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Comment by angarg12 | Hacker News Reader

Yes, but the market is particularly bad now.

I have 15+ YoE, and currently working at FAANG. I've spent the last few years leading a team of engineers to deliver one of the top priority projects of my org with estimated impact of +$100M ARR, and I have been consistently rated high performer. I also have some niches skills that are particularly on demand these days. I am not actively looking, but I am open to hear from recruiters. Due to my situation, I only entertain Staff+ roles or equivalent.

Recently a well known company (not big tech) reached out for a Staff role. After the initial screening, the recruiter came back to me saying that they could loop me for a senior role, because my experience doesn't match the expectations of a Staff role.

I honestly don't know what to make of this exchange. Is the market unreasonably tough these days or are my expectations too high?

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I think this is just the market trying to find a discount. If you actually want to see what the market is, list yourself as looking for work, take the interviews, excel, and negotiate the position you want. Worst case you hear “no” but don’t let that define your worth. After 15 years at a FAANG you must be drowning in money, do what you find intriguing, regardless of title.

A few implicit assumptions in your comment.

> After 15 years at a FAANG you must be drowning in money

I have 15 yoe total, not all in FAANG. And almost all my career is in EU anyway. My net worth is probably an order of magnitude smaller than you think. If you worked an average software dev job in the US for 15 you almost certainly have more money than me. Also, as a 40 years old renting a 2 bedroom with my family, I am still motivated by money.

> list yourself as looking for work, take the interviews

I've been doing this for months. My tally is something like this: about half of the recruiters ghost me, I got one rejection and two downlevels. I can count with one hand the number of companies that I've talked to that can match or beat my current comp. For reference, I receive one contact or more a day from recruiters on average.

Ah, well I can’t speak to the market in the EU, but in SF (US) the market for your talent set is robust. I know because I just went through it and I can’t see your resume but it sounds like we’re similar. I had more interest than I could handle, and ended with multiple offers that are above TC and promotions to principal level.

Talk to the talent orgs at VCs.

Actually I moved to the US last year so this experience is currently in the Seattle area :/

> estimated impact of +$100M ARR

Revenue impact can be tricky, because more times than not - it’s a function of the size of the company you work for more than anything else.

Relative impact (%), along with absolutely impact ($) - is the more meaningful way to quantify impact.

  Increase revenue by 0.1% (revenue went from $100.0B to $100.1)

  Increase revenue by 100% (revenue went from $0.1B to $0.2)

Size of company also correlates to less low hanging fruit which in my experience mostly balances things out.

It doesn't balance things out; it just makes them incomparable. It also depends on how mature the product is.

You are right that big scale and high margins means that a small effort can have an outsized impact. I use ARR as a proxy for the importance of the project. To give you the details, the relative impact is in the 1-10% range for my org. This was a multi-year, multi-team effort to deliver a significantly complex and ambiguous system (the first of it's kind in my org) and it will have a big impact beyond the monetary value.

The EU market is rough right now, as you say. The down-level to senior usually happens on the system design and behavioral interviews. Especially in Europe, I find people often downplay their contributions in these interviews, while the Americans are almost brazen in claiming credit. To an interviewer, that might sound like you were just “around” when good things happened. If I were you, I’d do a mock interview with someone you trust, and see if they can help you spot where you’re selling yourself short, maybe.

Sounds like there was a team that only had an L5 position open, and they were hoping you'd entertain that.

To your last question, I suspect neither. I think screener was inaccurate.

You can barely get director with 1billion+ direct revenue from a division you start. Or even 1billion monthly active users at FAANG now. You have to solve specific political quagmires that affect the whole company.

Then when you leave every company thinks you’re insanely over qualified.

What is your current level? Is it shown on your LinkedIn?

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