Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#411

Post by _q1cj » Fri, Nov 29, 2019, 1:48 AM UTC

whitehouse3 wrote: post #291

badfrog wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these engineers, while they all tend to be very smart, tend to be borderline junior engineers in the real world Define "real world"?

Small-medium sized businesses without dedicated devops people. I'm working with an ex-Googler who struggles with basic dev stuff like * How to make a Python environment for a brand new project * Source control basics like commits and merging * Reading documentation or using SO * Basic command-line debugging or even using print() statements! I've asked a few times: "How did you get anything done before?". And (S)He re…

How on earth did she pass their interview screen?

But yeah, at Amazon I encountered people who passed their tech screen but spent days trying to figure out basic bash / zsh config problems.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#412

Post by y4mi » Fri, Nov 29, 2019, 9:05 AM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #401

GuiA wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Financial Independence/Retire Early The core idea is to define your annual expenditures (let’s say $50k), a long term investment strategy you personally feel comfortable with (say 5% ROI), and from there you can deduce the amount you need to save to be financially independent (in this case, $1M).

>" a long term investment strategy you personally feel comfortable with (say 5% ROI)" Could you elaborate? Why would you need a level of comfort with an ROI? Or is the thing you need to be comfortable with actual the risk involved in getting that target ROI? Is that what you mean? Also is the "million" you mention just a hypothetical? Although a million is a lot of money I don't thinks it's enough it's large enough t…

you sure as hell don't need more if all you want is retire early and live frugally.

if you'Re thinking of a McMansion with several cars which you exchange every so often and constantly buy new gadgets etc then no, its not gonna be enough.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#413

Post by snypox » Fri, Nov 29, 2019, 10:28 AM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #339

snypox wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same reason I left my previous company. Working on internal tooling for 2 years are not for me.

Interesting! Could you say more about why? For me, internal tooling can be really fun, in that my "customers" are people I get to see and talk to all the time.

Sure! I've built a site that are used by internal sales people where they record customer purchases. Around 10 people per day would use it. Found it boring after a while. Luckily my ex-manager referred me to the company which he joined, I'm happy now.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#414

Post by karthie_a » Fri, Nov 29, 2019, 3:56 PM UTC

Can understand what you mean in your post,started my career in a reputed consulting firm.Could not stomach the environment left in 2 years ,started freelancing made a name for myself after couple of years .Again due to financial circumstances had to work for a FANG couldn't see change in work environment other than some false promises from top and human resources.Trying to go full time remote and freelance to give more time for family and self. Academics is viable option unfortunately the current climate and economic conditions do not permit the move.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#415

Post by bogomipz » Fri, Nov 29, 2019, 11:31 PM UTC

y4mi wrote: post #412

bogomipz wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>" a long term investment strategy you personally feel comfortable with (say 5% ROI)" Could you elaborate? Why would you need a level of comfort with an ROI? Or is the thing you need to be comfortable with actual the risk involved in getting that target ROI? Is that what you mean? Also is the "million" you mention just a hypothetical? Although a million is a lot of money I don't thinks it's enough it's large enough t…

you sure as hell don't need more if all you want is retire early and live frugally. if you'Re thinking of a McMansion with several cars which you exchange every so often and constantly buy new gadgets etc then no, its not gonna be enough.

>"you sure as hell don't need more if all you want is retire early and live frugally."

You sure as hell do need more than that if you want to retire in your early 50s and you plan on living another 30 years. At least if you want to live somewhere remotely interesting. $1 million divided by 30 would mean you need to live on 33K a year. Which is about $2,750 a month without accounting for future inflation which would erode this figure substantially over those 30 years. An average inflation rate of 2.50% would be a cumulative inflation of 109.76%. Your $2750 would trend towards half that during that time[1]

[1] https://smartasset.com/investing/inflation-calculator

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#416

Post by Balero » Sun, Dec 01, 2019, 3:26 AM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #415

y4mi wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you sure as hell don't need more if all you want is retire early and live frugally. if you'Re thinking of a McMansion with several cars which you exchange every so often and constantly buy new gadgets etc then no, its not gonna be enough.

>"you sure as hell don't need more if all you want is retire early and live frugally." You sure as hell do need more than that if you want to retire in your early 50s and you plan on living another 30 years. At least if you want to live somewhere remotely interesting. $1 million divided by 30 would mean you need to live on 33K a year. Which is about $2,750 a month without accounting for future inflation which would e…

You invest the $1M, this grows faster than inflation, live off of that.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#417

Post by phendrenad2 » Mon, Dec 02, 2019, 1:04 AM UTC

bruntonjeeves wrote: post #220

How much are you making? I know that's a taboo question but your account is throwaway :-). I made $130k at a company called proofpoint with around 6-7 years experience as a software engineer and analyst, until I left tech.

This is amazing to me. Outside of FAANG people make $80k-$100k as a new grad, and generally cap out at $160k after 5 years of experience (and good luck getting beyond that). At FAANG people seem to start at $100k as a new gead and after 5 years they're above $200k and they're just starting their upward trend.

Is this reality or just my perception?

Are FAANG companies really capturing that much more wealth per employee that they can afford to pay people like this?

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#418

Post by bogomipz » Mon, Dec 02, 2019, 6:25 AM UTC

Balero wrote: post #416

bogomipz wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"you sure as hell don't need more if all you want is retire early and live frugally." You sure as hell do need more than that if you want to retire in your early 50s and you plan on living another 30 years. At least if you want to live somewhere remotely interesting. $1 million divided by 30 would mean you need to live on 33K a year. Which is about $2,750 a month without accounting for future inflation which would e…

You invest the $1M, this grows faster than inflation, live off of that.

Please walk me through this with some concrete numbers. How long do you suppose it takes to build up a million through investing your savings? You realize you can lose money in the market as well right? Lastly When you start pulling that money out to live on each year you aren't earning money on this.