What is a good company that has good pay and good work life balance to grow one's career?

You are always going to have a trade-off. Some companies are known for better work-life balance, like Microsoft and Google. Even there, it's going to be team-specific. That said, growing your career + having a high salary operate on an opposing axis from having good work-life balance. So you need to choose the balance that works for you.

My suggestion is to interview at a lot of the bigger tech companies and get a sense of the specific team interviewing you. The company matters, but it's moreso about the team. You'll find laid-back teams at stressful companies and stressful teams at laid-back companies. Your fit within the team will also matter, because the amount of work you do is not always as important as how you feel doing it (because of environment). A company could have amazing tools for growth, yet you could end up with a manager who blocks your growth. So really, interview, interview, interview. That's my advice. :)

I think if you can come in at the right level and team. Intuit is a great place to grow, have a good work life balance, and pay is good, especially stocks as it grows well.

If we're talking about companies with blanket terms:

1. Workday
2. Microsoft
3. LinkedIn

Workday in particular has a stellar reputation for WLB. It won't pay as much as FAANG, but it's still quite competitive, especially given the more relaxed vibe. Microsoft and LinkedIn have good reputations as well, but the environment is more stressful now with the Big Tech layoffs/hiring freezes.

However, as David mentioned, it's more team-dependent than anything else. FAANG is not a monolith. These companies are so big that they're going to have teams all across the spectrum, some with great WLB, some with terrible WLB, some in-between.

Also, there's no such thing as an inherent level of WLB: There's the individual factor as well (i.e. you!). If you are hyper-efficient with your work and can do what's 50 hours worth of work for an average engineer within 30 hours, then you can have great WLB anywhere!

All that being said, here's what you can do:

1. Find a great team and manager - For that, I recommend these resources:
   1. "How possible is it to spot red flags about toxic culture during the interview?"
   2. [Masterclass] How To Choose A Good Company And Team As A Software Engineer
   3. [Masterclass] What Software Engineers Should Look For In Their Engineering Manager
2. Learn how to get more from your time - When it comes to productivity, check these out:
   1. "How do you stay on top of everything?"
   2. [Taro Top 10] Time Management And Productivity