With tech stocks finally dumping like they should have long ago and the pendulum swinging back to the mean, will prospective/intern tech nerds migrating from blind stop posting threads on WSO comparing wlb:comp ratios of tech SWE to investment banking?
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lmao no this is like the best time to get in, ppl joing SWE now will be getting stock grants at discounted price so likely higher TC in a few years if tech stock prices recover even slightly
That's based on the assumption that the stocks that have crashed will go up again. Tech shitcos are going bankrupt sorry
ok buddy :)
Depends.
People joining Google/Microsoft will be more than fine. Snap, Robinhood, Uber etc. maybe not so much
Do companies give grants based on market value? I think it’s usually fair value, so no luck there…
No its usually based on market value (i.e. u get allotted a certain # of shares based on the grant value / current share price on join date). I have a friend at Amazon and he said for them the # shares is given based on past 30-days average of amazon's share price.
Lol don't think banking will be any better off
I'll also comment they can easily do your job and you can't do theirs, so maybe chill out with the whole "nerds" thing. It's immature
Yeah like using nerds as an insult is so outdated, inane, and self-revealing at this point lmfao. The tech vs ib threads on here are infinitely more valuable/productive/insightful to rethink whether this really is something you want to do vs. the nth iteration of ranking threads. But sure it might be tough to be charitable and encounter differing perspectives for people whose egos and self-validation are tied too closely to their IB stint.
dawg i always find this argument dumb as hell, like do you actually have any idea how fucking difficult coding at the level that Google or Meta requires is? Nothing compared to what essentially amounts to being a 70 hour a week professional reader and graphic editor
Lol at thinking you code in actuality at Google of Facebook. Most of the jobs at FAANG level companies is debugging and being on call every other week. If you actually want to code then you need to target startups.
People love to glorify over a job at FAANG but they still get you to work a good amount of hours. All of those companies have an average tenor of 1.5 years or so - if it was the promised land like everyone says it is people sure would be sticking around. Also, Amazon is literally known for working their guys like 50-60 hours a week so yeah.
Yeah, CS major here, and I think it’s hilarious when people on here so cluelessly talk about how smart you’re supposed to be to get into these places. Yeah they generally have fewer idiots than banking, but the vast majority of SWEs are nothing special intelligence-wise. Their interview process is literally the most formulaic exam process that just measures how much you studied. In fact, some of the best engineers I know don’t even pass big tech interviews despite being way smarter than even their interviewer, simply because they didn’t spend hours studying for a glorified test.
>consultant
opinion discarded
I studied computer science, which you and the rest of this thread are jerking off as some prophetic language of the gods, so think I have a bit more to offer in this conversation than you.
.
Have an Amazon buddy pulling 80 hours (sat and sun) for weeks now
All ik is that as an MD I can rake in over a million easily while my CS boyz will be stuck at $500k as SWE managers
And anyone who is going to hit me with the “tech has better WLB” has no clue how soul sucking Silicon Valley gets as you progress up the ladder.
Exactly lol. People think they can work 30 hours at a FAANG level co and coast with millions of dollars.
COL is arguably rising at a faster rate in SF than NY and the engineers flatten out at 500k (which it’ll probably take them 6-8 years to get to in the first place). Also all the tech companies adjust comp. On a cost of living basis. But finance basically pays same across so I could be in Houston and earn the same as my NY colleagues but have less than half the costs.
An AS3 at a top shot can touch that in a good year 5 years out of college.
There’s also a REAL bias against aging engineers so finding a different job gets difficult as you age in tech vs. finance where people actually value the experience you have in finance.
Also, people think coding interviews are hard to crack because we are in such a materially different industry. In reality it’s kinda like Consulting/IB where you practice a bunch of questions easily found on online databases, learn the framework required to apply to the different type of questions that can be asked, and then don’t act stupid. Not saying it’s a walk in the park but if we dedicate the time we spend on prepping for consulting cases we can crack those interviews.
That is wrong, distinguished engineers can get paid multiple M’s.
It's also harder to hit L9 at Google than it is make MD at an investment bank.
My understanding is that most Googlers aren't even expected to make it past L5.
Why is it always the “Analyst 1”’s talking about “wHeN I bEcOmE aN mD”. Go finish your PowerPoint presentation. Don’t forget the associate’s coffee btw, he likes it black
Lmao whoever threw MS at this is so shallow and sad 🤣
If my associate ever asked me to get coffee I’d laugh in their face
.
I am not sure where you are getting the idea that founding a startup and selling it is easy. Do you have any idea how many startups fail and how little you get paid in the years to build it out even if you are successful? I don't think you do.
I have many many friends that are SWE. They barely work and get paid a ton. Lots have so many opportunities to exit to fast growing companies that will most likely have an exit. The people on this forum are literally just trying to cope with the fact that IB isn't the best out of undergrad job anymore.
Even if I could make more in SWE, I hate CompSci and could never care enough about what I’m doing.
SWE and IB are very different jobs, and only a small number of people are actually qualified to get top offers at both AND have equal interest in both to make that decision.
I agree its not all about comp, I hate comp sci. I am far more interested in finance that's why I chose to study it in college. Some people only chose this sector for money and prestige and if that's the case you might as well go to FAANG, because you'll burnout most likely.
MEANWHILE PROP TRADERS STILL LAUGHING AND EJACULATING AT YOUR FACES LMAO
lmfao yeah all 60 of them across the united states - may as well shoot for the NFL you'll have better chances
60 people ejaculating on your face is still a lot bro
Let’s see how long you last…
It’s very easy to get fired in prop trading.
Thing is by the time they get fired, they have already made more money than IBD would in 5 years. That's the sad reality bro.
Is it possible to go from BB S&T internship and or 2 year stint to prop trading or HFT
I've seen lots of different takes on WSO about what FAANG engineers can hit. Let me bring a bit of nuance to the table.
There is definitely a straightforward path to making ~500k TC as a FAANG engineer. It's basically expected that you'll make it to senior engineer (L5 at Google, E5 at Facebook, etc.), and it's not uncommon to hit staff engineer, the level above, which is where you're at 500-600k. Assuming you can grit your teeth through the hours/stress, there is a "straightforward" path to that kind of comp in finance, whether you switch to buyside or take an A2A promotion.
I would echo what others posters have said; if you're a decent comp sci major at a target school, it's just not that hard to get in the door at these companies. The interview can definitely be learned and gamed; when I was undergrad, you would use Cracking the Coding Interview to learn the standard algorithmic questions. That, plus actually being a comp sci major and writing code for your classes, was usually enough.
I'd even say the interview is harder than the job itself at the senior engineer level. There are plenty of "keep the lights on" engineering jobs at the big tech companies, where you aren't working on anything super challenging or time-sensitive but are still working on things that the business needs to function. There are lots of FAANG engineers that top out at this level.
Going above that number is hard. You need one of two things: the ability to manage people (and teams of people) while also being strongly technical yourself, or the ability to captain engineering projects at global scale. Both of these are rare to find. The staff engineer and up role are sort of the parallel of VP+ in private equity or senior analyst at a large hedge fund. You can make serious bank, yes, but getting to that point is not a given.
I'm not sure what the issue is with SWE as an alternative to banking / finance. SWE is great. Banking is also great. Different skill sets and to each his own. This post could have been made in 2008 / 2009 with the same message about banking and all the folks in finance who get paid in stock (and similar to what someone else said, those people made a killing since equities rose so much after.
WLB is significantly better in tech. None of those random weekend emails.
As it relates to tech stocks - these are still the largest companies in the world. There's something to be said for that.
Comp is... different. It's more variable. If you're a smart enough person, it is relatively easy enough to get to a place in finance of making mid-six figures every year if you're willing to work hard. Tech is more variable. Can certainly rise and make high six figures / millions. But what a lot of them do is job hop to several start ups every 3 years, hoping a successful exit rakes in huge rewards on their vested options. That happens in finance (start up PE / HF with economics in the business), but to a lesser extent and the timeline to it paying off is much longer (usually the first fund isn't that big, takes a while to liquidate, if success is really in the second fund, it might be a 12 year timeline from start to finish.
Dude the very fact that you have to make this cringe post is definitive proof that me and the bois are doing extremely well. Also, I (and many others I know) are paid in full cash so I haven't been affected whatsoever by the tech stock drop. Not to mention I'm still getting recruiters hitting me up on the daily with offers of more money than I know what to do with, and I don't have to wear business clothes nor work 60+ hours a week.
Also, seen other people mention this but joining a company like Amazon would be HUGE right now. You literally get your RSUs at a huge discount, so the upside potential is absolutely insane. Whether you like it or not, companies like Amazon are going nowhere, this is just a small bump in the road for them.
For reference, I have close to 1 year of experience and recently got a 200k+ offer from Amazon for SDE 1 fully remote (working in my pajamas) role, and I would consider myself to be a below average developer. Many of my friends are getting much higher offers working at G/Fb/HFT's/Unicorns.
SWE has benefited immensely from the sheer amount of well-funded startups that sprung the past 10+ years as interest rates were at near 0.
It is a great career choice, but we’ll see how well the job market does once all these perennial cash vacuums get their funding pulled in this new economic environment.
honestly want to hear a take from a retired engineer who joined one of FAANG after the dot com bubble. Everyone must've shittinng on him and told him to join the CDO desk at their bank. For 5-6 years they were right...
You won’t find them hear, they’re all retired and off enjoying life. Occasionally they appear on tech forums to flex their 8 figure net worth
IMO, main advantage of playing in finance is learning to compound your own money. However, most of those in finance are risk adverse babies 👶
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