Do start ups pay higher up positions at FAANG compensation levels?
My first job was at a DoD start up and I made ok money at it. I somewhat assumed that all positions were paid below market value. However, I've seen some posts on blind with high YoE people getting really good offers from start ups. Do the higher positions (like principal or staff software engineers) make bank at startups? Or does DoD just pay trash? TC: 126k YoE: 1
Depends on the place. I assume you mean pre-ipo firms because almost all the ones constantly mentioned here are NOT anywhere close to 'start ups'. I mean Stripe is valued at almost a 100 billion dollars. Companies like Stripe, Databricks, Plaid, Chime, Brex, Scale, AirTable, etc. bring in a lot of ex-faang members. So there's that. A real 'start up' generally doesn't pay and have very high risk. Most 'start ups' disappear. The pre-ipo firms you see hear are relatively well established (after all, they are valued at billions). They just happen to not have IPO-ed in the public markets, that's all.
DoD pay is trash with a few rare exceptions. And it stays trash because the talent pool is comprised of govies and active duty folk who are paid in bananas and dust compared to the tech companies.
depends on startups, choose established ones with ex faangs, they usually pay well.