Changing jobs during the Great Resignation

There are plenty of people on the way to financial independence who don't have that attitude. Who turn down job offers that pay more regularly for various reasons. Not even just morally/ethical, because they actually care about what they are doing day in/day out, even if they could soon or even now just stop working. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there actually is a correlation between rise in compensation and not having that attitude, since passionate employees tend to have more impact.

Just look at how many older, senior employees you find at established, larger companies where the stock has risen so much in the past that you just know they are in all likelihood millionaires (and not "just" single digit ones). And even in the (rather rare, I guess) cases that they mismanaged their finances so badly that they are not, those people are prominent and established enough that another company would take them for more comp in a heartbeat. And yet they stay.

Your opinion is not universal. Don't pretend that it is in order to justify yourself.

> What are you planning to do with all that financial independence?

Read more, improve my cooking skills, learn how to play chess, try out a month-long vacation, play video games, learn some art skills, exercise... I'm sure I'm missing some things. I can do a little bit of these a small amount of the time but it's not enough to enjoy, as long as I'm working.

Maybe there are jobs I'd enjoy but I kind of doubt it. I haven't found a job that I'd say I want to do until I'm in my 60s, that's for sure.

There are plenty of passionate software engineers who think those problems are actually fun. Independently of that (I don't think it's an immediate red flag if those problems are not fun for you, or not fun for you in that specific setting etc.), a lot of it is actually a glimpse into how working with that person might be. I.e. what ideas do they form, how do they communicate them, how do they respond to feedback, how do discussions about alternatives, problems etc. go, do they seek help when they need it and how... I don't think it's deniable that those are valuable qualities to test.

Lol when I said that at an org-level all-hands everyone laughed, but the need for improved PR is very real.

But it’s important to remember that there are a ton of extremely happy people at Amazon (or at least AWS, where I worked) they just aren’t as vocal online - management, scope and culture were incredible in my experience (it’s a huge company where managers have a lot of flexibility, YMMV). And some of the biggest day-to-day issues you hear about like crappy offices or excessive frugality were a thing of the past when I was there. And in terms of PIP, I only had one experience with it - having a mechanism for identifying and getting rid of the people who are a drain on everyone else was very nice.

Hi folks!

Author here - did not expect this post to blow up. Figured it might be helpful to provide some context on points of confusion:

1. Money > everything: an alternative way to look at this is that if you sort by offers, you notice there are a lot of neat companies in that list. I didn't just sort and then blindly apply. I sorted, and noticed that they all had something I was really interested in. I use Amazon weekly. My side projects use Stripe. I have side projects in fintech, and Brex is in fintech. Facebook is the home of React, which I've built most of my career on. In seeking high comp, my goal is to be able to self-fund the earliest stages of a startup, as right now I just don't have the idea that is compelling me to start something. I also want to help family, some of whom are in a financial rut. So it wasn't like I only looked at money. I started with money as the way to narrow down the list, and it turned out that list had a lot of interesting companies on it.

2. Making time for studying: as some folks pointed out, I have young children and with both of us parents working, I wanted to just make sure I wasn't encroaching on precious family time - and I think it's important to run things by your family if you think a routine might change. Turns out that extra study time infringed on none of it. I mostly studied on nights and weekends, during the baby's naps or after they went to bed. All I really wanted to say here was "if I can make time with a family, I believe you can find the time to study, too"

3. Do you really have to do this to land a good job? Heck no. My take on this was "leave nothing to chance." You'd be surprised how many startups are leveraging the FAANG interview process. It takes work to prepare for interviews at quality companies. I didn't want to spend the time interviewing with a company only to think "why didn't I prepare for this?" It's a waste of their time and mine if I don't come in fully prepared.

Lastly, someone pointed this out, but I just have changed my value system on work. I do care about what I do, but it is just a job. Family and life are so much more.

I think I have burnout from startups as an employee. I've worked on everything from sports to climate change, and it's been difficult to put so much heart and soul into something that statistically hasn't had much of a payout, in either literal dollars or impact on the world.

So in seeking my next role, I figured that if I have to work hard anyway, I might as well get myself closer to goals external to work, such as retirement, college funds for my kids, and helping my family out of debt. Or even, possibly, starting my own company.

And in the end, I have fantastic work/life balance. I spend less time working and more time with my family, all while making more. And I am very grateful that I have this time to focus more on family. While my initial list started with high-paying companies, by the time I had offers in, I very much wanted to ensure all of my needs were met, including time with my growing family.