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How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

oliverzheng.com

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Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#181

Post by danans »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #163
danans wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming a $200k income, a modest 2bd Bay area house, 2 preschool aged children, between mortgage/rent (4k/mo), childcare (20+k/child/year), car, food, taxes, and other basic life expenses, it's totally possible not to save 50%. Unless you meant as a childless single person making 200k/yr. Then yes, it's easy.

> Assuming a $200k income... 2 preschool aged children... childcare (20+k/child/year) Does $200k not seem low for a two-income family? Does paying for childcare not seem strange for a one-income family?

The previous comment's scenario was "A Facebook employee", with no mention of another income. Also, many people's spouses are students, or non-highly remunerated.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#182

Post by cbanek »

pathseeker wrote: post #95
dandr01d wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speak for yourself. I would definitely give a shit if someone who applied to my theoretical company worked at a top-tier company.

Do so at your own peril. Google is approaching 100,000 employees. The vast majority do boring data pipelines for CRUD apps. Top-tier company != top-tier employees.

Even with a top-tier company, recruiting top-tier employees, doesn't implie top-tier-interesting-work. I do think many of the top-tier companies do have good people, because they can pay for them, but it almost seems like it's a defensive move to keep talent away from other companies, rather than utilizing that talent to the utmost.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#183

Post by jpatokal »

mehrdada wrote: post #82

It's amazing that there is a widespread tendency in Googlers to think Google is "the best place" and moving is a downgrade (i.e. fear of missing out, where do I go after this ), while at the same time many Facebook employees feel exactly the same towards their employer and think moving is likely a downgrade (my friend who left FB to Snap told me that he had that feeling but now that he has moved he sees Snap as clear…

This article is about quitting from the FAANGs entirely. Moving from one FAANG to another does not entail a financial or reputational hit.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#184

Post by arcanus »

hahahsnap wrote: post #143

The OP has joined Facebook in June 2013. Assuming he has 3+ years of experience in Microsoft he must have been hired at Facebook at L4 which puts his salary as 135k + 250K (stock, may be more when Seattle office was just getting started). Facebook stock was ~$25 in June 2013 which means he has got 10000 RSUs of Facebook while joining. Value of this stock today is around $1.5M. He is in Seattle and his taxes are way l…

That assumes he held his stock. Everyone I know seems to sell as soon as it vests. If so he didn't get all the return you quoted.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#185

Post by wskinner »

matte_black wrote: post #71

I find the only people whose eyes go wide almost popping out of their head are younger people just entering the workforce whom may have never met someone who works at a big company whose products they use everyday (or recruiters I guess). It's like you're a celebrity to them. Hell, some of these kids used to get pumped when I was telling them I was merely heading to some Apple conference or Google I/O. No one with ex…

Distance makes things appear shinier than they are. It's not just new-to-tech people who find these companies prestigious. It's anyone who is sufficiently far from the industry, and especially people who are in other status-oriented professions. For example, bankers and lawyers, who are themselves in high-status professions and at high-status firms within their profession, find G/FB/AAPL very prestigious.

It's a credential, and like all credentials, if you can precisely measure the thing the credential is certifying, the credential loses its value. Having worked at these companies or at least worked with people who have, many of us feel the credential is not useful. We can personally evaluate each other's skills. But from outside of Silicon Valley, the credential appears, and probably actually is, useful.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#186

Post by southphillyman »

phyzome wrote: post #167
southphillyman wrote: post #52

The article is blocked for me, but writing a blog about why you quit and what you plan to do next seems to be pretty effective. Any insider blog or article about FANG seems to do well, but one's which describe why a person DOES NOT want to work there have increased likelihood of going viral. I'm sure those writers get flooded immediately by recruiters and the like.

Does this work for you? https://archive.fo/4XcXQ

Thank you kindly, sir

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#187

Post by stories2tell »

delbel wrote: post #87

You know, in this day in age you really need to give more then a two weeks notice. Maybe 6 weeks or more. I've had to fire clients before by giving notice and I always try to work out the best possible scenario where the least amount of damage is done. I even had to deal with yelling, screaming, threats of lawsuits. I always keep my cool and do everything I can to de-escalate the situation, stay professional, etc and…

That's quite generous of your time. In the US in an at-will employment state it's often two weeks. For senior or executive positions you'll often offer a month or so but it's rarely longer.

My personal and recent experience is that an employer can lay you off with no to little grace period. It's an asymmetry exploited by bad employers. Unfortunately, it's too late by the time you figure out if they're a bad employer.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#188

Post by wilsonnb »

phyzome wrote: post #164
caymanjim wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost no one has enough savings to last two years. It's an absurd metric and enforces how out of touch the author is. It reads as nothing more than a brag. Anyone good enough to get hired by Facebook in the first place is going to have no problem finding a job in two weeks, nevermind two years. Quit, shop around and burn some savings until you find something good enough. If it's not your dream job, stick with good e…

> Almost no one has enough savings to last two years. This doesn't seem correct to me, but people don't like to talk about their personal financial situation (any of income, expenses, and savings) sooo... I guess hard to say. I'd definitely be able to live for 2 years on my savings, but I'm pretty frugal and am privileged to not have student loans. I recognize this is not everybody's situation, but I don't think it's…

According to this source, only 25% of people have greater than $10,000 in a savings account.

Most people are going to need much more than $10,000 to live for two years so I think it's pretty safe to say that almost no one has enough savings to last two years.

57% percent of Americans, according to my source, have less than $1000 in savings which isn't enough to last a month for many of them.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/13/how-much-americans-at-have-i...

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#189

Post by wilsonnb »

jogjayr wrote: post #119
caymanjim wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost no one has enough savings to last two years. It's an absurd metric and enforces how out of touch the author is. It reads as nothing more than a brag. Anyone good enough to get hired by Facebook in the first place is going to have no problem finding a job in two weeks, nevermind two years. Quit, shop around and burn some savings until you find something good enough. If it's not your dream job, stick with good e…

> Almost no one has enough savings to last two years. It's an absurd metric and enforces how out of touch the author is. You should check out r/financialindependence sometime. A whole community of people (358k subscribers at present) who would consider that amount table stakes. I'll admit not all 358k of those subscribers would actually have that much money but it's still hardly "almost no one".

It really is almost no one.

57% of Americans with less than $1000 dollars in their savings account. Only 25% with more than $10,000. What fraction of those with more than $10,000 do you think have enough to live for two years on it?

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/13/how-much-americans-at-have-i...

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#190

Post by wilsonnb »

rhexs wrote: post #123
Cofike wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah that struck me as a little strange. If you have a "top tier tech job" then I don't really understand the need for two years of savings. Do you think you won't find a job before two years? I guess it depends on location. I've left jobs multiple times to take a few months off to work on stuff before job hunting again and I definitely didn't have more than one year of savings.

Are people at top tier tech jobs (FANG) so secure in their jobs that they aren't saving for retirement? I had two years of living expenses saved up after two years at my first job out of college making 63K. Yes it was a cheap city, but I decided I wanted to start saving early after I noticed tech companies had so few employees over the age of 40. No, I wouldn't be living grand if I had to rely on these savings, but i…

Most young people aren't saving very much for retirement regardless of where they work.

You are in a very small minority if you saved up that much in your first two years out of college.

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