unexpectedly wandered upon a section from one of pg's essays while showing them to a friend who was interested in startups: "Clumping Along with interesting problems, what good hackers like is other good hackers. Great hackers tend to clump together-- sometimes spectacularly so, as at Xerox Parc. So you won't attract good hackers in linear proportion to how good an environment you create for them. The tendency to clump means it's more like the square of the environment. So it's winner take all. At any given time, there are only about ten or twenty places where hackers most want to work, and if you aren't one of them, you won't just have fewer great hackers, you'll have zero." The essay then goes to lengths about Google. Jeff Dean has enough clout that he can just skip the interview process and get immediately hired by any company he wants. I even have friends who have pulled this off who aren't even nearly as capable as Jeff Dean.