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Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

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Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#301
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There was a small universe of people who understood baseline concepts like getting to product market fit, how to measure and implement growth patterns, etc etc. I'm a PM and I think veeerrrryyy few people understand this, including many of my fellow PMs. I think it's like reading a book about how to pitch a baseball. Knowledge and application are entirely different. Someone might be able to regurgitate the theory o…

> I'm a PM and I think veeerrrryyy few people understand this, including many of my fellow PMs. Preach. And the universe of people who can actually do the work to start something and get it to PMF is a pretty small subset of those who understand the concepts in theory.

I would even go further and say that those who don't understand Product Market Fit but still can build, learn PMF by stumbling, falling.

Same sports analogy- it is better to be someone who can play (but doesn't know the rules) than someone who has encyclopedic knowledge on the said sport but cannot play (physical limitations).

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many companies pay 100% of premium costs for you and your dependents

Many don't also

Its also like <$200 per month for most companies, pretty good for someone making north of $200k.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many companies pay 100% of premium costs for you and your dependents

I can only speak from experience - I've worked at 3/5 FAANGs and none of them did

yeah this would be more mid stage startup I've found, like 750-1500 employees, pre IPO

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When layoffs happened in the past, they were laying off old school enthusiasts because the companies just weren't working. Now, they are laying off people that went into tech because it seemed like easy money. It's not the same caliber of tech person.

Most of the 2022 and 2023 layoffs were for "Non-Technical" or "Tech-Adjacent staff". [0] [1] [2] [3] [4] The market is still incredibly strong for SV caliber devs, and I see no signal it's going to slow down. If anything, it kept compensation for engineers from cratering by propping up the stocks. [0] https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other... [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-2…

You are out of your depth if you are comparing numbers, try interviewing in this market as a generic web dev and reality will come to you very soon. SV caliber devs leaving US because they can find better paying roles internationally or not even looking due to fat severance/low pay in the bay.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#305
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re paying for healthcare at a tech company? Usually your company provides this as a benefit. Same for commuter subsidies.

I'm not paying the premium for health insurance, no. But I am paying 200 a month to upgrade to "platinum", I'm paying 400 a month because Blue Shield lists a lifesaving medicine I've been on for 2 decades as a tier 3 drug, so I had to battle with them for 3 weeks to get them to "cover" it at 400 a month out of my pocket. I then have a 4k per family deductible we need to reach on top of the drug co-pays. So when my wi…

QoL in Europe is way better than US.Labor laws and life in general is better even with the lower pay as its all relative.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#306
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In France, apparently you can go on unemployment for 2, up to 3 years to start a startup. With up to 80% pay. In Germany you can get 6 months of unemployment insurance when starting a startup out of unemployment. Or get 6 months paid when starting a startup out of Uni. Then you could get various public funding opportunities like a startup bonus (for example 50K public funding for 50K private investment in an innovati…

> In France, apparently you can go on unemployment for 2, up to 3 years to start a startup. With up to 80% pay. Then why does France have such a low rate of new business formation (5.3/1000 people) - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.BUS.NDNS.ZS?most_rec... Or as another indicator, number of tech startups per Million is 234 for the US, while only 24 for France - https://www.startupranking.com/countries

Because tech talent is cheap for the amount of productivity in US with ability to fire at will.Ease of fooling and swindling people if you have the right connections. In Europe shit that gets you into jail is a just a small monetary fine in USA.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on the "at least half" part? On an income of $200k in California, for example, your tax rate is something like 8% (marginal). If you total it up with federal taxes, it's something like a 27% tax rate.

While the overall isn't as high as 50%, at $200k, your marginal income tax rate is 42.75%, a sales tax rate of 10%, and a property tax rate of 1.25%. So, after $185k, while you've probably already paid 7% ($14k prop) on your home, and probably another 1% (2k sales), leading to what could be considered 50.75% tax.

Wow and you have an appreciating asset(not really) and are buying stuff. It's way lower if you have a corp/LLC and just expense stuff along with reloc and depretiation. That said having a job sucks anywhere as you are the tax base.

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#308
post #21

Many are going to start their own startups and the seeds for the next Cambrian explosion are being cast today, just as they were in 2001–2003 or 2008. That said not all Big Tech employees can deal with the hustle required at a startup.

>not all Big Tech employees can deal with the hustle required at a startup

Thank God for that. Who better to look at broken processes draining productivity and then say “oh, we solved this with X, when I worked at Y” ?

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#309

I don’t understand what the opportunities for startups are these days. Anyone know? I feel like the world doesn’t need more saas companies or otherwise you’re doing a chatgpt api company.

There are still a lot of “boring” apps to build for regular people, I think. The classic problem of everything being in spreadsheets or tracked with paper and a clipboard is still totally real. You won’t be the next Google, it isn’t glorious, but it’s a viable and genuinely valuable way to build a business still. One of the largest and more obvious examples in recent years was logistics. I’ve worked with a couple com…

That's very cool.

Also, I'd expect tight feedback cycles when all of my customers carry a nail gun :)

Re: Startups Are Scooping Up Big Tech’s Cast-Off Workers

#310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also have to pay a lot more out of pocket for basic services like healthcare,, transportation, childcare, etc.

In EU, you also pay for healthcare and transport, just indirectly in the form of taxes, which is why tax rates are much higher. There is a cross over point for salary in US where below that, it becomes advantageous to live in EU, but tech salaries are well above this point.

My manager moved from the US to Sweden, said he got about 60% in Sweden. His Wife isn't working in Sweden yet and they still have more money on pocket. Very anecdotal and might be inflated one way or the other. But I'm not so sure it's as clear-cut as some might think. Unless you're the top X % raking in the biggest $$
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