If I’m going to sit through 9 hours of interviews to maybe get an offer, then yes absolutely.

I’m not going to work my rear end off for 4 years to get 0.5% of potentially nothing and go through your dog and pony show of an interview cycle

And 0.5% is generous, to boot - after dilution and share classing and options expiring you would probably be better off just working a big tech job.

I would bet a majority of engineers at FAANG companies are there primarily - or in large part - because of the prestige.

Absolutely. Both majorly impact my long term earning potential.

It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money. - Albert Camus