Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 418 posts

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

#51

Post by john_moscow »

Don't think of your FANG job as a way of doing productive work. Instead, treat it as an opportunity to:

* Network with the smart people that the BigCo's HR has carefully vetted for you. Specifically, find the ones that share your interests and may want to found a startup together.

* Hone your presentation skills in numerous meetings.

* Make contacts to other companies and learn about some business models previously unknown to you.

* Put aside enough savings to not need a paycheck in the foreseeable future.

You need to be careful abiding the non-compete terms, but generally try to end up with a very solid understanding of some business problem you would want to solve with your startup, and a network of people with mutual trust that would gladly join you on your new cause.

Also be careful to not burn the bridges with BigCo, since most startups fail, bla bla, yada yada.

I would advise against joining a random startup as a rank-and-file employee. You won't have the same level of trust with the founders, as you could have with your ex-colleagues, and you will likely just spend working crazy hours making someone else's dream come true, only to get screwed with equity dilution once the startup hits the exit.

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

#52

Post by DVassallo »

ActorNightly wrote: post #46
DVassallo wrote: post #33

I left Amazon 9 months ago, after working there for 8.5 years. My total comp was over $500K when I left, which made it both easy (allowed me to save money) and hard to leave (I left about $1M of granted RSUs+Salary for 2019-2020 on the table). At one point, I realized that a career as a full-time employee in at a "high-stress" employer is not the ideal one for me. I'm working for myself right now, but if one day I ne…

I am guessing the 500k compensation number is due to stock growth, not something that is given as part of a promotion. I know a few SD2s that make more than SD3s because they vested back in the day at $700 a share and due to how Amazon does total comp, the final number is over 300k a year currently.

I had a competing offer from Oracle in 2016 at $370K, and Amazon matched it to $390K for 2016 to 2018. An extra $70K and $120K in 2017 and 2018 came from stock growth. But for 2019 and 2020 they had topped me up to ~$460K, so I would have kept that level if I stayed, even with no stock growth.

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

#53

Post by sriram_malhar »

I quit full-time work in 2001, after being burned out in the dot com boom. I did well for myself financially after the startup I was in got bought. The phrase "well" is of course subjective, considering that no colleague of mine quit. I left a whole lot of money on the table, but never once have I regretted it.

I decided that the name of the game is to optimise quality of life. That means, infrequent brutal deadlines, minimal (pref. zero) commute, opportunity to learn, and spend time with family and friends and be of use to society at large.

This meant (1) I'd only do short-term assignments (less than a year) (2) I'll keep my technical chops as current as possible, so no shortage of interesting gigs to work on (3) Not hurry into the next gig when one ended.

I have never learnt the art of work-life balance, but now I'm able to amortise it over the course of a year! Work my ass off when I have a contract, then take off and putter around with different technologies and hobbies. There's lots of time for family and friends. The money is of course considerably less than what I could make, but more money comes at the cost of very high expectations and brutal deadlines. I charge less, and I get more time to do a quality job. Clients remember you for the quality, not for the time taken. Of course, as I get older, I _need_ the extra time too; I just don't have the stamina.

I love it. I am 55 and I code every single day, just for fun.

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

#54

Post by madhadron »

> I think the best description is that I am cynical of the "mission"

Of course. Why wouldn't you be? The mission of a for-profit enterprise is to be able to continue being a for-profit enterprise tomorrow.

> How do I know what the source of the problem is?

If the work were something that someone would do for free, you probably wouldn't be paid to do it, certainly not the amount you are being paid. Wanting to believe in the mission is asking to be paid partially in a currency other than money. With a FANG salary, that extra compensation is probably going to be slight.

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

#55

Post by phinnaeus »

ramraj07 wrote: post #39
taurath wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boredom was the biggest thing for me at my startup. When waiting around for the business guys to make the right partnership for 3 months while you refactor for a demo for the nth time....

That doesn't sound like a typical startup experience though. Typically it's the opposite: too many things to do and the deadlines are always too short.

This also sounds suspiciously similar to big tech...

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

#56

Post by thomasjudge »

ggm wrote: post #15

(not an ex-FANG-er) I've only dealt with medium-low level post FANG people, but none of them expressed major downsides. There is a certain "flatness" because being senior in a FANG is a unique experience. One basically went back to schoool: Audits university courses out of interest only. Not a bad "gap year" approach to deciding what you really want to do. Once maslow is out of the way, "have experiences" is good adv…

Since the OP claims to feel cynical about the FAANG mission and the the work is not connected to people that the OP cares about, if one is financially secure enough to not have to worry as much about income or lifestyle, there are plenty of opportunities and situations that could desperately use that level of tech expertise (or even just another volunteer) but can't nearly compete in terms of compensation. Anything at the state or local level in the Health and Human services arena for example.

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

#57

Post by ActorNightly »

DVassallo wrote: post #52
ActorNightly wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am guessing the 500k compensation number is due to stock growth, not something that is given as part of a promotion. I know a few SD2s that make more than SD3s because they vested back in the day at $700 a share and due to how Amazon does total comp, the final number is over 300k a year currently.

I had a competing offer from Oracle in 2016 at $370K, and Amazon matched it to $390K for 2016 to 2018. An extra $70K and $120K in 2017 and 2018 came from stock growth. But for 2019 and 2020 they had topped me up to ~$460K, so I would have kept that level if I stayed, even with no stock growth.

I am assuming sd3 role?

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

#58

Post by DVassallo »

ActorNightly wrote: post #57
DVassallo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a competing offer from Oracle in 2016 at $370K, and Amazon matched it to $390K for 2016 to 2018. An extra $70K and $120K in 2017 and 2018 came from stock growth. But for 2019 and 2020 they had topped me up to ~$460K, so I would have kept that level if I stayed, even with no stock growth.

I am assuming sd3 role?

Yes, started sde-1 in 2010 and had been sde-3 since 2014

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

#60

Post by debreuil »

Just left Google after ~4 years, and couldn't be happier (always been more comfortable independent though). I liked everyone I worked with, but the work was incremental at best, and most often about perf optics. You'll probably be surprised how hard people work outside those companies, and how good they are (even if you already knew -- it's easy to forget in there).

I'd say if you don't have something you really want to do, just take time off and code for fun until you figure it out. I wouldn't just go work somewhere else, esp somewhere that is impressed with such a resume, it would probably be worse.

Mainly, you need to figure out how much of your soul is left, and if the rest can heal or be repurposed. Because of your financial security, finding a personal mission you care about will be essential. You could make a difference. And you should.

Post reply on HN