Having never worked at a FAANG company, I'm not sure exactly what the principal role commonly entails. That being said, I've recently been promoted from lead to

Having never worked at a FAANG company, I'm not sure exactly what the principal role commonly entails. That being said, I've recently been promoted from lead to principal, which is one of the highest titles for software engineers on our tech track. There are basically a few people who are higher in the entire company, which is a medium-sized public company. The best thing about this company is the work life balance; I never put in a lot of hours. The worst thing is the skill level of most of our software engineers. The thing I hate about this new role is that I'm less connected to the day-to-day work and just getting shit done. I'm in even more meetings now and the expectation is that I'll somehow help to level up the semi-competent people we hire, and make sure projects go smoothly even though everything is built on a foundation of shit. Fortunately I am paid extremely well. Pay is literally the only reason I accepted the promotion. Sadly, the company probably gets less value out of me now even though we all convince ourselves that this layer of principals and managers is making everyone below us more productive.