Why do people stay in consulting?
I’m about to accept one of the following offers. I know a good number of folks in consulting are quite capable of getting into these companies for atleast 2x their current pay. Offers: Linkedin: Staff Software Engineer, 200k base/180k rsus per year/ signon 50k Netflix: 470k base Google, Facebook pending All offers SF bay area TC: 170k
They pay only base salary and 5% stock options
Who ? Netflix? For what role ? That is a crazy amount of fixed expense for the company to bear. I don't believe it.
For senior software engineers which is their only level. https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html?track=Software%20Engineer&search=Netflix
Money, fun, hotel discounts
Fun, probably, but the rest you can comfortably pay for that with the pay bump
The pay is significantly lower outside of consulting. Folks leave for the improved work life balance and consistency else they would be a consultant forever. Don't confuse working hours with billable hours.
Consultants have the chance to work on a wider variety of things than you’ll ever get at one company. Some of them don’t want to work for a company and all the politics that go with it.
The variety in work swings both ways. Politics is everywhere!
Yoe? How did you prepare?
I didn’t really prep much, about 10 LC and brushing up on some system design. I’ve also been doing this a while, 13 years.
I’m curious to hear from folks in consulting!
From a business/strategy standpoint people actually don't stay in consulting. Lots of churn at associate/EM level. Up or out selection happens too. Consulting for 2 years is like a little medal that will be useful through the rest of your career (proof that you can interact at c-level and sustain high intensity work). Very few actually want to make a career in consulting.
Whats the work like in consulting and do you think it helped you with interviews? And will it help you at your next job?
For the most part it does. Atleast in my experience it maps quite nicely
It’s mostly about building great software that will give those companies the competitive advantage in the markets they play in
I’ve found consulting to be great from a career building and networking perspective. Margins for consulting are low, often around 20%, so it naturally doesn’t pay that great unless you’re billing at $500/hr+. It’s also hard to “scale” your impact to your employer as you can only bill so many hours in a week.
Netflix 470k base ? Can you check?
That's a pretty common number.
For what roles? Are you making it ?