That might be true for a small percentage of projects/teams. If you want to succeed as a SWE at a FAANG company you'll have to be an exceptional engineer, or h

That might be true for a small percentage of projects/teams. If you want to succeed as a SWE at a FAANG company you'll have to be an exceptional engineer, or have other skills (leadership, pm, ...). You can't just weasle up the ladder by playing "political games". Though, most of my colleagues don't even care about their career - most of us just want to work on cool projects which immediately affect billions of people.