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

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

#281

Post by wobbly_bush »

maehwasu wrote: post #171
bradlys wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP is likely completely invested in the region. It's easy to say "move somewhere else" but I've done enough traveling and investigations in the rest of the USA to know that moving somewhere else would mean a huge setback in terms of career. (Which, go figure, many people here prioritize)

If you’re not able to think creatively enough to find a place in the US or the world to live off a $1-2M starting point, then early retirement probably isn’t for you. Meant with no disrespect: some people are naturally better suited to be employee types imo. Everyone fantasizes about life on their own, but most aren’t willing to make the tradeoffs to do so. Source: retired by 33, while making tradeoffs and living pla…

Interesting, I'm curious what kind of tradeoffs do you have to make and what places worked for you but your peers thought unacceptable?

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

#282

Post by ertemplin »

devicetray0 wrote: post #276
mepiethree wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work at Google, and I find the tooling much better on the outside. Heroku is much better than Google's deployment tool; Github is much better than their review tool. The only things I miss are the snacks and the searchable codebase

> and the searchable codebase Do you mean that you'd search Google's entire codebase monorepo for code examples, or that there was a better, searchable code snippet tool internally?

Not sure about google, but most of the big tech companies have a code browser website with a search feature that shows the most "relevant" repositories first in the search results. For example, repositories that people in your team or org have recently modified will show up near the top of the results.

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

#283

Post by brnt »

mertnesvat wrote: post #158
sriram_malhar wrote: post #53

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…

Your answer is very inspiring and also perfect example for youngsters to understand money and productivity are not the only things that matters in life. I had a similar junction in my life and I selected money instead of pursuing family and academic life, now I'm starting to think maybe wasn't a good decision. I'm getting older (38) Do you mind if I ask did you also quit your job to pursue Phd? Nowadays started worki…

As someone (32) in an academic 'career', I'm thinking the same ;) Rather, how similar (apart from pay) academia is to high paying jobs in IT.

I guess I just grew out of a phase, into a new one. Which one that is, I do not know yet. But I do know that time is limited, and I'm not going to spend too much on work-for-pay.

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

#284

Post by nscalf »

blablabla123 wrote: post #196
nvarsj wrote: post #149

These kind of posts keep making me think I should go work for a FAANG so I can actually retire one day. Anyways, as someone on the other side, who has never worked for or applied to FAANG, I have a few reactions. First, your salary is absolutely ridiculous. I know hard working people who have built their own businesses with blood and sweat, and they still don't make as much as a slacker engineer at FAANG. So I'd say…

> mature tooling that exists at FAANG I never worked at FAANG but even after more than 10 years working in tech, it still surprises me how undervalued well working tooling is. I'm not talking about 100% automation with infinite possibilities. Just really basic stuff, like deployment or setting up a development environment. That should always be a no-brainer.

And it's totally reasonable that this isn't common place. The team I'm with now has been spending a lot of our spare time at work trying to get a suite of tools built out to make things like logging, message publishing, etc. spun up easily. It is very painful. The simple case is pretty simple, but if you add any complexity to it you're in for a world of pain.

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

#285

Post by Diederich »

I haven't read through most of the other comments, I'm getting my day started at one of the FANG companies. (: But I do have a very brief suggestion.

Just for the hell of it, why not find some hungry 30-60 employee startup? I've worked at two of those, and it's anything but boring.

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

#286

Post by guidoism »

Begin by aggressively saving your ridiculous income. This sort of compensation can work either as a trap (since few companies will match it) or a tool for freedom. Start doing this now!

Everything else can be figured out once you can quit and not worry about money.

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

#287

Post by paulgb »

devicetray0 wrote: post #276
mepiethree wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work at Google, and I find the tooling much better on the outside. Heroku is much better than Google's deployment tool; Github is much better than their review tool. The only things I miss are the snacks and the searchable codebase

> and the searchable codebase Do you mean that you'd search Google's entire codebase monorepo for code examples, or that there was a better, searchable code snippet tool internally?

> Do you mean that you'd search Google's entire codebase monorepo for code examples

As another former Googler, yes, searching the entire monorepo was a frequent occurrence. Internal code search is pretty good (it's a search company, after all) but I have to say that I don't miss it so much now that Sourcegraph exists.

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

#288

Post by rbavocadotree »

o-__-o wrote: post #265
realitychecker9 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Once you own a home outright, and health insurance is taken care of, the other expenses are completely manageable. I don't need to earn a lot to lead a rich life." That is the checklist of a rich person, own home outright, health insurance taken care of, and manageable other expenses. If you were the same age, but had no home ownership, no health insurance, and dependants how would that change your perspective?

You can buy a home for $50k in Pittsburgh, I would argue that doesn’t make you rich. You can keep a very easy job (think Starbucks) and your health insurance is taken care of. If you live a modest life your expenses are manageable. Maybe your definition of rich is incorrect?

Maybe you forget how many hours are in a day? After 40h a week at starbucks you can't consult, teach, sit on multiple boards, and program everyday.

Also, I've worked as a barista. My high paying tech job is waaaay easier.

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

#289

Post by bad_news_bears »

kamaal wrote: post #273
o-__-o wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was you, 5 years later I am working at a FAANG making 400k/yr Mind you I was making only 80k less at my last job, a non-FAANG startup. So not saying FAANG is everything, but the workload is sufficiently less than the mad max startup lifestyle.

In your case your pay increased 5 times too. Who wouldn't want such a life.

FWIW, they mentioned their previous job’s pay was only 80k less, not absolute.

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

#290

Post by ghaff »

fooker wrote: post #227
sidlls wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical cash plus equity for an experienced engineer is going to top $300k/yr at the low end. Million s might be an exaggeration, but it's certainly trivial to save well north of $1M in a decade on that salary, barring misfortune like a health incident.

>barring misfortune like a health incident. Here is a reminder to everyone that a health incident is only a financial misfortune in the US.

If a health incident makes you unable to work, that's a financial issue in much of the world.
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