Seems like a naive take. There are talented devs everywhere, but yes some difficult problems may only be tackled at FAANG. But then again, not all devs at FAANG

Seems like a naive take. There are talented devs everywhere, but yes some difficult problems may only be tackled at FAANG. But then again, not all devs at FAANG work on hard problems, some are tweaking widgets all day. And at smaller companies a dev may need to work on the full breadth of a product, or be the only dev that can fix major issues - how exciting. More often than not, what people say is a reflection of them not you. I’d expect the likely reason for the comment is simply for your friend to make them feel good about themself - their career. Ignore it.