4 ms·

The cynic in me thinks this is purely a factor of smart kids in tech realizing Facebook is old news and provides little path for differentiation (or rapid promo

by nothal 7y ago

The cynic in me thinks this is purely a factor of smart kids in tech realizing Facebook is old news and provides little path for differentiation (or rapid promotion). They better than anyone know the exciting startups their friends and friends of friends are starting especially compared to the tedium of a (cushy but) relatively non-challenging job at Facebook, Google, MS, etc. Plus, there's more chance for a moonshot 10/100/1000x at a company that's not already a behemoth. The smartest people I know are itching to work at startups. They could care less about FAANG.

freyr 7y ago
> The smartest people I know are itching to work at startups. What's stopping them? In my experience, the people who actually want to work at startups tend to be either (a) very young engineers, who have more risk tolerance and perhaps more naiveté, or (b) people who worked at a successful company (e.g., FANG) and set aside a comfortable nest egg, and therefore also have high risk tolerance.
- magashna 7y ago
  You wouldn't go to any startup, you'd pick the most promising one.
drawnwren 7y ago
Also, fintech is paying significantly more than FAANG right now. The interviews are harder, but there was an ~$60k premium to go to NYC over SF for most of my friends in Harvard's last class. Combined with what is viewed as a relatively low promotion curve vs NYC -- if they wanted a big company, most students took NYC. At 5 years of experience, the gap was even wider. A friend just took a 400% pay raise to move from Google to a fintech firm. He shopped around at other tech companies, but no one was above a 20-30% increase.
- hn_username 7y ago
  This is interesting. What do you mean by fintech -- hedge funds and HFT shops, or financial technogy companies like Affirm? Could you share a few examples?
  - coldpie 7y ago
    Prosthetics for sharks. It's a growing industry.
    - aswanson 7y ago
      Lol. There was a time when I wouldn't post 'lol' on hn, but I've loosened up in my old age.
- xiaolingxiao 7y ago
  Did your friend have special domain knowledge like machine learning?
  - drawnwren 7y ago
    He has a bachelors and masters from a Top 3 US program, but neither were related to the work he's doing. In fact, they asked him to start studying ML (with the understanding that he had no prior knowledge) in preparation for his new job. My gut feeling here is that the 'I don't do what they're testing for in interviews' feeling pervades FAANG management as well as engineers. They probably don't actually see much value in programmer intelligence above a certain bar. On the fintech side, they are approaching recruiting as they always have and probably won't even schedule an interview if you don't have a recommendation and a top 5 university on your resume.
    - donaldknuth123 7y ago
      So you're saying they're likely going to flop since they're chasing prestige rather than talent? Good to know.
    - nothal 7y ago
      Top 3? Go bears! ;)
- locallycompact 7y ago
  400% seems much higher than anything I've seen. assuming 200k at google (likely conservative), this implies a 1m offer from a quant fund for someone with no special complementarity for the role? i would be very surprised labor market is this much out of alignment.
  - donaldknuth123 7y ago
    Given that recent grads probably male 200K their first year at Google I'd say its probably north of 1.5M which is obviously ridiculous. Top portfolio managers at major Hedge Funds barely make that.
  - drawnwren 7y ago
    I can't edit the original post. It was a 300% pay raise, salary was 400% of original. 1m at a quant fund isn't unreasonable 5 years out, but it would be extraordinarily high.
    - locallycompact 7y ago
      agree, but surprised at this number for someone without a proven track record given the high false positive rate for success in these roles
- segmondy 7y ago
  Don't believe it, numbers don't add up. Maybe he moved from Google Iowa to Janestreet. But let's say it's true, it's pretty rare. Fintech is not paying significantly more than FAANG when it comes to software developer. Not even at all.
- bigthrowaway 7y ago
  Can you provide some companies that could offer this? I'm interviewing in NYC atm and would be great to know.
kemiller2002 7y ago
One of my friend's cousins lives in the Bay Area, and he was looking for a new gig at the time after his company sold (IIRC). He asked his cousin why doesn't he go work for a FAANG. His cousin essentially responded with, "Facebook is really the company that you go to while you're looking for another gig. No one really wants to work there, but it pays the bills until you find something else."

by nothal 7y ago

freyr 7y ago

> The smartest people I know are itching to work at startups. What's stopping them? In my experience, the people who actually want to work at startups tend to be either (a) very young engineers, who have more risk tolerance and perhaps more naiveté, or (b) people who worked at a successful company (e.g., FANG) and set aside a comfortable nest egg, and therefore also have high risk tolerance.

magashna 7y ago
You wouldn't go to any startup, you'd pick the most promising one.

drawnwren 7y ago

Also, fintech is paying significantly more than FAANG right now. The interviews are harder, but there was an ~$60k premium to go to NYC over SF for most of my friends in Harvard's last class. Combined with what is viewed as a relatively low promotion curve vs NYC -- if they wanted a big company, most students took NYC. At 5 years of experience, the gap was even wider. A friend just took a 400% pay raise to move from Google to a fintech firm. He shopped around at other tech companies, but no one was above a 20-30% increase.

hn_username 7y ago
This is interesting. What do you mean by fintech -- hedge funds and HFT shops, or financial technogy companies like Affirm? Could you share a few examples?
- coldpie 7y ago
  Prosthetics for sharks. It's a growing industry.
  - aswanson 7y ago
    Lol. There was a time when I wouldn't post 'lol' on hn, but I've loosened up in my old age.
xiaolingxiao 7y ago
Did your friend have special domain knowledge like machine learning?
- drawnwren 7y ago
  He has a bachelors and masters from a Top 3 US program, but neither were related to the work he's doing. In fact, they asked him to start studying ML (with the understanding that he had no prior knowledge) in preparation for his new job. My gut feeling here is that the 'I don't do what they're testing for in interviews' feeling pervades FAANG management as well as engineers. They probably don't actually see much value in programmer intelligence above a certain bar. On the fintech side, they are approaching recruiting as they always have and probably won't even schedule an interview if you don't have a recommendation and a top 5 university on your resume.
  - donaldknuth123 7y ago
    So you're saying they're likely going to flop since they're chasing prestige rather than talent? Good to know.
  - nothal 7y ago
    Top 3? Go bears! ;)
locallycompact 7y ago
400% seems much higher than anything I've seen. assuming 200k at google (likely conservative), this implies a 1m offer from a quant fund for someone with no special complementarity for the role? i would be very surprised labor market is this much out of alignment.
- donaldknuth123 7y ago
  Given that recent grads probably male 200K their first year at Google I'd say its probably north of 1.5M which is obviously ridiculous. Top portfolio managers at major Hedge Funds barely make that.
- drawnwren 7y ago
  I can't edit the original post. It was a 300% pay raise, salary was 400% of original. 1m at a quant fund isn't unreasonable 5 years out, but it would be extraordinarily high.
  - locallycompact 7y ago
    agree, but surprised at this number for someone without a proven track record given the high false positive rate for success in these roles
segmondy 7y ago
Don't believe it, numbers don't add up. Maybe he moved from Google Iowa to Janestreet. But let's say it's true, it's pretty rare. Fintech is not paying significantly more than FAANG when it comes to software developer. Not even at all.
bigthrowaway 7y ago
Can you provide some companies that could offer this? I'm interviewing in NYC atm and would be great to know.

kemiller2002 7y ago

One of my friend's cousins lives in the Bay Area, and he was looking for a new gig at the time after his company sold (IIRC). He asked his cousin why doesn't he go work for a FAANG. His cousin essentially responded with, "Facebook is really the company that you go to while you're looking for another gig. No one really wants to work there, but it pays the bills until you find something else."