Stay or Chase TC?

Walmart
playmoney

Go to company page Walmart

playmoney
Nov 14, 2021 21 Comments

Hi all,

At a choice with my career. Currently married with 2 kids coming up on 40 years old. Combined TC 600k. Next year or two I expect that to go to 700 and a few more years down the road to cap out around 800k (unless my spouse can supercharger her career).

Currently my job is great, it’s good TC ~400k chill hours ~35 a week and lots of PTO, 6-7 weeks a year. I currently have nice growth prospects but eventually feel I will hit a slowdown. We own our own home and can probably upgrade in a year or two. We both get a lot of time to spend with our kids and they are young and need it. We might have another kid in a year or two too. My wife has a similar situation with lower TC but good wlb as well. We can have a turbulence free longer flight to FIRE (maybe 10 years)

I am getting approached by FAANG companies for roles that would take that TC to near 1.1M. It’s a lot of unknown and I know it is going to be a lot more intense. It will also be an opportunity to work at a much larger scale (billions of users vs millions). I can imagine I will encounter some fun engineering challenges that will keep my interest. My career trajectory there might also hit that same slowdown as I expect it to be more competitive but with the healthy refreshers our TC will be near 1.5M by the time I approach my 4 year cliff. That’s a lot of money! I can put afterburners on my ride to fire (but there very well might be some major turbulence).

What would you do? (looking more for opinions from older folk with kids — I know as a 25 year old the answers will bias towards the TC).

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TOP 21 Comments
  • Google
    citizen?

    Go to company page Google

    citizen?
    Get the offer first, everything is hypothetical until then. You can decide later.
    Nov 14, 2021 6
    • Google
      citizen?

      Go to company page Google

      citizen?
      To be brutally honest, you've got so many assumptions baked in there that it's laughable for someone with your industry experience. You are assuming that -
      1. You get a higher offer that nearly doubles your TC
      2. You join a team that likes you and you like, you don't hit any snafus in team-matching at places like Goog, FB which are full of dead-weight organizations that aren't obvious to outsiders, and full of high-performing organizations that can also stress and burn out people and be a bad fit for many.
      3. Then you assume everything goes perfectly well after joining and you knock it out of the park with performance competing with 23-25 year olds who have the energy to pull in 12 hour days, work weekends and go level 3 to level 5 in 3 years. They are not going to be sympathetic to L7 folks who want to work 6-8 hours a day and aren't as sharp/fast as them in picking up the stack.
      4. You assume that Goog/Amzn, notoriously stingy places don't deny you first year refreshers - for many, it can be 23 months before they get their first refresher.
      5. You assume you can keep up a high-refresher trajectory for 3-4 years without reorgs, bad managers/good people leaving and quotas getting in your way.
      Yes, if all the ten bazillion stars align right for 4 years past the offer , you'll make 1.5M. but thinking about this before even prepping for interviews is just (redacted).
      For context, the fastest young kid at FAANG goes from 200k to 800k TC in about 8 years (i.e. 4x in 8 years minus stock appreciation and starting with a much lower base than yours) and many peak at 500-600k TC after 6-8 YoE.
      You are assuming 4x-ing your 400k TC in 4 years.
      Nov 15, 2021
    • Apple
      move-on

      Go to company page Apple

      PRE
      Amazon
      move-on
      The numbers are truly laughable. And as you pointed out, for someone with 20 yoe, it is extremely surprising. It shows a real lack of understanding of real world.

      OP also completely ignored the fact that L7s today at cliff make nowhere near the 1.3M target. Companies manage this by taking into account the unvested RSUs at the time of refreshers. It baffles me that someone with 20 yoe doesn’t get it.
      Nov 15, 2021
  • Lyft
    KIpm76

    Go to company page Lyft

    KIpm76
    Honestly on a similar boat and our home TC is ~600. Kids are young and this time will never comeback. As soon as they hit teens, its their friends then their college then their life. I am ok to retire a bit late than waste the limited, invaluable fam time!
    Nov 14, 2021 0
  • Acegrades
    tempot

    Acegrades

    tempot
    I guess you are staff at Walmart with that TC. Going from staff to L7 G will be tough if not impossible.
    Nov 14, 2021 4
    • Apple
      wlb-finder

      Go to company page Apple

      PRE
      Amazon
      wlb-finder
      You can interview at whatever level but it doesn’t mean a lot. FAANG is famous for down leveling if you’re coming from outside.

      And no company “has to” interview anyone at any level unless you bring a really unique skill set
      Nov 14, 2021
    • Acegrades
      tempot

      Acegrades

      tempot
      Principal at Walmart will be leveled L6 at Google or E6 at FB max.
      Nov 15, 2021
  • Twitter
    MCPI77

    Go to company page Twitter

    MCPI77
    What are these 1.5M roles you're being approached for? FANG senior director positions?
    Nov 14, 2021 2
    • Walmart
      playmoney

      Go to company page Walmart

      playmoney
      OP
      I miscalculated the numbers and corrected in my post. I meant 1.5M after refreshers and a 4 year cliff. Its E7 level or ICT6 at Apple. L7 at Google — if they still pay that much ..
      Nov 14, 2021
    • Apple
      wlb-finder

      Go to company page Apple

      PRE
      Amazon
      wlb-finder
      You’d be the rarest of the unicorns to be hired at ICT6 at Apple. Google L7 pays nowhere close to 1.5M

      Better find the relevant numbers for the role and then decide if the grind makes sense for you
      Nov 14, 2021
  • Intuit
    ipm4n

    Go to company page Intuit

    ipm4n
    Studying system design for interviews especially if you have never done it before might actually prove helpful for your own career skills. Nonetheless, I would try to do the interviews at a leisurely pace rather cram and study. With 35, you got time to chill and just bang out the interviews at your pace. Outside of the interview time, you should not need to really study especially if you are happy with your professional and personal life. Just see how far you can go with your current experience.
    Nov 15, 2021 0