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Ask HN: What did you think about working at a FAANG?

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Re: Ask HN: What did you think about working at a FAANG?

#21

Post by chubot »

What's missing in all these replies -- it depends on who you are :)

If you have experience and specialized skill, it can be worth it to go to Google / big tech. You can apply your skills (for considerable profit), and learn from others with different specialized skills. You can work on highly technical things that are difficult to find elsewhere.

If you're inexperienced or fresh out of college, I would say it's not worth it. You'll probably have a bad experience (and I've talked to multiple young people who this has happened to).

Google was good for inexperienced hires when I joined (2005), but it isn't anymore.

You'll learn more elsewhere in 2022. In fact, I'd strongly suggest that you'll learn the WRONG lessons at big tech. The real problem in those jobs is learning to navigate bureaucracy, rather than learning how to build things.

I talked to people who basically didn't get to build anything that anybody used for the first 5 years of their career, which IMO is basically a death sentence for an engineering career. They just shifted among cancelled projects and didn't learn anything. All their work was thrown away.

Good blog post about that:

https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16483241

(and the author was apparently experienced, so these bad jobs aren't limited to fresh college hires)

Re: Ask HN: What did you think about working at a FAANG?

#22

Post by xfgr »

m0llusk wrote: post #15

It sucked. Constant gaming for perceived power by people who have been the smartest one in the room all their lives. Empathy occasionally happens, but it tends to get squashed. A lot, well pretty much everything, depends on the teams and projects you get directly involved with.

Yeah, same sort of experience here. It was interesting work, and I had some decent teammates, but every other person was an asshole, especially as they got further up the management chain. I'd never work for FAANG ever again, it's not worth the mental health damage. I hear similar from friends who work for big pharma. Soulless corporate vampirism.

Re: Ask HN: What did you think about working at a FAANG?

#23

Post by decafninja »

pillowkusis wrote: post #20

I strongly recommend working for a FAANG. Even a few years are going to give you lasting benefits: - You make significantly more money at a FAANG than most of the rest of the industry - The klout of a FAANG on your resume will open a lot of doors to more interesting, higher paying, or more prestigious jobs - You will gain a professional network that will be useful for the entire rest of your career - Most SWE teams a…

This is a clear cut objective summary IMHO. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Also like you said, there are downsides to working at FAANG. However there are downsides to working at every company, and IMHO, the downsides at FAANG and FAANG-like companies are at least compensated for by the upsides.

The one exception might be Amazon. I'm just hearing too many horror stories coming out of Amazon that it might be the one FAANG I have zero interest in working for. But even then, if you can bite the bullet and put up with everything for a year, you'll probably be in a better spot for the rest of your career than if you were to have been at some lesser company.

Re: Ask HN: What did you think about working at a FAANG?

#26

Post by midnitewarrior »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #19
jewayne wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, you had opinions outside your job description, and couldn't be a professional and keep them to yourself. It comes as a shock to some people that a corporation is not a democracy, and that yes, that applies to THEM. We all need to know what we are being paid to do and just keep our mouths shut about things outside of the area that we're being paid for.

If work is neutral ground, one might argue then, that all personal (political) opinions should be kept private and not discussed in the work place. Regardless of if they are left or right leaning …

That's generally the case until the politics target your fellow employees. Abortion is a healthcare issue and an HR issue that may affect any employee, and anti-LGBTQIA politics definitely can affect your co-workers' rights and their healthcare. Religion overstepping in the workplace, especially when laws are involved is another political issue that affects employees' relationship with their employer. These types of politics are difficult to keep out of the workplace because employment law crosses many of these boundaries, and most employees want to see their co-workers prosper.

Re: Ask HN: What did you think about working at a FAANG?

#27

Post by [deleted] »

pillowkusis wrote: post #20

I strongly recommend working for a FAANG. Even a few years are going to give you lasting benefits: - You make significantly more money at a FAANG than most of the rest of the industry - The klout of a FAANG on your resume will open a lot of doors to more interesting, higher paying, or more prestigious jobs - You will gain a professional network that will be useful for the entire rest of your career - Most SWE teams a…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What did you think about working at a FAANG?

#28

Post by spearingthehead »

decafninja wrote: post #23
pillowkusis wrote: post #20

I strongly recommend working for a FAANG. Even a few years are going to give you lasting benefits: - You make significantly more money at a FAANG than most of the rest of the industry - The klout of a FAANG on your resume will open a lot of doors to more interesting, higher paying, or more prestigious jobs - You will gain a professional network that will be useful for the entire rest of your career - Most SWE teams a…

This is a clear cut objective summary IMHO. Couldn't have said it better myself. Also like you said, there are downsides to working at FAANG. However there are downsides to working at every company, and IMHO, the downsides at FAANG and FAANG-like companies are at least compensated for by the upsides. The one exception might be Amazon. I'm just hearing too many horror stories coming out of Amazon that it might be the…

Does this exempt Amazon as well? I heard from an ex Amazon employee saying that 50-60 hour work-weeks is the norm there, and they work you to the bone, but he also didn't specify if that was for his particular team/department only.

I'm guessing this is one of the exaggerated downsides, possibly coming from a skewed perspective of what is "normal" for a SWE if you spent your entire career in FAANG.

In any case, I'm still sure that working as a Amazon SWE would be light years farther ahead than working in a bottom of the barrel chop shop that pays less than half of market salary.

In other words, worst of the FAANG should still beat the best of the bottom-tier companies, especially if you're taking home much more money in the end.

Re: Ask HN: What did you think about working at a FAANG?

#30

Post by decafninja »

spearingthehead wrote: post #28
decafninja wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a clear cut objective summary IMHO. Couldn't have said it better myself. Also like you said, there are downsides to working at FAANG. However there are downsides to working at every company, and IMHO, the downsides at FAANG and FAANG-like companies are at least compensated for by the upsides. The one exception might be Amazon. I'm just hearing too many horror stories coming out of Amazon that it might be the…

Does this exempt Amazon as well? I heard from an ex Amazon employee saying that 50-60 hour work-weeks is the norm there, and they work you to the bone, but he also didn't specify if that was for his particular team/department only. I'm guessing this is one of the exaggerated downsides, possibly coming from a skewed perspective of what is "normal" for a SWE if you spent your entire career in FAANG. In any case, I'm st…

I would go further than that and say the worst of FAANG still beats not just "bottom tier companies", but many decent but mediocre companies where tech is treated as an unrespected cost center.

As the post I replied to above said, it's not just the pay, but also the intangibles like the prestige that will let you more easily pivot into other companies and potential lifelong networks of similar colleagues.

It depends on your priorities. Are you willing to make some sacrifices to get what is likely to be a golden ticket to catapult your future career?

If you're even considering FAANG, then you've already probably decided to make some sacrifices to go through the stupid leetcode grind.

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