Hi guys, new grad here. I started coding later in my life and did a bachelor in engineering (not cs). I've had some experience in industry at not-faang big companies (less than 1.5 years) before my current master in cs. Now I'm interviewing and I have some onsites with both faangs and startups. I feel like I still haven't had the chance to actually build a lot of stuff myself (my experience at large companies was mostly reading other people code and working on little parts here and there), and after having interviewed with some early stage startup I thought that it could potentially be good for putting some more code under my belt because I would own bigger parts of the product and actually build more and refactor less. I'm quite okay with theoretical algo stuff and leetcode but on the practical side I miss a lot of things: never learned any design pattern, barely know any relevant technology etc. If I manage to get offers from f/g/msft in one of my fav locations I would take it. What if the offer comes from kind of a "faang tier 2" company like Bloomberg or Amazon (just my impression, don't hate haha) and/or in a location I don't like (or that maybe doesn't even pay much; considering I'm not in the US)? Would it be good in that case to do one year startup in one of my fav location, learn some of the "easy stuff" you have to know (design patterns, building a full-stack app almost from ground up, dbs) and then join top faang in top location one year after wearing some more comfortable shoes (as an engineer)?
Well paid job at startup vs low paying job in faang exists only if you count theoretical money 😂😂😂 I was in both, have proportions - you’ll want to do both Money wise starting at faang is nicer and better way to up tc in the future Too
They're in locations that pay differently (not US)
I’ve worked outside the us and have many friends in the EU - it ain’t different because the math of vc and startups ain’t different TC if almost always higher in big companies (top tier ones) when you take into account paper money
It’s more of a personal question OP. Do you want to start your journey in comfort with a money/resume booster? Or do you want to face the waves of insecurity? Make your decision based on who you want to be longer term
Just a side note, Bloomberg's hiring bar is pretty decent. Before making any assumption, I will strongly suggest interviewing first!
I hate this kind of thinking to be honest. There are moments where you have to take decisions and you don't have so much time to think about it, and it's very helpful to have thought about that beforehand. Btw I had phone screen which was LC easy and they told me that the onsite would be a question of same difficulty
Since you're so early in your career, you'd be better off with some solid engineering practices to help you learn to be a good engineer. You get those in fang, and in second tier companies but not so much at startups.
Thanks for the advice