ELABORATE IN THE COMMENTS, CURIOUS TO HEAR YOUR GUYS / GIRLS' THOUGHTS. Growing up I was always into creating small businesses or trying to create a "unicorn" startup. I started working in tech and was making a decent salary, while trying to run a business on the side. My sister who had Leetcoded more than me, in a few years of college had a TC of 300k. I make considerably less than that, and am getting tired of doing all the BS that businesses require, for not much pay. I started Leetcoding and while I've got rejected on the final onsite round for Big N, I can taste the success and realize I am much closer to it. My sister lives a comfortable life. My life is not super comfortable, and I always am explaining to my girl why I have to cancel some late night plan or whatever, just because of my stupid businesses (which haven't been successful). Especially with Big N tech companies they make it so your work is meaningful, you have great benefits, etc. You're not "selling out" or "going corporate", as entrepreneurs often like to say to make fun of people in corporate life. Maybe if I was to work at Intel or Seagate my whole career, I would wish I started my own business. But if I was to get into Big 4? Heck, there's no way I would be running my crap ideas and peddling my products on the side. Any thoughts on this? Just wondering if I'm by myself. It's funny because coming from me, growing up I always considered myself very entrepreneurial, and now I go home and Leetcode every day.
You would be singing a very different tune if any of your businesses had scaled. Take a break, learn some new skills, get some creativity back and try again with a more stable financial footing.
I would argue that many teams in Big N are not meaningful, you’re just solving a smaller portion of a bigger problem. Compensation is nice but you lose the “hands on” making-a-difference feeling quickly.
The ultimate goal is to work on the things you care about, no matter if it’s for big companies or for your own. Usually I guess your own business is more relevant to your own agenda.
To answer your question, sadly yes. I thought I would be an entrepreneur at this point, but getting into big tech has made it so the risk isn’t justified by the reward for me. Most people need an higher expected reward to justify higher risk, and in expected value sense Big N and similar actually have higher expected value then entrepreneurship.
Start ups were always more hype than reality, but with the current FAANG TCs, you’re doing yourself a disservice by sticking with a su, even your own.
I have been through similar situation. I currently work for a FANG, earning north of 500k a year and still want to quit and spend full time on my business someday. I think it's not about money but about autonomy and writing your own story. You mentioned you have some small businesses. How much do you earn from them? Are you located in the bay area? If you are in the bay area it's really tough to quit your FANG job for your dream. As the opportunity cost is very high and at the same time living in Bay with 100k/year income is super super hard.
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It’s any consolation ur sister just got really lucky
But in reality she probably just worked her ass off, had her priorities straight, worked towards her goals, and got the position she wanted... Sorry to ruin the consolidation.
Hmm what? So you don’t think there are good engineers who studied/worked towards there goals and don’t make TC north of 200kish? Can you be that thick?