[friedman23]

> making a dent in the profitability of a multi-bn $ org should enable a very comfortable life

Life does not work like this, the world isn't about "should" it's about "is" and "can".

So if you create something that makes the company 10% more money, at best you can expect a promotion and a small one time bonus that is a fraction of a percent of that 10% recurring revenue growth you just generated for the company you work for.

That is the best scenario. The alternate scenario is verbal recognition with 0 reward and if you work in a truly dysfunctional organization you can expect outright retaliation at some small frequency.

[inductive_magic]

My position is rooted in a blog-post I've read a couple years ago, 'don't call yourself a programmer' (well worth the read).

Core assumption: be visible and associated with profit -> good things will come your way.

How much this works will depend on your hand and the table. Personally, I don't feel drawn to dysfunctional/bloated [...] environments at all and have no FAANG experience, so I can't claim to estimate the agency in those environments, but I would assume it to be >0.

[0] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...