FAANG mania died, what’s next?

Facebook broke the monopoly of Google, Apple and IBM ( if I am not wrong ), who colluded to ensure that SDE’s are not getting poached between them and kept the salaries low. Facebook started the trend of getting top employees from anyone they wanted, Google and Apple were forced to increase their pay. Amazon and Netflix followed the trend. FAANG had an undeniable brand value, with people ready to accept lowballed offers if they can add them in their resume. Pre Covid: 1) Google was the most preferred for high pay + WLB + tag of innovation ( search, maps ). 2) Facebook had a similar reputation for high pay, despite their bad WLB 3) Apple and Netflix were also favored for similar reasons 4) Amazon was paying similar levels Post Covid + interest rate hikes: 1) Google started doing GRAD/PIP ( even new joiners got marked, guessing that manager couldn’t mark any tenured employees and new joiner became the scapegoat ) 2) Facebook is doing a huge bet on metaverse with not so great results right now 3) Amazon can’t have a high growth mode mentality, as investors are looking for profit. Devices is a money losing business so far, retail had high revenue but marginal profits/sometimes losses. 4) Netflix stock got hit so bad post Covid, with strong competition in their domain from other players 5) Apple is the only company left but they had cleverly didn’t share their estimates for next quarter and saved their stock from plunging. I don’t think any one of them are hiring except maybe for few critical roles. What are the companies that people could aspire? Most people might not shift in next couple of years, after things are normal, which companies should people target? Snowflake, Databricks, Datadog seemed to be doing pretty well. Microsoft - low pay ( 40-50% lower for similar levels ) Uber, Doordash - luxury products in recession What do you guys think? TC 160k #engineering #software #swe