[ummonk]

Leg ups that have helped them become better at software engineering? Sure. Leg ups in the form of insider connections / elites? Less so, particularly for talent they're hiring today.

This is a significantly more meritocratic industry than most, and within the industry, the FANGs are relatively more meritocratic than smaller startups.

[Techonomicon]

Meritocratic in the most boring uninteresting sense of the term where you literally only work on things in a way which Google tells you will help advance you up their ladders while not actually working on anything in a way you would find interesting in general.