Hey guys, just looking for my input as I haven’t worked at one of the big tech companies and am curious how to value the experience there and whether it’s worth the toll on wlb. I’m currently on a main long term contract (9-5) for ~$200k and do roughly an additional 10 hrs/week of contract work for a startup at $90/hr, so my total comp is $250k and the wlb is great. Given that all of my roles are hourly, I rarely ever am over worked or working hours I’m not being paid for. I am interviewing at Amazon and Facebook, with final rounds this month and am just curious in regards to inputs about the shift. I know that I’ll get paid roughly the same. Given I’m interviewing for L5 at Amazon at 230-250k range and I imagine something similar or slightly higher at Facebook. Given I may be able to negotiate these towards 300k given my current situation doesn’t force me into a new role. But on the same note I can make towards 300k by just taking more contract hours. I imagine I’ll end up making less per hour, but was thinking that I would be okay with that given that I would be able to gain the experience of working at a large tech company with bright people and I think the mark on my resume would look good as well. The current main contracting role I have now is essentially a 9-5, but I’m just paid C2C. It’s not stressful, I can leave at 5pm sharp, and I basically skip to work given I work with a great group of people. But I don’t feel challenged at all, the products aren’t great or things I can get behind, the org is big and slow, and I feel like the only way I can learn new things and stay ahead is by utilizing my time at work to basically be a powerhouse learning knowledge that they don’t expect me to learn, but I learn it anyway to stay competitive in the market place. Not a huge upside of career advancement here, given I don’t want a higher role managing products that aren’t great and the higher management isn’t likely to let lower level people be promoted above them, etc. Given I’m in my young 20s I also want to make the best move for my career, over an extra 50k or anything like that. I feel like I’m making good money now, but not necessarily building my career given the roles I take are contracting and the work isn’t as challenging as I imagine the things I would work on at a large tech company. TC:$250k YOE: 4
Career wise faang but wlb current (depends on the team though)
That’s what I thought. Given I’m early in my career, was sort of shooting to just sell a couple years of my life to a big tech company to gain the experience and base there. Just wanted to make sure that’s the sort of thing I’d get in return
You can't directly compare FTE salary to your contract rate, so this seems very easy
I think the comps would be comparable. I’m C2C and filing as a Scorp. So thanks to trump a 250k-300k C2C can end up as more cash in my pocket than the same TC from a big company, given I can pay myself a ‘reasonable’ salary from the C2C earnings and then take the rest at lower taxes and just pay gains taxes.
1. Pass the interviews. 2. Fb and Amazon are the worst in terms of WLB. Try G or Apple.
I’m probably fail these given I’m not great at the whole behavioral questions. And I’m definitely willing to forgo wlb for a couple years, I’d just like to hear people’s experience and whether it’s worth it over expanding my contracting biz or anything like that.
Apple has the lowest amount of ex-fangs versus FB and even Amazon. Those who have a choice do not go for apple. WLB is not bad as some on the blind echo chamber might lead you to believe and in many cases is better than apple (especially hardware and any software services teams).
Who the heck told you work would be challenging at large tech companies? I found this to be quite the opposite. The interesting work is taken by the senior people and all of the newbies are left to collect the fallen off pieces. Maybe I'm wrong idk, but I find it hard to get challenging work in my role.
In my mind I’d go to work at Amazon or Facebook and all the bright ambitious people would be there and we’d just make Amazon rich working 70 hours a week. But at least I’d get smarter over that time. I could be wrong too though lol
I think you will be disappointed if you are thinking about it this way. I thought the same thing once I came out of school, only to realize that no one actually cares about u. You will be just another number to these companies, but don't let my negativity steer you away. Go a head and try it for yourself and give us an update few months down the road. Good luck
Since you said you're willing to forgo wlb then I think you should take the opportunity to learn and experience what it's like. You'll learn a new problem space, how to work with new team members, different processes, and navigate career growth in a big tech company. That said it seems like you're working about 50 hours a week already so you might be fine with the wlb trade-off already. If it's not for you, then at least you now have that perspective and experience going forward and you'll have one of the big tech companies on your resume which will always help for future job opportunities and comp.
Thanks for that. Makes sense. A lot of weeks I’m used to working 60+ hours a week, but since I’m billing by the hour I’m not really minding it.
Not sure on Amazon but FB does give bonuses based on performance. So if you're putting in those extra hours, it should hopefully help push the needle towards a better bonus multiplier. Best of luck! 💪
FAANG is overrated at the junior levels especially if TC is the same and you get less freedom in your work
But the resume mark and all the smart people😏. The other option may be me just selling a couple years of my life for a little bit of cash and no career advancement at my current situation. There’s also the third option: work 40 hours a week contracting for 200k, and then spend another 40 hours every week building out my billion dollar startup ideas 🥳 ......thoughts?
Spend 40 hrs or less making 200k, spend the other time on things that bring you more enjoyment. Startup, hanging out, books, music, whatever it is.
Stay where you’re at boss. Amazon sucks if you’re trying to learn anything. The things you will learn are how to navigate nonsense, how to write shitty docs, how to deal with bad tooling, and how to promote your terrible web service.
Only Netflix/Facebook makes sense if you want more money, challenge and less WLB. Amazon doesn’t pay much more compared to your current comp. Start on your billion dollar startup idea already. It’s a challenge in its own right ;)
What company? Can I get a job?
If you’re in nyc and are really good, I have a dev shop in lower manhattan. DM me.
Ah, nvm, bay area haha
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We don't have enough WLB to have the time to read through this entire post man, give us the tl;dr.
It felt long writing it. Just looking to see if the experience of working at FB would be worth the loss in wlb. Given that the money will be comparable.
Lmao