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Thanks for your post. I am currently at a startup and have been here a few years. I came to really hate the environment, mostly because the people this company

Thanks for your post. I am currently at a startup and have been here a few years. I came to really hate the environment, mostly because the people this company can hire are not what I would personally consider talented (due to a mix of non-exponential company growth and lower compensations than FAANG companies). The result of hiring low quality professionals is that the engineering standards are so low that it really depresses me. For this reason, I've interviewed and got offers with 3 FAANGs, and I am contemplating about moving to one of them. After reading your post, I recognize I am perhaps romanticizing FAANGs a little bit more than what's fair, but the thing that intrigues me the most is the ability to work with and learn from other very talented engineers (so I can grow), that I have a hard time finding in startups that don't have big pockets as them. And of course, also the financial aspects, since financial freedom is relatively high in my priority list.

ThrowawayR2 8y ago
The FAANG companies are not monolithic hiveminds. They are huge places where some parts are good and some are ... not so good. There are talented engineers and opportunities for growth at the good teams but you're not guaranteed to be in a good team at any given time. I would say go for it but go in with a mission to understand the lay of the land and then transferring to a team that matches your growth goals.
souprock 8y ago
FAANG companies are not where you go to find high engineering standards. You need to look for a job featuring one of these: DO-178C DAL A (if you mess up, aircraft crash) EAL5, EAL6, EAL7 (if you mess up, national secrets leak) MISRA C (if you mess up, cars crash and a giant recall is required) IEC 62304 Class C (if you mess up, medical devices kill people) NUREG/CR-6463 (if you mess up, you get a nuclear disaster) ISO 9000 and ISO 9001 (if you mess up, it will at least be documented) If you didn't really mean high engineering standards, and you just want to work with capable people, you can find that all over the place. Perhaps being within commute distance of a FAANG has an impact, and you are seeing that due to your location. There are many people who refuse to live anywhere near a FAANG and/or wouldn't tolerate the culture.
- deanmoriarty 8y ago
  Yeah, I definitely didn't mean high engineering standards then. The places you are listing wouldn't work for me because of the little financial incentives they provide. As far as I know FAANG are the only places where a reasonably decent software engineer can make ~$400-500k/y (at least those were my offers), and by living frugally the way I do that means massive savings even in a high cost of living location, which puts me closer and closer to my financial freedom goals they day I decide to be done and move to a low cost area. So, I guess working with "very capable people" and a very good paycheck is enough for me :-)
  - souprock 8y ago
    Do you have a well-defined goal in terms of dollars and years? If not, you might always want a bit more money, and thus never quit. You'd miss out on the chance to raise a family. It's safest to get that done before age 30. No matter how much money you get, you can't buy back your younger years after they are gone.
    - deanmoriarty 8y ago
      Yes, if I can continue with my current savings rate, I should be done by my mid-late 30s (very early 30s now), with my passive investments fully covering my cost of living at least in Mediterranean Europe (where I'm originally from) or South East Asia (where my partner is from), both amazing places to live :-) Both my partner and I are not looking to have kids (we've thought about it for many years before reaching the conclusion) and we already have extended families with tons of kids, so from that point of view we feel there's nothing we're missing, it's a non-priority. For everything else, I'm not exactly wasting my life right now, I'm enjoying it even in a very high cost of living area: if you can deal with housing (and not having kids admittedly helps a lot since you can live in way smaller and cheaper places close to work), things are not that much more expensive than anywhere else, so I get a lot of experiences with good arbitrage :-)
justinclift 8y ago
Maybe make the move to a FAANG, just to get a real world idea of what that's like? Your life journey is unlikely to be damaged by it, and the greater understanding of the world (etc) will likely be beneficial. Warts and all. ;)
tracer4201 8y ago
There are significant pro's. I become 10x the engineer working at FAANG in 6 months vs. the 2 years at my previous company. I worked on impactful projects with huge visibility, both internally and externally. Also, the started off "meh" but over the years, it's increased decently (mostly as a result of increasing stock comp). I don't want to ruin all of FAANG for you.

ThrowawayR2 8y ago

The FAANG companies are not monolithic hiveminds. They are huge places where some parts are good and some are ... not so good. There are talented engineers and opportunities for growth at the good teams but you're not guaranteed to be in a good team at any given time. I would say go for it but go in with a mission to understand the lay of the land and then transferring to a team that matches your growth goals.

souprock 8y ago

FAANG companies are not where you go to find high engineering standards. You need to look for a job featuring one of these: DO-178C DAL A (if you mess up, aircraft crash) EAL5, EAL6, EAL7 (if you mess up, national secrets leak) MISRA C (if you mess up, cars crash and a giant recall is required) IEC 62304 Class C (if you mess up, medical devices kill people) NUREG/CR-6463 (if you mess up, you get a nuclear disaster) ISO 9000 and ISO 9001 (if you mess up, it will at least be documented) If you didn't really mean high engineering standards, and you just want to work with capable people, you can find that all over the place. Perhaps being within commute distance of a FAANG has an impact, and you are seeing that due to your location. There are many people who refuse to live anywhere near a FAANG and/or wouldn't tolerate the culture.

deanmoriarty 8y ago
Yeah, I definitely didn't mean high engineering standards then. The places you are listing wouldn't work for me because of the little financial incentives they provide. As far as I know FAANG are the only places where a reasonably decent software engineer can make ~$400-500k/y (at least those were my offers), and by living frugally the way I do that means massive savings even in a high cost of living location, which puts me closer and closer to my financial freedom goals they day I decide to be done and move to a low cost area. So, I guess working with "very capable people" and a very good paycheck is enough for me :-)
- souprock 8y ago
  Do you have a well-defined goal in terms of dollars and years? If not, you might always want a bit more money, and thus never quit. You'd miss out on the chance to raise a family. It's safest to get that done before age 30. No matter how much money you get, you can't buy back your younger years after they are gone.
  - deanmoriarty 8y ago
    Yes, if I can continue with my current savings rate, I should be done by my mid-late 30s (very early 30s now), with my passive investments fully covering my cost of living at least in Mediterranean Europe (where I'm originally from) or South East Asia (where my partner is from), both amazing places to live :-) Both my partner and I are not looking to have kids (we've thought about it for many years before reaching the conclusion) and we already have extended families with tons of kids, so from that point of view we feel there's nothing we're missing, it's a non-priority. For everything else, I'm not exactly wasting my life right now, I'm enjoying it even in a very high cost of living area: if you can deal with housing (and not having kids admittedly helps a lot since you can live in way smaller and cheaper places close to work), things are not that much more expensive than anywhere else, so I get a lot of experiences with good arbitrage :-)

justinclift 8y ago

Maybe make the move to a FAANG, just to get a real world idea of what that's like? Your life journey is unlikely to be damaged by it, and the greater understanding of the world (etc) will likely be beneficial. Warts and all. ;)

tracer4201 8y ago

There are significant pro's. I become 10x the engineer working at FAANG in 6 months vs. the 2 years at my previous company. I worked on impactful projects with huge visibility, both internally and externally. Also, the started off "meh" but over the years, it's increased decently (mostly as a result of increasing stock comp). I don't want to ruin all of FAANG for you.