Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mike, I did not realize you moved. We should meet up one of these days. -Ty
Hey Tyson, yes definitely. I do plan to come back for IH NYC meetups on occasion.
Mike and Tyson. Mike Tyson.
Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
381–390 of 449 posts
Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#382Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#383Ex-Amazon engineer here. Worked for ~4 years in the Prime Music team. Contrary to popular belief, I had incredible time at Amazon. Learned a lot, good work life balance, progressed to L5 etc. Primary reason I quit is to start something of my own and not live under a draconian H1-B visa that treats people like second class citizens (will save H1-B rant for some other time). What am I doing now? I enjoy building dev to…
$2k/mo seemw very high for India (I'm not too familiar), are you supporting a family/spouse as well or is New Delhi just expensive?
It must be, because I'm living comfortably in NY on less than $2000 a month post tax 0.o
Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
>bought a home for $200k in Western Massachusetts. Paid in cash so I no longer have to pay rent/mortgage Don't take this the wrong way, I'm sure you considered this, but... why put all that cash down when you almost certainly could have got a low interest mortgage and made more by putting that money in... well anything really?
Because of the federal real estate capital gains exclusion of half a mil, 20% marginal long term cap gains tax rate, and the difference between historical real estate appreciation vs SP500 returns being maybe 2% at absolute most, an average rate of increase of about 5% on a house, the average transaction cost of obtaining a mortgage is maybe 2% (stock transactions are practically free in comparison), S+P return after…
I just learned so much right here, I think I might take a nap now. Thanks for the thorough reply.
Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#385At the moment, what are some notable startups founded by ex Googlers ?
Off the top of my head:
- Pete Koomen left AppEngine to start Optimizely.
- Kevin Gibbs left AppEngine to start Quip.
- Dave Byttow left Plus to do Secret, and just became eng director at Snap.
- Bret Taylor was on Maps before he started Friendfeed with Paul Buchheit (Gmail), becoming Facebook's CTO and now Salesforce's CPO.
Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#386A lot of the answers are a bit underwhelming. Which is fine. But it makes me think, sure working in a bigco is lackluster, but so are many of the other options, and you might as well get paid for your trouble. “Being the one in charge” seems cold comfort to me if the thing you’re in charge of isn’t all that great itself. Working in a big company allows you to disconnect a bit, focus on getting done what you need to a…
That's a good attitude to have, 'just do your piece, every day.'
It makes sense, and after a few years you have much more freedom bc of the savings.
I'm a recent grad though, and I find my work very boring and tedious. I'm given tasks to do that may not even be useful. The lack of ownership + feeling like a cog makes it hard for me to do good work. I have been rational my whole life, but it is difficult to remain this way. Any advice? How did you like your first job?
Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey Michael - have been following your story for several months. Disappointed to hear that the recipe parsing idea didn't work out for you.
Thanks for reading! Yeah, it's a shame but I expected that I'd have lots of ideas that don't work out. I'm trying to maximize what I learn from them and minimize the amount of time it takes to find out if an idea is viable.
I don’t follow your blog but I keep running into it, and it’s a really cool story. I hope you figure it out and keep documenting it because I’m trying to do the same and would love to maintain this level of autonomy.
Unlike you though, I think I’m taking too long to execute rather than failing to monetize something.
Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
Since from what I hear a fresh grad in the Bay Area gets $100k+ just in cash, we could extrapolate. I'm guessing that's at least $150k (probably more like $200k+ in today's market) in total compensation for year. Add about $20k+ in cash and probably the close to the same in Google shares per level, that would make it easily $400k per year. So he would have gotten $3.2 million, I can't imagine his expenses being highe…
You're so low it's actually kind of uncomfortable.
thausamiote thinks I’m at the other end of the spectrum because I forgot taxes :o)
Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
Possibly! I don't think I'd qualify until 2020 because my 2018 income is over the limit because of my earnings at Google in the beginning of the year. My understanding is that it's based on the previous year's income, so I'd have to earn nothing in 2019. I'm not sure if I'd apply in any case. I feel like it's questionable ethically to take public assistance when I could earn a high income if I chose to work for an em…
this is how the rich turn the middle class against the poor, by attaching shame to public goods. healthcare should not be means tested, but if you can actually pass the test then by all means do it. you are not better than anyone else.
Nah, I think you’re being pessimistic here. I’m not OP but I’m in the boat and I turn down public assistance because it’s not what it was made for and the system is strained enough...also, I wouldn’t judge anyone else for taking it.
Re: Ask HN: Ex-FAANG developers, where are you now and why?
#390Ex-Amazon engineer here. Worked for ~4 years in the Prime Music team. Contrary to popular belief, I had incredible time at Amazon. Learned a lot, good work life balance, progressed to L5 etc. Primary reason I quit is to start something of my own and not live under a draconian H1-B visa that treats people like second class citizens (will save H1-B rant for some other time). What am I doing now? I enjoy building dev to…
$2k/mo seemw very high for India (I'm not too familiar), are you supporting a family/spouse as well or is New Delhi just expensive?
He must be living like a king. I lived there for a year and struggled to spend more than $20 a day.