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Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

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Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#221

Post by commandlinefan »

lemming wrote: post #88
mtlynch wrote: post #23

Ex-Googler here. I was a SWE L4 and left after four years in frustration with the promotion process ( https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/ ). Since then, I: * Moved out of my $3.3k/mo Manhattan apartment and bought a home for $200k in Western Massachusetts. Paid in cash so I no longer have to pay rent/mortgage. I feel like my time is much less "metered" now because my annual living expenses are so low, I can pursue…

Great article about the promotion process and the employee dynamic at Google. It very accurately summarises much of why I quit there so quickly after coming in via an acquisition. That conversation made me realize that I’m not Google. I provide a service to Google in exchange for money. I was very lucky to have a friend who taught me that very early (not about Google specifically, the same applies to any company). Wo…

> the promotion process and the employee dynamic at Google

I'm (apparently) not Google-quality but I can tell you for sure that "out here" everybody else is adopting the same tactics, and it's shifting from "not getting promoted" to "not keeping your job". And then they complain that there's a shortage of "talent".

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#222

Post by scylla »

devy wrote: post #203
mtlynch wrote: post #23

Ex-Googler here. I was a SWE L4 and left after four years in frustration with the promotion process ( https://mtlynch.io/why-i-quit-google/ ). Since then, I: * Moved out of my $3.3k/mo Manhattan apartment and bought a home for $200k in Western Massachusetts. Paid in cash so I no longer have to pay rent/mortgage. I feel like my time is much less "metered" now because my annual living expenses are so low, I can pursue…

> bought a home for $200k in Western Massachusetts. Paid in cash so I no longer have to pay rent/mortgage Thanks for sharing your experience Michael in that blog post. Can I read that "$200k paid in case" as in all paid off without loans even from family/friends? If so, $200k seems like a high saving amount considering average American household are in credit card debts. In other words, Google job did pay really well…

There are literally hundreds of developers in FAANG companies putting down payments a lot more than 200k in the Bay Area. The median compensation including RSUs is over 400k. If you're in a critical org your RSUs can be an order of magnitude more than that.

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#223

Post by jedberg »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #197
romed wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congratulations on making Staff after only 2 years. You’d think it would be alarming to Google how often engineers leave immediately after being promoted.

What's the benefit of waiting for promotion and then leaving? Any benefits you gain from that? Naïvely I'd assume it'd make sense to collect some of the extra cash for a while.

The title is useful and the bump in pay makes vacation payouts worth more. Also, if you want to go back, you get to go back at the higher title at a minimum.

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#224

Post by p1esk »

hamstercat wrote: post #213
devy wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> bought a home for $200k in Western Massachusetts. Paid in cash so I no longer have to pay rent/mortgage Thanks for sharing your experience Michael in that blog post. Can I read that "$200k paid in case" as in all paid off without loans even from family/friends? If so, $200k seems like a high saving amount considering average American household are in credit card debts. In other words, Google job did pay really well…

Considering the salary offered by FAANG and other big tech companies, saving 200k$ is very doable. Yes some people are in credit card debts, and that proportion is higher than it should, but saving that amount of money is not unheard of. Most people just spend all they have (and a little more), which leads to not having that kind of savings. Doing so in just 4 years may be harder (again, depends on your spending), bu…

If his total comp was $300k, which is normal for a senior google dev, it's entirely possible to save $100k per year, even if the rent is $3.5k/mo.

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#225

Post by swagatkonchada »

hemantv wrote: post #183

Ex Amazon Ex Microsoft here. Moved to bay area, bought a cheap house in Hayward CA, paid off my mortgage early. Started my own company Goodly (www.goodlyapp.com) I am learning a lot on daily basis and enjoying it throughly. Even though I work crazy hours it doesn't feel like work at all.

howdy :)

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#226

Post by sjg007 »

baq wrote: post #209
sjg007 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cracking down seems like a bad idea.. you lose dynamic flexibility on both sides. What would the upside be?

Taxes mostly and fairness towards people who are actually employed.

In the US you pay more to freelance in taxes than you do as an employee (because the employer pays some on your behalf) but you can have other deductions as a contractor. So I think fairness is not specifically a sufficient motivator. The UK can have a tax advantage for freelancing but these freelancers lose out on employment protections. Dunno..

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#227

Post by sjg007 »

throwaway5250 wrote: post #169
romed wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Now some other slob with a job has to pay to feed my family just because I can afford to buy a house and he can’t. The American way. The only practical problem with this scheme is the cost of private medical insurance is astronomical for someone who retires before Medicare age. So I might get some kind of token job just to get group health plan.

Don't understand first sentence. Are you saying you bought a house and rent it out?

That's my take on it.

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#228

Post by jedberg »

Ex-Netflix. I left right after my first child was born (this was before the 1 year of parental leave was added) and then I started a startup with some friends. Then we exited that startup and I started another one, which I work on now from home, which lets me play with the kids during my breaks.

The flexibility of working for myself at home is the main reason I do this instead of working at an office or cowering space, because it lets me do daytime events with my kids, like 10am gymnastics class and 4:30pm tap class. If it weren't for the kids I'd still be doing the startup, but I might not be doing it from home. I'd probably be digital nomading instead.

I suppose if the startup thing doesn't work out, once the kids are both in school full time during the day I'll probably try to get a job at another FAANG company and build up the savings again for another startup. :)

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#229

Post by dartdartdart »

q3k wrote: post #2

Freelancing and consulting. It's fun, pays decently well and is fully remote. Left Google SRE because of how mentally draining it was, how draconian the IP clauses were (everything you create belongs to Google!), and how generally I didn't see a future for myself there.

I heard from my Google friend that SRE besides the on-call stuff was procedural and had no deadlines. Could you elaborate on the mentally draining part?

Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?

#230

Post by brandmeyer »

tonfa wrote: post #46
asaph wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I left Google after three years as an SDE Were you on a 4 year vest schedule for your stock grant at Google? If so, did you leave some money on the table?

Isn't it standard that grants are renewed yearly? If so you'll always be "leaving money on the table" (but then if you switch company you'd probably get a new grant, right?)

Nothing is "standard". I've never talked to a startup that offered an equity refresh like GOOG does.
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