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Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#341

Post by wepple »

riehwvfbk wrote: post #327
wepple wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone should attempt to start a small business or a side consulting gig. Failing that, you should strive to make it to VP-suite Utter horse shit. I want to earn enough to live without too many worries, and spend time with friends and family. Being able to leave at 5 is irreplaceable

I don't think there are many places in tech where an employee can leave at 5 and expect to keep their job.

I politely disagree. If you think “hours spent at desk” correlates with performance, I don’t really know what to tell you.

I do work late, and over my career have absolutely pulled all nighters and weekends and been on the redeye, but that’s when I stretch or flex, and it’s simply not sustainable.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#342

Post by slashdave »

ska wrote: post #147

Two tried and tested methods, neither guaranteed of course. 1) Be better than the overwhelming majority of your peers, and be noticed for this. You are quite likely to find interesting opportunities come your way. I do mean overwhelming though - small fraction of a percent. 2) Specialize in something most people can’t or won’t do. This includes difficult, obscure, and unpleasant work. In both cases some of the bigges…

I appreciate the sentiment, but I'll add that it is possible for difficult and obscure work to be quite pleasant, if you have the right skill set.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#343

Post by The_Colonel »

riehwvfbk wrote: post #327
wepple wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone should attempt to start a small business or a side consulting gig. Failing that, you should strive to make it to VP-suite Utter horse shit. I want to earn enough to live without too many worries, and spend time with friends and family. Being able to leave at 5 is irreplaceable

I don't think there are many places in tech where an employee can leave at 5 and expect to keep their job.

Of course there are. In my 20 years of experience I've never worked in a place which would expect people to work overtime. (this wasn't in my selection criteria BTW)

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#344

Post by FooBarWidget »

arrosenberg wrote: post #274
Rinzler89 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is the stress level actually that different? Your liability is. Worst case scenario is you don't get hired, or you get hired, and then get fired. That the worst that can happen. FAANG isn't gonna come after you for damages if you accidentally brick something in production or are just lazy and incompetent. As a business, your customers might. Let's watch how the Crowdstrike scenario unfolds in the coming months, whe…

If you are a tiny business, you just need an indemnity clause. If you have employees, you pay for E&O insurance. Im not saying any of this is obvious, but if you are applying to work at a FAANG, I will assume you are both smart enough and ambitious enough to do a bit of research.

"Just" an indemnity clause.

First, you don't really know whether that'll hold up in court until it happens.

Second, by the time you're done with the court case, you'll have spent a tremendous amount of time and energy. Not only is that stressful by itself, it's also a big distraction from running the business, and every day you are busy with the court case you'll wish you were spending time working your business. The smaller you are, the more impactful distractions are.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#345

Post by HWR_14 »

stonethrowaway wrote: post #277
Rinzler89 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> instead of learning how to start and run a business Because the stress and risks of running a small business as a solo inexperienced first time business owner are insane compared to a regular 9-5. Especially if you start hiring other people, your liability then increases 10 fold as now anything can happen with them (sick leave, absenteism, low performance, sabotage, etc) but you're still bound to the same deadlines…

> Because the stress and risks of running a small business as a solo inexperienced first time business owner are insane compared to a regular 9-5. Believe it or not you get over this. It’s kind of like the fear of going up on stage to give a presentation. Some people get an addictive rush, these are usually serial entrepreneurs who just love to be in charge because they have no problems with risk/stress tolerance (mo…

> these are usually serial entrepreneurs who just love to be in charge because they have no problems with risk/stress tolerance (mostly).

More accurately, they have made enough money from a successful venture that they can afford to fail and their risk/stress is lowered. I know serial entrepreneurs who failed several times in a row. Without some form of safety net along the way (an exit, taking money off the table in a later round, simply nice cashflows they were able to bank for a few years), they all seem to burn out.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#346

Post by SoftTalker »

riehwvfbk wrote: post #327
wepple wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone should attempt to start a small business or a side consulting gig. Failing that, you should strive to make it to VP-suite Utter horse shit. I want to earn enough to live without too many worries, and spend time with friends and family. Being able to leave at 5 is irreplaceable

I don't think there are many places in tech where an employee can leave at 5 and expect to keep their job.

There absolutely are, but they aren't startups.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#347

Post by copperroof »

stonethrowaway wrote: post #277
Rinzler89 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> instead of learning how to start and run a business Because the stress and risks of running a small business as a solo inexperienced first time business owner are insane compared to a regular 9-5. Especially if you start hiring other people, your liability then increases 10 fold as now anything can happen with them (sick leave, absenteism, low performance, sabotage, etc) but you're still bound to the same deadlines…

> Because the stress and risks of running a small business as a solo inexperienced first time business owner are insane compared to a regular 9-5. Believe it or not you get over this. It’s kind of like the fear of going up on stage to give a presentation. Some people get an addictive rush, these are usually serial entrepreneurs who just love to be in charge because they have no problems with risk/stress tolerance (mo…

No. Speak for yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#348

Post by The_Colonel »

keiferski wrote: post #270
brigadier132 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im doing both and yes its very different. The stress at the big companies is nothing.

Sure, I get that. But are the people trying to maximize income as an employee really looking for the low stress route in the first place? I suppose I should have qualified my comment by saying it's if your primary aim is to maximize income.

Stress level has very unclear correlation with compensation. My very personal experience was that higher the compensation, less stressful the job was.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#349

Post by greenthrow »

keiferski wrote: post #221

It's interesting how so many people have an aversion to being a business owner / entrepreneur, and will instead put in so much effort to optimize being a well-paid employee, instead of learning how to start and run a business. These salaries listed are great salaries, no doubt, but they are not dramatically more than say, a guy running a successful local plumbing business. And the ceiling is limited as an employee, w…

Running a business is so much more work and most businesses fail. This is terrible advice.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#350

Post by gamepsys »

meiraleal wrote: post #260
amonith wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting topic because I wouldn't want to work with those 20% who reject people based on n-th level relationship to anything controversial. I get not wanting to deal with people who run these things but employees? Those "anti-political" places typically mean a specific side (depending on your country that may anti-right in western countries and anti-left in eastern). When I worked in the office before 2019 we had…

You asked why that would be a problem, not that we agree. I like your point of view but I think in general society is less diverse than our personal experience. At least in my country, which is a mix of very liberal and very conservative (Brazil), most recruiters would discriminate against gambling and porn, not by the other tech people but from the other areas of the company. Less likely to happen in a full tech com…

There's also the issue of money. If you are turned down for a job that would have paid 20% more because of working in a controversial industry that can have a big impact on your life. I'd prefer to be able to have civil discussions about politics with coworkers, but I don't care enough to sacrifice even 1% of my salary. This entire Ask HN is about income maximizing after all. I think getting into vice or anything controversial is a bad long term move, even if it includes a sizable temporary bump in compensation.
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