> Anyway - not sure if they are downplaying FAANG salary, or its more about the ROI (long hours, stress ...etc)?
The latter. I'm not saying FAANG salary is nothing (or that SWE salary is nothing). I'm arguing that the juice ain't worth the squeeze, FAANG or not (FAANG comes with extra challenges, but even the basic SWE job has a baseline level of unique challenges to deal with... the interviewing/hiring process being one of them for example).
Furthermore, the amount of juice appears to be decreasing every day with things like RTO, layoffs, beliefs in AI replacing everyone any day now, and the ever decreasing standard of software quality, meaning AI may actually replace a lot of us - not because it's any good at software, but because once you have a monopoly you have no reason to produce good software.
As a diagnosed ADHD person myself - I think you should spend time to get that ADHD diagnosis Even without meds, stuff like CBT helps.
Anyway - not sure if they are downplaying FAANG salary, or its more about the ROI (long hours, stress ...etc)?
I'm basically at European equivalent of FAANG, and I don't see myself doing US version even if it's double the money.