Trying to decide between 2 offers (FAANG vs. non-FAANG)

Question

I’m now trying to decide between two offers and would really appreciate the community’s perspective.

One offer is Capital One Staff and it comes with better work-life balance and more job stability. I had a good conversation with a hiring manager and felt like it could be a good fit overall. While the work isn’t necessarily cutting-edge, it seems meaningful and like a place I could grow.

The other offer is from Amazon, but it’s for the dreaded SDE 2/L5 level. It’s in a newer product space, which could be a strong entry point into an emerging area of tech. It would also be my first big-name company, which I believe could open more doors long term. Still, I’m wary of being mid-level.

I’d love to hear how you’d weigh these trade-offs. While work-life balance is important to me due to family reasons, I’m leaning toward prioritizing long-term growth and career positioning at this point.

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

Is there a big compensation difference? Lead Software Eng (which I assume is Capital One's Staff level) pays less than Amazon SDE 2, at least in the US. If Amazon pays a lot more than Capital One (+25%) and you aren't able to negotiate Capital One higher, then I'm leaning towards Amazon.  If Amazon doesn't pay a lot more, things get really, really hard. I'm a big believer in work-life balance (WLB), especially for family reasons. Amazon is notorious for stack rank/PIP culture, and the SDE 2 -> SDE 3 promotion is notoriously difficult. If there isn't really a compensation difference, I am actually leaning towards Capital One. On top of the WLB, I think Capital One has more financial upside due to their stock greatly outperforming Amazon's over the past 5 years. As a 2 trillion dollar company that is also susceptible to tariffs, Amazon's stock outlook isn't the best.

Trying to decide between 2 offers (FAANG vs. non-FAANG)

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