Pretty sure that a lot of places I simply didn't hear back from was because they didn't expect to be able to even come close on comp. And I've had other Xoogler friends who applied for places, got promising initial results, and then insanely low offers (like 1/3rd or less of Google comp).

I'll do 2/3rds or even 1/2 for the right job, but not 1/4 or 1/3rd.

Now, part of that is the domestic market (Ontario Canada) has been underpaying SWEs for years and getting away with it, since most of the good talent flees south after graduation anyways.

But part of it is that FAANG compensation is just far more than anybody else could ever afford.

I don't think this is true. I've had friends getting comparable comp offers at HBO and NatGeo, for example. And of course it's been known for some time that successful startups like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Dropbox, etc. were doing comparable offers.

Once a company decides to really compete digitally, and that they can leverage economies of scale properly there, it suddenly makes sense to compete for the same class of engineer that can work at Google, Meta, etc.

Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon: MAGA

Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon: GAMMA