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My counter anecdote is that I left an asset manager about 5 years ago, and the firm I left has grown twofold, mostly hiring quants, has low turnover, excellent
by mlthoughts2018 7y ago
My counter anecdote is that I left an asset manager about 5 years ago, and the firm I left has grown twofold, mostly hiring quants, has low turnover, excellent work life balance, and bonus payouts have gone up. I kick myself for thinking FAANG was greener pastures because I make less money as a senior engineer in FAANG than a two years out of school quant, while also having a more stressful job.
- busterarm 7y agoQuants are still in demand and getting paid a fortune. It's the thing that makes me think of going back. An averagely-competent C++ developer can make much more in this industry than elsewhere right now. As for the stress and greener pastures bit, really you aren't wrong.
- dbancajas 7y agowhat does an averagely-competent C++ dev look like? And how much will he earn being a quant?
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y agoWhat FAANG are you at that's more stressful than being a quant?!
- asdfasgasdgasdg 7y agoFAANG sorted by stressfulness decreasing is N>>>AAF>G, from what I hear. So if they're working for N, this wouldn't be too surprising.
- Bahamut 7y agoEverything I hear from friends at all these companies is that for stress, Amazon > Apple > Netflix > Facebook > Google. Netflix seems far less stressful than Apple from everything I've heard from employees that have worked at both.
- _jal 7y agoThink it really depends on where you land. I think everyone agrees that Google is easy-mode; beyond that, it depends on which group you're in. Two friends at Apple illustrate: one says he does basically nothing but surf the web, the other last I heard is is nearly sleeping under his desk in a crunch.
- pertymcpert 7y agoThe impression I got was that Netflix was a very cut-throat environment due to their propensity to fire people quickly. I can't speak for all roles at either company, but Apple doesn't seem to have that reputation.
- mlthoughts2018 7y agoMost of them are. Quant jobs are often highly academic. Basically the same project structure as FAANG but never any deadlines. Banks are where the arbitrary high stress jobs reside, and then certain specific companies that choose to enforce stress culture, like GSAM and Citadel. But most have normal 9-5 hours, few deadlines, autonomy, project self-selection.
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y agoMaybe I don't really understand what a quant does, but I imagine it would be stressful because if you make a mistake I imagine it could have huge financial consequences. That's true at FAANG, too, but maybe just cause I know how things work there it doesn't seem like something I need to worry about very much.
- xiaolingxiao 7y agowhat was your compensation before you left?
- mlthoughts2018 7y agoIn the range of $500k / year assuming the bonus was the target amount. One year it was substantially higher.
- pertymcpert 7y agoSorry to bother you but do you know how much a senior engineer in a FAANG could make as a developer in these places on average? Especially London?
- busterarm 7y agoIt depends on how much you're bringing to the table and how well you interview, but $400-600k/yr "total compensation (considering 4yr cliffs, etc)" packages happen with regularity and I know two people who have negotiated a 1m/yr total comp at Facebook(on the IG team). Neither were "senior devs" as I'd normally call them but extreme ICs who have deep understanding of Linux and can scale big infrastructure and sling code. Don't know about London though. All values in USD.
- pertymcpert 7y agoGah. I messed up my question. I was asking what someone currently working in a FAANG could make if they moved to these financial firms.
- slap 7y agoFAANG pay in London is far lower than in the Bay Area.
- dbancajas 7y agoAnd how much are you earning now as a senior dev in FAANG?