Aren't a lot of those projects built on top of FANG outputs? I.e. pytorch, tensorflow, CUDA, AWS, etc?

Not to mention the entire disciplines of engineering that really only exist at the megacorps - Meta is still on the relatively bleeding edge of datacenter design, both physical plant and networking.

At what kind of company? Looking from outside and in particular from outside the US the whole FAANG culture seems very strange. There is - or was - a huge amount of money available in compensation that seems almost completely disconnected from the value of an individual developer's contribution to the business or the level of useful skills and experience the developer has. And it seems there's this kind of clique effect where those who have worked in a FAANG or a high-profile startup are assumed by others who have worked at FAANGs or high-profile startups to be somehow better than everyone else. But IME once you're outside that bubble a more likely assumption is that ex-FAANG people will demand more than they're worth and won't necessarily be any more competent or productive than anyone else. And ex-multiple-FAANGs with rapid job hopping at the start of a career is a huge red flag.

I worked at a startup where everyone was ex meta! They made such a shitty architecture with GraphQL and Hasura and other meta technologies they learnt that it was laughable they were using that for a small startup.

It's not that there aren't great engineers at the FAANGs. It's that there are a lot of low quality ones. So it's a poor lake to fish in.

It comes up regularly on HN(i.e. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20846408).

FAANG folks have high salary expectations, often do not know how to work in a less supportive environment, often possess big egos, and will leave as soon as they're offered another FAANG gig.

When I've hired for non-FAANG roles, I hire folks who are going to be a good fit for the team and the company, who demonstrate a good understanding of the work they've done, and whose experience aligns with what the role requires. Coming from a FAANG was neither a benefit nor an asset to me. Now that I've done time in the valley, I think I'd be extra careful to screen toxic folks.

Of course some people do. I know plenty of people view ex-FAANG candidates at least cautiously. Several of those people are now founders/CxOs at reasonably successful tech firms. Career FAANG people tend to have a polarising effect where they can be very good in some areas but have huge blind spots in others.

If you don't think this is true then I encourage you to look at the comments any time someone relatively senior coming from outside FAANG asks about being down-levelled when they start. There are always a few slightly too haughty people talking about how that outside experience doesn't translate and a different skill set is needed at high levels in a FAANG-style organisation. That's true - up to a point at least - but it goes both ways.

I absolutely do. Many of these companies are already have a disproportional amount of influence in the world and can even exert their influence in the world of politics through lobbyists.

As a software developer, I'm 100% ideologically against working for a faang because it gives them even more power.

I would not even bother interviewing someone with FAANG on their resume at my current company. They’d definitely expect more than I can pay. I’d also assume they would be bored or complain about doing grunt work that can be common in a small company. Many places know they are not top tier, or rather, they’re satisfied with what they get from programmers who work for less.

I don’t know what TC is.

I see. I make 160k base salary (typically get a 3-4% inflation increase each year). About 25k in stock per year. 15% of base salary as a bonus each year. 5% 401k match. 16 vacation days + Fridays off in the summer. 1 day of PTO each pay period that can rollover year to year (I currently have enough saved up for about 4.5 straight months of PTO). 6 week sabbatical every 5 years. Really really good medical/dental/vision insurance.

I’m not sure what else would be included in total compensation.

The main benefits are a super relaxed work atmosphere. Absolutely no stress. I typically work from 10:30-3pm each day with time off for lunch. My work is mostly remote, though I only live a few miles from campus, so I could go in whenever I want. The projects are fun, I like all of my coworkers and have very laid back managers.

> I've seen the salaries people get by "switching companies often" and they don't seem to be a lot better than what you can get from good perf reviews at a FAANG.

I suppose it's possible none of the FAANG folks I have spoken to about this were getting good performance reviews, but I have never heard of someone getting a 20% raise in one year at a FAANG company unless there were some obvious extenuating circumstances. I'm sure HNers will rush in now to tell me they got X>20% raise at Y FAANG, but that definitely seems like outliers to me.

And the thing is, you don't even have to be great to get a 20% raise by switching jobs early in your career. Normal, even mediocre growth as an engineer puts you at that valuation easily.

My guess is that the large tech companies in the bay area share certain characteristics, for better and for worse. Many factors are at play though. Do I think working for Intuitive Surgical is just like working for Apple? No, but in many cases I think you'd encounter similar issues.

That said, there are certain companies that are held in higher esteem by many of the folks who care about such things, and those companies tend to attract people who value working for an esteemed company. I talked with another FAANG engineer one day who said they'd feel like a failure if they didn't move on to another FAANG, despite grinding away for years, being middle aged and unhappy, and burned out by the politics at work. Anyway, I think those 'esteemed' companies attract more aggressive and driven folks which changes the culture vs any other large tech co.

if you're really curious, you can just look it up on levels.fyi.

total comp for a senior engineer easily breaks $300k at any of the FAANGs. at the same time, downleveling is common for people who don't grind leetcode problems pretty intensely. I know more than one person with 10+ years at the "senior" level at other companies who only got a mid-level offer at FAANGs. and they still took it; it was more money even with the downlevel.