[decafninja]

This is a clear cut objective summary IMHO. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Also like you said, there are downsides to working at FAANG. However there are downsides to working at every company, and IMHO, the downsides at FAANG and FAANG-like companies are at least compensated for by the upsides.

The one exception might be Amazon. I'm just hearing too many horror stories coming out of Amazon that it might be the one FAANG I have zero interest in working for. But even then, if you can bite the bullet and put up with everything for a year, you'll probably be in a better spot for the rest of your career than if you were to have been at some lesser company.

[spearingthehead]

Does this exempt Amazon as well? I heard from an ex Amazon employee saying that 50-60 hour work-weeks is the norm there, and they work you to the bone, but he also didn't specify if that was for his particular team/department only.

I'm guessing this is one of the exaggerated downsides, possibly coming from a skewed perspective of what is "normal" for a SWE if you spent your entire career in FAANG.

In any case, I'm still sure that working as a Amazon SWE would be light years farther ahead than working in a bottom of the barrel chop shop that pays less than half of market salary.

In other words, worst of the FAANG should still beat the best of the bottom-tier companies, especially if you're taking home much more money in the end.

[decafninja]

I would go further than that and say the worst of FAANG still beats not just "bottom tier companies", but many decent but mediocre companies where tech is treated as an unrespected cost center.

As the post I replied to above said, it's not just the pay, but also the intangibles like the prestige that will let you more easily pivot into other companies and potential lifelong networks of similar colleagues.

It depends on your priorities. Are you willing to make some sacrifices to get what is likely to be a golden ticket to catapult your future career?

If you're even considering FAANG, then you've already probably decided to make some sacrifices to go through the stupid leetcode grind.