[jreese]

One of the best parts of being happy at a "terminal level" in FAANG is that I can easily pick what I work on for best impact on the teams around me (and the engineering org as a whole) without worrying about chasing a promotion. I know the levers I can pull to get a higher perf rating here and there, but I'm also free to focus on the "papercuts" knowing that I'm not sacrificing future promotions, because I just don't care about adding more responsibilities to my plate. I can do "the right thing" for my coworkers, and all I have to do is make a case for improving developer sentiment or efficiency to justify the work.

[aluminussoma]

No you can't. Source: I, too, was at a terminal level at a FAANG.

[jreese]

I've been doing it for over six years now, so why not? Joined ten years ago yesterday and made it to IC5, and haven't had any desire for a promo since then, so I just work on we/hatever I think is the best thing I can spend my time on for the team, and it's been sufficient for "meets all" or better every half except one. Just pick the right team with the right manager who actually cares about you and what is actually both for you and your coworkers.

[oh_sigh]

Sure you can? You can even be a terminal L4 these days and just coast while getting paid like $250k/yr.

[mgraczyk]

But then you get paid less money.

[jreese]

I would rather get paid less (still in top 99+% of US mind you) to do work that is meaningful to me, my coworkers, and the wider open source community-and then clock out at six pm to spend time with my partner and play games-than earn more and spend all of my time in meetings and design discussions and worrying about whether I'm having enough cross functional impact to meet performance expectations or whatever the new director's pet project of the month is.

[hamburglar]

Glad to hear this. I’ve hit this point in the past couple of years and I haven’t quite gotten to the point where I actually believe that management will be satisfied with my “no more climbing” attitude. Every time I get a new manager I have to have The Talk where I tell them that I’m happy with my level of impact and I don’t plan to spend my 1:1’s exploring what I need to tackle next on the leveling guidelines for the next promo. It’s a nice place to be, and I wonder when I’ll be able to really relax and stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. :D

[mgraczyk]

Sure that makes sense, but it's irrelevant. We weren't talking about working more vs working less or working on meaningful stuff vs boring stuff.

We were talking about working on things that are good for the company vs good for the performance review process. The fact that there's a difference and that it's distinct from wellbeing is why at big companies some people with 5yoe make 3x as much as people with 30 yoe.

[Akronymus]

For me, income is basically a enough/not enough kind of situation.

I don't feel the need to chase more money at the cost of my QoL

[TaylorAlexander]

As someone who left one of these big companies to earn under $100k/yr doing something I absolutely love (and working a relaxed number of hours), making less money is not the only thing to strive for. At least, not for everyone.