Just want to point out that you can work at FAANG without working in the Bay Area, or even the US. Amazon of course has headquarters in Seattle and both Google

Just want to point out that you can work at FAANG without working in the Bay Area, or even the US. Amazon of course has headquarters in Seattle and both Google and Facebook have large engineering offices not only outside the Bay Area but outside the US. I've found there to be a pretty huge difference in those offices, particularly the European offices. The staff is far more diverse (e.g. I'm on a 40 person team and the largest number of people from one country is 4) and the culture and attitude to work is completely different. Much less koolaid-drinking and much better work/life balance. People actually use their (much more generous) vacation time!