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The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

wesdesilvestro.com

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Re: The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

#171

Post by dan-robertson »

ditonal wrote: post #62
lotsofpulp wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why the article’s author thinks prestige is about anything other than money/power (for the population as a whole). People would rather work at FAANG than Stripe because FAANG will get you a lot more pay and connections. And people know that, so they will value people from FAANG for it. But it comes from the root fact that FAANG makes a ton of net income per employee, same as some finance/consulting firms…

I have no idea how Stripe became the low paying non prestigious startup job in this conversation. They are a big prestigious company that pays a ton and is soon to IPO. I actually consider Stripe to be FAANG as far as the original acronym was for stocks but in practice is for “high paying prestigious tech companies.” A better pick for “non prestigious but good company “ might be Khan Academy, which has an amazing ser…

The article points out that while Stripe is considered prestigious in the Valley, it is not considered prestigious by the Harvard undergraduates the author spoke to.

Re: The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

#172

Post by Aunche »

> Why are Google and Facebook so attractive to prospective engineers while Stripe and Nvidia are never brought up?

This has nothing to do with prestige and everything to do with Google and Facebook having 100 times the headcount. From my experience, unicorns actual tend to be more selective than FAANGs (except maybe Netflix) even if they don't pay any better.

Re: The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

#173

Post by joshuamorton »

Aunche wrote: post #172

> Why are Google and Facebook so attractive to prospective engineers while Stripe and Nvidia are never brought up? This has nothing to do with prestige and everything to do with Google and Facebook having 100 times the headcount. From my experience, unicorns actual tend to be more selective than FAANGs (except maybe Netflix) even if they don't pay any better.

Also depends on who you ask. I know lots of people who consider stripe more attractive than Google.

Re: The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

#174

Post by nightski »

thrav wrote: post #133
dvtrn wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I felt that way about my own life. Still so sometimes. Though far, far less than I used to, and feeling noticeably less anxiety about it previously. A Relevant bit of reading, I think, I hope: https://fs.blog/2014/05/hunter-s-thompson-to-hume-logan/

Yeah, this is a popular saying, but couldn’t be further from the truth for the most successful people. Generally, they begin with an end in mind. It’s a lot easier to get where you’re going if you know where that is. Or, as the Cheshire Cat says to Alice, “Which way should I go?” “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t much care.” “Then it doesn’t really matter.” (Abridged)

By successful you probably mean in the monetary sense. I think it's easy when you choose that as your goal. Not everyone strives for that. Especially software engineers who have enough where it sometimes already feels like excess and going after more becomes less attractive.

Re: The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

#177

Post by kyawzazaw »

> Why are Google and Facebook so attractive to prospective engineers while Stripe and Nvidia are never brought up?

This is certainly not true. Students are in high pursuit of a startup like Stripe(+ those on the breakoutlist) and Nvidia is viewed very positively. Visit /r/csmajors for a datapoint.

Re: The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

#178

Post by kyawzazaw »

ditonal wrote: post #62
lotsofpulp wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know why the article’s author thinks prestige is about anything other than money/power (for the population as a whole). People would rather work at FAANG than Stripe because FAANG will get you a lot more pay and connections. And people know that, so they will value people from FAANG for it. But it comes from the root fact that FAANG makes a ton of net income per employee, same as some finance/consulting firms…

I have no idea how Stripe became the low paying non prestigious startup job in this conversation. They are a big prestigious company that pays a ton and is soon to IPO. I actually consider Stripe to be FAANG as far as the original acronym was for stocks but in practice is for “high paying prestigious tech companies.” A better pick for “non prestigious but good company “ might be Khan Academy, which has an amazing ser…

Yup, every cs majors I know think super highly of Stripe. I don't know what students the author is talking to.

Khan Academy is sought after in the cs student community as well. although won't be first choice for many.

Re: The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

#179

Post by kyawzazaw »

npip99 wrote: post #86
smabie wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in HFT and my experience is like yours: the most well known firms pay the least. Right now I'm at a very small prop firm as a partner and compensation is much greater than I would have gotten at Jane St, Citadel, etc. Generally people only seek at prestigious firms like Goldman early in their career and switch over to more obscure but lucrative opportunities: prop firms, pe, hf, etc.

Wait a second, am I missing out right now? I have an opportunity at Jane Street, but I haven't been exposed to any of the other small name firms. Where do I look to find the higher paying jobs?

RenenTech?

Re: The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

#180

Post by kyawzazaw »

chrisgd wrote: post #67
whimsicalism wrote: post #5

Much of this blog post speaks to my experience (probably because we went to the same school at pretty much the same time). That said, I think the thesis is a bit overstated. The reason many more Harvard CS students talk about Google > Stripe is not because Stripe is not prestigious (it obviously is, and plenty of super talented students go there). It's because Google hires a ton of Harvard CS grads, whereas many late…

Stock options in an already public company carries a lot of weight relative to a company that it doesn’t seem they are in a hurry to go public.

What do you think about a place like Databricks then?
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