Not op, but FWIW, I know people who make high six figures (explicitly, $750k>) at companies that aren't household names or FAANG(ish) companies (or AI companies for that matter), though I also know my share of people that are at such companies that most people, or maybe just people here have heard of, that also make > $750k. Some of them aren't even software engineers! Most (all?) of them aren't paid that much on their W2 though and have lucked out with stock options/RSUs/related compensation (again, at non-FAANG companies, some private).
Not trying to brag that I have well-paid friends, though it might come across that way; just corroborating the fact that it's possible for late-career professionals to make that kind of money at non-FAANG companies.
I 100% believe it's possible, but that's even more of a lottery than FAANG is which would negate his point :).
If you can get your foot in the door it's hard to beat FAANG comp on a risk-adjusted basis and they do actually employ quite a lot of SWEs, which I think is why it's such a focal point for tech jobs even though you can get similar comp in other situations.
If you start to view yourself as a business vs. an easily-replaceable-one-of-thousands individual your career takes an entirely different shape.
the entire system from the ground-up is setup to convince you that you are an individual and you need to go find a job and work like everyone else (hopefully with hefty student loan and other debts) and in our industry be treated like cattle and be subjected to some crazy interview process where you have to hack on some sh*t no one cares about.
if you start thinking about yourself as a business your goals become more like “how do I make myself profitable, how do I get to the point where another business cannot effectively operate without my services.”
is this a lottery? maybe… this is easier said than done but I would rather spend my career in this chase than be an employee somewhere where 99% of my peers don’t know my name
Not trying to brag that I have well-paid friends, though it might come across that way; just corroborating the fact that it's possible for late-career professionals to make that kind of money at non-FAANG companies.