[allthecybers]

I’m in my 5th year at a FAANG. For the first 2.5 years I was stuck in a role that felt similar to what you are describing. I had a “good” manager and decent work-life balance but my ideas didn’t get much traction and the org was so big, I felt like just a cog in a wheel. So I transferred internally.

The next team was smaller and I got the opportunity to build something. What I built led to a promotion, which I then leveraged to move to another position with a bigger scope and more freedom to build and implement my ideas. This year I got to propose and start building a multi-million dollar project that will outlast my tenure at the company.

It makes a lot of professional and monetary sense to spend some time at a FAANG. One huge advantage of companies of the FAANG size is they have a massive internal job market. You get to keep vesting your stocks and banking your salary while working on different teams and on different products. Before you know it you’ll be at the end of 4 years and you’ll either be working on something cool or leveraging your experience to get more pay and work on something more interesting elsewhere.