I'm at a FAANG, been in them for a while. So many people on here are fighting to work at one of them. The TC is often spectacular. The marquee name on your resume is worth its weight in gold too. But before you think it's the end-all, get a little dose of reality. You are earning that money. Relationships are difficult to keep working for the top tier companies. Your job comes first. Always. It doesn't matter what is going on in your personal life. WIfe's family is coming to town? Kids have sporting events or getting awards at school? Piano recital? Finally got a date with that person you have always wanted? Your girlfriend having a dinner party or special event she had been planning for months for your birthday? Sorry, something in China just blew up. United has a redeye going there tonight, run by the house and get your bag. Your wife or girlfriend doesn't understand and says to tell your management that you had previous plans this weekend and can't go. Haha. That's adorable. Not going to happen. You are going to China. That doesn't fly at FAANG. Your friends and family will be envious of your exotic travel. Half of them don't even have passports. You fill yours and have to get extra pages. Your facebook page looks like a travel brochure. But it wears thin quickly. The resentment from home you can cut with a knife. Your kids are good sports about it all, but you feel guilty for all the stuff you missed. On these trips, the best you can hope for is getting a couple of nice meals out. A lot of times you aren't traveling with a bunch of your bros and hitting the bars after work, you are traveling alone. The local people you work with have lives and families and go home at night. You are sitting up at midnight eating room service off the limited "night" menu, calling home to talk to the wife and kids or girlfriend. They can't completely hold back the resentment that you flake every time they make plans. I think there is a lot of holy grail talk about working for a FAANG, but you have to accept that you are going to be putting the job in front of everything else in your life. I can give you a whole litany of things I've missed because I had to take a trip last-minute or right before a major release on an impossible timeline and everyone is working super late every night. You get home and just turn on the computer again. You go to work, and it's dark, and you come home, and it's dark. Everyone thinks they can step up and run at that level and will swear up and down they can live like that, but it's a lot harder than you think. There will be lots of people that say "Oh, it's not like that for me" but if you are ascending through the ranks, these are the tradeoffs you need to make I was on the road traveling or in the office working 25 weekends last year. The only downtime I get is those 13 hours flights when I can disconnect and watch mindless movies. I have no intention of going anywhere, but I'm just sharing that it's not for everyone, even those that think they can hang at that level. Some people thrive in it. Some people get burned out. Plenty of divorces at work and a few substance abuse issues and people that after 3 or 4 years look like they have aged 10. Lots say they will do it for a few years and quit. Then you have kids. Price out college lately? Want to own a home in a good school district in the bay area? You aren't quitting any time soon. Go for it if that is what you want, but go in eyes wide open and think about what you will trade for money. TC: $625k
You just don't know how to balance work and life! I have an average of 40 hour weeks and relatively successful in terms of career progression. That is the balance I chose and I don't complain about it. TC: 450k
Oh for sure I haven't balanced it well. 100% agree. But as I'm sure you know, once you set that pace in your career it's hard to reel it back in. Congrats on keeping that in check, most people can't until it's done for them.
I know what you mean about keeping up with the expectations you set previously. Switching a company and setting new expectations is always an option.
Yeah fuck all this I love my new company
God speed, bro!
Honestly it sounds like the musk companies are worse? My friends at spaceX work like 70 hour weeks for shit pay compared to faang
What’s your role?
Without disclosing too much, senior hardware role.
That’s the difference. The vast majority of people on Blind are software not hardware. My company has roles like that too (as far as I understand), but it’s still very rare to be the person that’s so tied to production that you’d need to fly to China. Personally, my worst case scenario is I open my laptop at home, fix a bug that slipped through some how, and deploy off master to prod.
Why so much of travel? Sales/Marketing?
Hardware.
So it not about FAANG, it’s about your job and ability to balance work and life. Don’t generalize – your life suck, not everyone else’s
It's not like you're at Facebook or Google, it's just Apple.
Op doesn’t want the competition. Discouraging Blinders from getting into FANG. Wants all that sweet TC for herself. Nice try.
Replying from a flight right now, had a hotel dinner at 11pm last night, miss my family, my mum noticed that I’m getting a lot of grey hairs and I’m not even 35. That said, the opportunities are great, never thought I’d make this much from a job (still below $500k), and I could always switch roles or teams to a less travel heavy one if it was truly wearing me down. Appreciate you sharing your perspective though.
With 625 TC id retire after 5 years
Incorrect but sorry that has been your experience. Luckily with 625k/year you will be able to retire soon at least.
Yeah honestly after 5 years of that you could soft retire...
I hear you, but think about where we are. You drop close to $2M for a home because you have a wife and kids and you want your kids to go to a good school district. Your kids want to go to college, there is $100k per kid per year. Taxes. If you retire, you have to move away because you need a lot more than $3M to retire here. At 4% withdrawal rate that will give you $120k a year in income pre-tax indefinitely. Sounds great, but have a family of 4 with young kids and it's a little more challenging.
Why don't you quit??
Because I'm a masochist who thrives in chaos and pressure. I think I'm just feeling a little melancholy tonight reflecting while reading all of these "how do I get into FAANG" posts here. By all means, go for it, but think carefully about what job you want and what you are willing to trade.
Because these companies hire people with self esteem issues who have something to prove and don't tell their bosses to shove it.