Breaking Down Big Tech

We outline the real benefits and drawbacks of joining big tech, focusing on what actually matters for long-term career growth rather than the hype.

Here are the core points from the lesson:

• We explain that the biggest advantage of big tech is prestige. Having Google, Meta, Amazon, or Microsoft on our résumé dramatically increases future job opportunities, recruiter response rates, and long-term career mobility.
• We highlight additional strengths: top-tier compensation, strong and reliable learning environments, and overall consistency in job security, interview success, and career progress, all of which compound after a few years inside a major tech company.
• We walk through key drawbacks: massive company size makes it hard to find meaningful scope, many hard problems are already solved, work-life balance can be demanding, and advancement requires strong communication and leadership skills—not just coding ability.
• We stress that big tech isn’t ideal for everyone; engineers who prefer deep, heads-down coding or highly autonomous environments may struggle in the bureaucracy and stakeholder-heavy nature of these organizations.