You don’t because there’s a 99% chance it will fail and you will waste money
Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
41–50 of 81 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#42I left a FAANG-like job in 2016 (VP, CTO) to join a startup. It was a disaster. I then co-founded a startup. I left two years later, parted ways with the other two co-founders in a friendly way. All this time, I funded my life with my savings. I had enough on the side to do that, and thankfully other things went well in my life, so I don't really regret it, but... If I could go back, I'd simply tell myself that most…
Yep. I did the exact same thing ~10ish years ago - leaving my job at Google to run my own startup for 2.5 years. I burned through most of my savings. In the meantime, I watched as my former colleagues got numerous promotions and made more and more money.
I wouldn't trade the perspective I got from the experience, but it was extremely emotionally painful.
Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#43You should realize that faang swe income, on a risk adjusted basis, is the best you will get. Hold on as long as possible and invest your earnings into the stock market. Ignore the noise. You quit when you have enough to retire
I think there is something to be said for starting a company when you're younger and more risk-tolerant though. If you wait until you're middle aged and set for life you might never do it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#44FAANG is obsolete, the new acronym is MAAMA (change three letters to account for Facebook->Meta, Netflix->Microsoft, and Google->Alphabet). The goal here is to be able to say "Big MAAMA's outsized influence in the tech sector", of course. Also has some relevant historical antecedents, i.e. "Ma Bell".
"Stop trying to make 'fetch' happen."
Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#45Tech recruiter here in Switzerland with ~10 years of experience: People quit their teams/bosses, rarely do they quit for other reasons, like compensation or brand.
I have heard this rule of thumb, but I'm not sure where it comes from, and haven't found it to be true personally.
I think FAANG employees don't quit over compensation or brand. But I think employees of more normal companies do. A lot. And there's a lot more of them.
Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#46Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#47Sooner the better if you are really committed. You can only have one wife these days, the mistresses will remain mistresses until you put a ring on it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#48Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#49[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you know it's time for you to quit your FAANG job?
#50Sounds like you're thinking about a startup. It's a terrible idea financially and you'll probably fail. But if you have a burning desire that you can't shake, here's my advice.
Are you looking to for a lifestyle business that allows you to work on interesting problems with interesting people or do you want to transform an industry? Don't raise VC money if you're not sure on the latter.
If you're bootstrapping, most startups take a minimum of 12 - 24 months to find sustainable cashflow. You'll want to have 1 - 2 years of expenses saved (at a very modest salary). If you already have cashflow coming in, you can cut this down.