How much Does FAANG brand affect life?
If you're at faang but gaining no useful skills because you're in some niche not SWE, but semi coding production sales role does it still have that faang value?
and if you do get into FAANG SWE, how does it change career trajectory?
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
![Entry-Level Software Engineer [L3] at Google company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fgoogle.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3D780356ef-3efc-4728-9eb4-d909b75bb4a6&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Discussion
(3 comments)- 1
6 months agoEngineering Manager at MistplayI’m going to jot down a few thoughts here that might be off base or might answer your question.
As a hiring manager seeing that someone was in a technical sales or integration role at Google or Amazon would still be impressive. That isn’t going to land the job, but would be a nice bullet point on a resume and could lead to some more phone calls.
For both questions though what is the opportunity cost? What is the other option we are comparing with? Also what are your career goals? Being a SWE at a mid tier company might be more relevant than a sales engineer at google. But what if you’re applying for another sales engineer role and you love that work?
The thought I have about how faang affects your career is that undoubtedly you will get more phone calls if you’re there a couple years, and even more so if you land a promotion. But there was a study about ivy league colleges that might be relevant as well. The students who went to Harvard, or something, and the students who went to small unknown schools but got in to Harvard have about the same income later. That makes quite a bit of sense but also: the students who just thought they might get into Harvard and applied but were rejected also did about the same.
So my point is that yes great engineers go to faang and they also do other stuff. You will certainly accelerate some aspects of your journey by going to faang. But also careers are very long and there are many metrics of success.
- 06 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
hit the nail on the head with the question of opportunity cost. In a vacuum, getting a Big Tech job is always helpful. But if the cost to get there is 5+ years of time and giving up an otherwise great career, it's not worth it.
- 06 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
FAANG has tremendous brand value. You get many more opportunities if people recognize the names/logos for places you've worked.
If you're not in the perfect job function within FAANG, you still have a huge advantage:
- You'll work with software people who will go on to other strong companies within a year tor two. If you stay in touch with them, you'll get a referral for the position you want.
- Internal transfers into software engineering are usually easier than getting hired externally. I recommend getting to know recruiters or hiring managers and getting hired via transfer.
Great discussion here: To FAANG or not to FAANG?
