[jokethrowaway]

But I don't want to work in the office in a hcol or study algorithms for three months or get bogged down in performance reviews.

Tons of startups and mid sized companies give you an ok salary and some serious advantages.

Even ex fangs end up there because of those advantages.

[fatnoah]

I've done startup, FAANG, and everywhere in between. Each offers advantages and disadvantages, but I learned far, far, far, far more about building software in my many years at startups. I've done everything from standing up infra, configuring routing tables, doing tech support, helping with sales, writing code, being a product manager, being a people manager, being an executive with a 40+ person distributed org, going through an acquisition, living through dotcom boom and bust, 2008 crisis, etc.

FAANG pay was ridiculous, and there are also great things to learn there as well, but I value my startup time much more in terms of my own growth.