Been working at a small Belgian company for 8 years (15 employees). I get paid reasonably well according to Belgian standards because I play a key role in maintaining our SaaS product. TC: 50k euros + about 5k paid overtime. I work 8 til 17, that's it. 15 mins commute. I can live a comfortable modest life on my salary, but I will not get rich, or achieve FIRE. I, have always had an interest in software and computer science. But I have little experience in delivering big pieces software. I have always coded, but the product of my current company is amateuristic (at least technically). I was just trying to keep the business running, and the tech manageable, and I did a good job doing so. I call myself lead software engineer. I'm worried about coming across as a bad developer, although I know what good software looks like. I have been favoring the easy incremental solutions. What I made works and does not suffer from bugs or performance issues. I'm a generalist. I'm wondering if I should chase TC, maybe Google Zurich is nice. It's still Europe and offers a good quality of life, I assume. Will I be more miserable if I work at FAANG? For example, Amazon sounds like a terrible place to work at based on Blind comments. But maybe Google is nice? I think I can pass coding and design interviews. But if I have to talk about my current job, I think I will come across as an underperformer. At what level should I apply? Any advice or thoughts are welcome.
You might only be miserable because of everything else that’s changing. There’s a good chance you won’t be miserable because of work but that’s up to the team you’re on, really. You can definitely live a comfortable life in FAANG
How about you get an offer first?
Lol yeah... It's like saying, should I be a multi millionaire guys?
Worked at small/averages companies in Europe, got hired by Amazon and moved to US. Best learning experience and TC boost I ever had.
What was Apple's offer?
Consider Uber Amsterdam. Not too far away and still get the better comp and career opportunities.
Makes sense
As a fellow belgian, I'd say go for Google Zurich if you can pass the interviews. I nearly 10x'ed my pay compared to first job in Belgium, taxes are really low and quality of life is pretty high. You can totally live 15 minutes walking from the office, or even 5! With a 15 min train commute you can save a good amount more on taxes and swiss trains don't strike. With what you describe (lead SWE, 8yoe) you definitely have a shot at L5. Though chances are you'd get downleveled to L4 anyway, but that's still a very good deal compared to Belgium and rest of Europe. Shitty code at previous job doesn't matter, it's everywhere anyway. Google measures your coding ability in terms of leetcode
One very honest comment! I very rarely found such comments, and the community really values a real good feedback!
8 YOE with experience that sounds like a bad internship? Good luck getting an offer, I would really drill you as to why you were content with this kind of environment and then ask you some LC hard equivalent to prove you can even code. It doesn't look good in relationship to LPs like learn and be curious.
The better question is: Why should FAANG hire you?
FAANG means Apple FLAG means LinkedIn FAMG means Microsoft etc FANG itself just means Amazon or Netflix Just a logical application of the hierarchy
You think you can pass coding and design interviews? Try it out then
I get your point. I believe I can prepare for those (and I did start), and I know how to prepare for them. But it might be more difficult to frame my past experience in a way that displays enough LP
You think, you believe? As I said above, try it out first.