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The Prestige Trap: finance, big tech, and consulting

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

#181

Post by quickthrower2 »

OJFord wrote: post #156
Gunax wrote: post #111

I don't think a lot of people know what they want. There is just as much guessing as to which job to take as employers have choosing who to hire. Taking the most prestigious or most compensation is the safest bet, given that you don't really know what you want to do other than 'I like coding and interesting problems'. Partly I think that Harvard students have been adapted to seek prestige (else they probably wouldn't…

> I don't think a lot of people know what they want. I would go further: I think a lot of people don't know what they want.

And they sure as hell won’t know what they would have wanted to want in 20 years time.

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

#182

Post by kyawzazaw »

thebradbain wrote: post #101
fullshark wrote: post #35

Try getting a new job without a prestigious job on your resume and then learn what the real trap is.

I have had absolutely no issue with this, personally. I have gotten multiple FAANG offers and have turned them down every time, and I still don't have any on my resume. What's the rush? They're always hiring -- niche, smaller, lesser-known, earlier-stage companies are not.

> What's the rush?

FIRE is one reason. External validation is one reason. Life after school nonclarity is one reason (this ticks a box). Even if you have ideas to start a new company or venture, there is the brand value(e.g you will see many article like "Ex-FAANG employee quit their XXX,XXX 6-figure job to pursue Y)

Lots of PR value there. Many new startups literally use the fact that their current employees previously worked at a FAANG company as part of their recruiting info, about-page, pitch.

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

#183

Post by wayoutthere »

emteycz wrote: post #110
wayoutthere wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consulting in particular really depends on the company. The big 4 will grind you to the bone, but boutiques often pay better and have much more reasonable expectations of time commitment. I don’t see consulting ever going back to the weekly travel model, and during the pandemic I work maybe 30 hours a week while pulling in the salary I do. Most of my work involves going to meetings, understanding complex business arc…

How would a software engineer/previously small startup 'CTO' get into consulting like this?

I know this is gonna sound corny, but apply for jobs at any of the big 4 to learn the industry, and after a couple years you’ll know the companies you want to work for and have connections through co-workers who have left. Consulting is all about politics and connections, so thinking those aren’t directly correlated to wealth is naive.

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

#184

Post by sidlls »

shuckles wrote: post #24
wayoutthere wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in consulting, and I’d say the top-end in consulting is still higher and much more of a safe bet. It’s not uncommon for people in consulting to be making $500k-$1m annually by the age of 40. If you’re a partner, compensation can be significantly higher than that; in the $2M-20M range. I think there was a golden era of startups capturing value from the old guard, but that era is largely over IMO. All of those t…

It is not uncommon for people in technology to be making $500k-$1m annually by 30, and the lifestyle is much better if you have outside commitments.

It's extremely uncommon, actually, outside of FAANG. I wouldn't say it's uncommon in FAANG, but it also isn't commonplace enough to be completely unremarkable.

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

#185

Post by lcc »

treis wrote: post #120
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…

>Google > Stripe is not because Stripe is not prestigious (it obviously is, and plenty of super talented students go there). I think Google is a pretty clear step above Stripe. They have legitimately changed the world and billions of people use their products. Stripe is a payment processing firm. A very successful one, but ultimately a pretty boring b2b business. Im not sure anyone would really miss it if it were gon…

It's hard to argue against what Google has accomplished in the last 20 years. But in my Bay Area social circle, working at Stripe is considered more prestigious. These days Google is big, boring, bureaucratic, and maybe a little evil. Stripe is successful, growing, pays at least comparably well and has way more potential financial upside. They're also known to have a high hiring bar and a great dev culture. I've heard nothing but good things about the company or the people who work there.

- an ex-Googler with friends at Stripe

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

#186

Post by TrackerFF »

kyawzazaw wrote: post #182
thebradbain wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had absolutely no issue with this, personally. I have gotten multiple FAANG offers and have turned them down every time, and I still don't have any on my resume. What's the rush? They're always hiring -- niche, smaller, lesser-known, earlier-stage companies are not.

> What's the rush? FIRE is one reason. External validation is one reason. Life after school nonclarity is one reason (this ticks a box). Even if you have ideas to start a new company or venture, there is the brand value(e.g you will see many article like "Ex-FAANG employee quit their XXX,XXX 6-figure job to pursue Y) Lots of PR value there. Many new startups literally use the fact that their current employees previou…

Even YCombinator advocates on flashing (team) prestige when pitching you startup.

https://www.ycombinator.com/library/8d-how-to-build-a-great-...

Section: Team

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

#187

Post by Boxxed »

Gunax wrote: post #111

I don't think a lot of people know what they want. There is just as much guessing as to which job to take as employers have choosing who to hire. Taking the most prestigious or most compensation is the safest bet, given that you don't really know what you want to do other than 'I like coding and interesting problems'. Partly I think that Harvard students have been adapted to seek prestige (else they probably wouldn't…

I completely agree. I really like this article, which I felt like I could have written:

https://www.benkuhn.net/hard/

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

#188

Post by shuckles »

formercoder wrote: post #68
shuckles wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not uncommon for people in technology to be making $500k-$1m annually by 30, and the lifestyle is much better if you have outside commitments.

You’re making a big bet on equity appreciation though. That’s how the vast majority of very highly paid folks in tech make their money. The consulting jobs pay it in cash.

The consulting total income figures quoted by the person I was responding to almost certainly include a large bonus which I'd guess is correlated with, if not as volatile as, large cap tech equity returns.

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

#189

Post by shuckles »

thatindiandude wrote: post #135
shuckles wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not uncommon for people in technology to be making $500k-$1m annually by 30, and the lifestyle is much better if you have outside commitments.

Are you assuming you make L6 IC/Manager by 30? Realistic, but not everyone does it.

The type of person who makes partner at Bain / BCG / McKinsey or their botique equivalents can definitely have that kind of trajectory in a technology company.

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

#190

Post by unishark »

ackbar03 wrote: post #13
notacoward wrote: post #6

I find two things to disagree with in this article. First is the premise that equally high compensation is offered elsewhere in each industry. I don't know about finance or consulting, but at least for FAANG it doesn't seem to be true. Second is the overlooked explanation that it's headroom - not prestige - that accounts for the difference. I'll provide an example that illustrates both points: me. When I went from Re…

In general though from what I read on hn I get the impression that it sucks to be an early employee at most startups, especially early stage. From what I've read a lot of compensation seems to be in equity and not cash, and unless it takes off like faang, you end up severely ubderpaid relative to what you could be making

You're basically saying the equity is too low. Any decent exit would make the founders and investors a lot of money. If they wanted to motivate employees to make that happen, equity needs to be good enough to make the employee a lot too. Instead it tends to be much closer to a token amount to check the box, taking advantage of the fact that you can't easily assess its value.
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