Ask HN: What are the downsides of working at FAANG?

Re:Ask HN: What are the downsides of working at FAANG? by anduru_h on Sunday January 16, 2022 @03:49PM (#29959847)

The downside is that you're normally a small fish in a big pond as opposed to a big fish in a small pond somewhere else. The perks seem like the pay, the scale at which you work generally, and the quality of your coworkers is higher than normal.

If you like hacking on features, not having to do robust A/B testing or walk through tons of leadership / management hoops, and having a wider role in the development of something, then a smaller company or startup would be better.

TLDR: as with any thing in life, it depends on the person, and what makes you happy at work.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: What are the downsides of working at FAANG? by byoung2 on Sunday January 16, 2022 @04:01PM (#29959986)

If you like hacking on features, not having to do robust A/B testing or walk through tons of leadership / management hoops

Definitely. Working for big companies sometimes makes you miss the days when A/B testing was the only tedious part of the SDLC. I have now dealt with legal review (checking every single page to verify that correct disclaimers display to different types of users, or e2e testing of CPRA delete my data functionality) and financial integration testing (replacing Stripe with a different payment processor that integrates with backend accounting software, and verifying that deposits, balance due, payment plans, adjustments, and refunds flow to the correct account and cost center).

[ Parent | on HN ]