Great LCOL offer or FAANG for new grad?
In my senior year, trying to decide where to go. Got an incredible offer on an innovative team inside an F500 company in a fun and LCoL area (Houston). TC per year is 160/120/150 (3 year vest), great benefits. I love the team, but am nervous about name recognition and opportunities to learn from senior engineers - there aren't many good ones. OTOH, I will have the autonomy to explore and teach myself anything I want. FAANG offers are higher on paper, but are all in VHCoL areas. Not sure how to balance $$$ versus more guaranteed career opportunities. Is it worth it to pursue FAANG?
Take FAANG. Brand name is everything. You can't put (got accepted into FAANG but declined offer) in your resume.
Choose whichever place you’ll learn more at. So early in your career don’t over index on Other things. Put yourself around the smartest people you can and learn as much as you can good things will follow!
Optimizing for lower COL makes most sense once your career is starting to plateau, or once you have a family (when your expenses inevitably go up) The first few years, focus most on career growth, learning from the best, building skills in areas of interest, etc. - which will make a difference to your career arc. If you avoid lifestyle expansion/bloat early on, the HCOL doesn't affect you as much.
Fuuuck all this ya gotta fang when you're 22. Go fucking party your ass off while you can. Fang can wait. Unless your ego can't.
Pursue TC and good job. You can pursue FAANG later. FAANG can wait.
My concern is that, when I get around to FAANG, I'll be farther behind on the ladder vs. starting there straight from college. This could limit my earnings and end up net negative in the long run, despite the high savings rate that Houston allows.
This doesn’t make any sense. Tc is important but not at the cost of early career growth and resume building. Any tc difference will be peanuts down the line, esp if you make E5/L5 in a few years. Also most col calculators take into account housing, but you won’t be buying a house only renting so you’ll probably still make more as a new grad in faang/unicorn in hcol areas.