Around 2011 or so, when facebook went IPO, there was a sudden step-jump in engineer total comp in silicon valley. Prior to that, a tech-job was just another job

Around 2011 or so, when facebook went IPO, there was a sudden step-jump in engineer total comp in silicon valley. Prior to that, a tech-job was just another job, and the path to riches was via startups and risk taking. Then, because of FOMO, free-money-era, etc, the big tech firms competed for the best engineers by matching comp which jacked up the comps across the board. This made jobs at big tech very lucrative with hordes of engineers trying to get their foot in the door. The risk-reward tilted to joining big-tech versus startups. Post covid, comp is normalizing, and I hope we get back to a scenario where, startups and risk taking become the pathway to riches - so that the best engineers are not lured by big tech comp, and work at startups.