Some companies (google / fb) are known for having higher TC for same experience compared with other companies (amazon / Microsoft). Are the higher TC companies hiring more competent engineers on average to justify the higher cost? What would happen if f or g ended up lowering compensation to match the lower companies in order to cut costs?
The best engineers either in a specialized team at a high TC company, or at a small startup/university
It is to woo the best talent.
Yes, on average. You have to pay more to keep the bar higher. Keeping the higher bar allows to attract top talent. On the other hand, not all engineers chase top dollar. Some put more value on WLB.
The second half of this. +50% comp is not worth +100% time / effort. Also, unless you're trying to retire early and you can make the journey, hating your job and getting divorced (or never having a decent relationship) just isn't worth the extra money.
WLB seems pretty good at G. Two Sigma pays similar to G and you can work 9 - 5 comfortably. Are you saying you work 20hour weeks but get paid to be full time?
Snowball/Matthew effect. They can afford to hire top talent, who generate more profits, and then afford to hire more top talent.
Not necessarily since places like Nasa, spacex and Tesla pay poorly but have great engineers. You can make up for it by creating a great environment or having interesting work. I've seen a few startups that had low pay but great engineers using this model.
Not necessarily. Personally I find the hiring bars matter much more than TC in terms of competing for talents. Small startups, MemSQL for example, pay lower than big 4 but their engineers are top notch compared to a random G/F engineer. I worked at Google before and I do find Microsoft to have full of talented people. On the contrary, I do have friends that was rejected by Microsoft and basically everywhere else got FB offers. Regarding TC, well, FB/G afford to pay more only because they happen to make lots of money from ads. More money, fewer headcount = more TC. Also G/F are not making much money by selling their software/platforms. Think how many people would pay to use Facebook daily :) Then consider about many businesses are relying on AWS and Azure ;)
Not really, did you forget what companies main core went down yesterday and the day before?
Generally speaking. There are exceptions either way of course.
Of note - “generally speaking” ...
Yes, assuming that better engineers are smart enough to know their worth.