This Is Why You Should NOT Work For Big Tech

Working at FAANG is great for many reasons, but the Big Tech life isn't for everybody. For many engineers, it doesn't really make complete sense to go there.

Here are the core scenarios where Big Tech might not be the best for you:
- **You have strong WLB needs** - Work-life balance generally becomes more important as you get older, and Big Tech is generally pretty bad at giving you that.
- **You don't like stress** - There's nothing wrong with wanting to chill and avoiding pressure. However, Big Tech is usually not a good place to do this.
- **You want to hyper-maximize your career growth** - Big Tech is often a consistent path that takes your career to a very good place. However, if you want to go to an astounding place (e.g. become a VP of Engineering by the time you're 30), startups are far superior. Startups have much higher risk but also much higher rewards.
- **You just want to code** - Engineers at Big Tech almost always need to become incredibly well-rounded, especially at senior and staff. If you don't want to play politics and spend mountains of time running meetings and writing planning docs, Big Tech is likely not the place for you.

Related resources:
- ["How to have FAANG level of career growth in startup?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/VQgUHZPwbzqxjutaDU3W/how-to-have-faang-level-of-career-growth-in-startup/)
- ["When does it make sense to leave big tech?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/v6GBLlfXb1ugNobkEm7w/when-does-it-make-sense-to-leave-big-tech/)

How To Prepare To Leave Big Tech For A Startup

If you’re like [Rahul](https://www.jointaro.com/profile/tTjEXHcTZEYDGh8oUFU2Dy5VFVG2/), you were intent on leaving the bubble of Big Tech to pursue the startup life for a long time. If you have 6 months or 1 year left working in an established company, what can you do in anticipation of your startup journey?

One of the best things you can do is validate the idea of your startup with a side hustle. **Be careful that you’re not using company time or resources or you may later get sued.**

Generally, there are 3 types of projects an engineer can work on: 
1. A project purely for learning, to try out some technology or framework that may have come out recently. 
2. A small business. Also known as an indie business, a micro-Saas, or even something as simple as selling a digital product like an eBook. 
3. A VC scale startup. **This should be reserved for very few companies.** When you take venture capital money, they are looking for a massive return on investment, something like 50x or 100x. That means you’ll be accountable for strenuous growth targets.

Whichever path you choose, go in with your eyes wide open about what your motivations are and whether you’d be happy signing up for the likely outcome. 

An input into the decision about *when* to leave the Big Tech life is to look for some indication of commitment for the customers you’re serving. Are your customers offering you their time, money, or reputation for your product? That’s a promising sign. 

Another reason to leave is that you feel that there’s a narrow period of time when your idea could succeed, e.g. new regulation or a groundbreaking technology.

------

Connect with [Eric on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbahn/)

What To Do If Your Manager Pings You Too Much

Receiving tons of interruptive messages or "can you take a quick look at this?" pings is something that every successful engineer must deal with.

The underlying cause of getting pinged too much by your manager is generally an indication that you're not effectively guarding your time.

A few options to consider:

- Understand the demands on your manager. Why do they feel the need to ping you so much? Do they not understand what you're doing, or perhaps they're facing a ton of pressure from their manager about high-pri bugs?
- Document how you're spending your time, and how that is making it harder for you to do the higher priority work.
- When you talk to your manager about the issue, bring up a proposed solution along with calling out the problem.

Related resources:

- ["How does one effectively handle pressure especially when the stakes are high?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/Bxle0iRRpQXJV88KTpn4/how-does-one-effectively-handle-pressure-especially-when-the-stakes-are-high/)
- ["How to figure out what the most important projects are?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CgCPA60bDDHoOteN7Lmb/how-to-figure-out-what-the-most-important-projects-are/)

The Incredibly Rare Benefit Top Tech Companies Offer - Equity Refreshers

This video segment explains **refresher equity grants**, a powerful and rare form of compensation offered mainly by top-tier tech companies like Facebook and Google. These grants serve as both a performance incentive and a retention strategy.

- **Refresher grants are annual RSU awards**, given in addition to the initial offer. Their size is determined by an employee's level and most recent performance review.
- **Compensation structure is formulaic** at big tech companies, including the calculation of refresher amounts, which often outpace inflation even in challenging economic climates.
- **Grants stack over time**, meaning employees may have multiple overlapping equity packages (original + yearly refreshers), significantly increasing total stock-based compensation over the years.
- **Year four marks a peak**, where compensation from the initial grant and up to three refreshers overlap—this is why many employees leave after their fourth year, as compensation often drops after the original grant fully vests.
- **Refresher grants are a major retention tool**, helping extend average tenure at top companies from around two years closer to four.

How RSUs Can Both Greatly Reward And Punish You - Pinterest Example

This segment explains the volatile nature of equity compensation through the real-life example of Pinterest. It demonstrates how RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) can dramatically boost or reduce total compensation based on stock market performance, and highlights the importance of timing, risk awareness, and planning when joining a company.

- **Pinterest’s RSU Grant Example:** An employee joining Pinterest in January 2020 with a 20,000 RSU grant at a $20 stock price would have received a $400K equity package. As the stock price rose to $80 in a year, the total value of those RSUs skyrocketed to $1.6M.
- **Golden Handcuffs Phenomenon:** When stock prices soar, employees become financially incentivized to stay—even if they’re unhappy—due to the high value of unvested RSUs, often referred to as "golden handcuffs."
- **Stock Price Timing Matters:** The RSU grant is priced just before the start date. If the stock price dips right before joining and then recovers, the employee benefits from an immediate bump in total compensation.
- **Market Downturn Impact:** As Pinterest’s stock fell \~70% from its peak in 2021, employees who joined during or after the peak saw a significant drop in total compensation—sometimes down to one-third of their original grant value.
- **RSU Lockout Periods:** Employees at public companies can't sell RSUs at will. Sale windows are restricted to prevent insider trading, which can prevent selling even when the stock is at a peak.

Related resources:

- ["If my main goal is compensation, would it be wise to learn blockchain tech since it will potentially be the tech of the next couple decades?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/tyS6MzzADqBzt10802Mh/if-my-main-goal-is-compensation-would-it-be-wise-to-learn-blockchain-tech-since-it-will-potentially-be-the-tech-of-the-next-couple-decades/)
- ["How do people in Big Tech deal with constantly fluctuating Stock Prices from their company?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/JhEDkJl8AexlsL4IXBOH/how-do-people-in-big-tech-deal-with-constantly-fluctuating-stock-prices-from-their-company/)
- [\[Taro Top 10\] Pay Negotiation](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/uyWSc5q79zFw2Ei7w59d/)

20 Years Of Fighting Procrastination [Part 14] - Reflect

Reflecting regularly is a powerful habit that can dramatically improve your productivity and self-awareness. Here are the core points from the lesson:

- Daily micro-reflections and bi-weekly deep dives help you identify patterns in when and why you're productive or struggling
- Documenting reflections as written artifacts (e.g. notes or voice memos) forces clarity and gives you useful data over time
- Review both the nature of your work and the relationships that support or hinder your progress—productivity often depends on collaboration
- You can keep reflections private, share them with a manager, or even make them public to foster accountability and gain feedback from others

20 Years Of Fighting Procrastination [Part 6] - The #1 Way To Create Accountability

When motivation fades, there's a simple yet powerful way to regain momentum—build accountability into your workflow. Here are the key ideas from the lesson:

- Social pressure is more powerful than self-discipline alone, making accountability partners or group settings highly effective for staying on track

- Benefits of accountability include learning from others, drawing inspiration, and getting called out when you're making excuses or losing focus

- Tactics include going into the office, joining virtual co-working platforms, setting review checkpoints, or scheduling deadlines—even artificial ones—to create external motivation and structure

Come Up With 500k+ User Project Ideas [Part 5] - Tech Stack Rankings

Machine learning, web, back-end, DevOps, mobile - There are so many different tech stacks software engineers can specialize in. So how does the type of engineer you are affect your side project potential? This lesson teaches you:

- The rankings for tech stacks when it comes to side projects, starting from which one is the best suited and which ones are the worst suited
- Why mobile engineers in particular are extremely well-positioned to build impressive side projects
- The unfair advantage front-end engineers have when it comes to building side projects and getting credit
- Ideas for non-front-end engineers to build great side projects
- The pros and cons of every tech stack when it comes to side projects

DSA Crash Course [Part 5] - Is Prime Walkthrough

In this lesson, Alvin walks through the python implementation for the *is_prime* problem.

Code along and test your work in the following editor workspace: <https://structy.net/problems/is-prime?language=py>

If you need additional support taking these DSA skills and actually applying them, take [Alvin's](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/) *complete* data structures and algorithms course on [Structy](https://structy.net/?utm_source=taro). You can try out the concepts yourself in their interactive code editor and learn advanced DSA patterns like stack exhaustive recursion.

Use [this link to get 20% off](https://structy.net/purchase?promo_code=taro20) the entire Structy DSA learning experience.

Follow Alvin on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-zablan-b73a92117/>

Break Into Tech And Become A Software Engineer [Part 5] - Know Your Fundamentals & Frameworks

In this lesson, Brian highlights the balance between knowing your technical fundamentals and understanding modern frameworks to build effective software applications.

This lesson covers:

- The importance of having both foundational knowledge and framework expertise to speak the same technical language as co-workers, especially those with computer science degrees
- How understanding design patterns, software development lifecycles, and common best practices prevents you from reinventing the wheel and helps you navigate technical discussions
- Key resources like *Clean Code*, *You Don’t Know JavaScript*, and *The Phoenix Project* that deepen your knowledge of coding fundamentals and software development processes

If you need extra help breaking into tech, join Brian's exclusive, cohort-based bootcamp (just 10 students per batch). Use this special link for $800 off: <https://www.parsity.io/taro>

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjenney/>

Become An Open Source Master [Part 25] - Taking The Next Step In Open Source

We've come to the end of our journey exploring open source contributions.

- This course focused on contributing to existing repositories, not creating your own. Creating a successful open-source project involves technical and marketing challenges. James is doing this right now with TinyBase: <https://github.com/tinyplex/tinybase>
- **Open source takes time and patience**. It takes time to learn a codebase, earn trust, and become a strong contributor.
- Don't get discouraged by rejections or setbacks. Every piece of feedback helps you grow.
- The social side of open source is critical. It's about teamwork, building relationships, and demonstrating your ability to work well with others.

Connect with James:

- GitHub: <https://github.com/jamesgpearce>
- Twitter (X): <https://twitter.com/jamespearce>
- LinkedIn: [**https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamespearce/**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamespearce/)

Grow From Junior To Mid-Level Engineer [Part 17] - High-Level Roadmap

There's a bunch of different skills you need to develop as a junior engineer to grow to a mid-level engineer. To make things trickier, the order in which you develop them matters *a lot*. This lesson teaches you:

- The 4-phases high-level roadmap to grow from junior engineer to mid-level
- How long it takes to go from phase to phase on the mid-level engineer growth trajectory
- The necessary components you need to have to establish a strong presence on your team, strong enough to merit a mid-level engineer promotion

Top System Design Interview Mistakes [Part 8] - Don't Make Arbitrary Decisions

This video discusses the importance of explaining technical decisions during interviews. Key points include:

- Candidates often make arbitrary choices without justification, missing opportunities for self-correction or valuable discussion
- We go through an example contrasts a poor response (choosing a database without explanation) with an improved one (considering options thoroughly)
- If a decision is worth stating, it's worth defending
- **Concluding tips:** Ask questions, document as you go, and always show your work for technical decisions

If you need extra help with your system design interview, [Formation.dev](https://formation.dev/partners/taro) can provide you hands-on, personalized support. Join us here: <https://formation.dev/partners/taro>

Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer [Part 2] - Why Is The Staff Promotion So Hard?

Countless senior engineers hit a wall as they push for staff. This lesson teaches you:

- How the Staff Engineer role in and of itself is special by being a relatively new career invention
- The easiest way to tell if a Senior Engineer isn't ready to become a Staff Engineer
- Why the Staff Engineer promotion is fundamentally different from prior promotions
- Why many teams can't support an additional Staff Engineer promotion
- How you can be performing as a Staff Engineer and still not get the promotion

Asking Great Questions [Part 26] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

Asking great questions is a skill that takes months, if not years, to develop. So let's take the knowledge from this course and apply it! You get better by doing, not just consuming.

Take the related courses:

- [\[Course\] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [\[Course\] Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)

[Become A Go-To Person 14/18] Give Presentations To Become An Expert

A course by [Jordan Cutler](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordancutler1/), Senior Software Engineer at Pinterest and Author of the [High Growth Engineer Newsletter](https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 20] - Just Jump In

If there's one thing software engineers love to do, it's prepare. They'll read and watch and listen to countless resources in order to get "ready" to tackle their meaty technical challenges. This lesson teaches you:

- Why "preparing" to do a task is basically the same as doing nothing
- The right mentality you must have to tackle any software engineering task efficiently, going away from the mindset that got you through school
- How to effectively dive into a task and get it done fast

[Timeless Career Advice] IC vs Manager

This video discusses how much the software industry pays in the US in terms of total compensation. 

In addition, we discuss the decision to be an individual contributor vs engineering manager.

Connect with Louie:

- SmallBets community: [**https://smallbets.com/?utm_source=taro**](https://smallbets.com/?utm_source=taro)
- Twitter: [**https://twitter.com/LBacaj**](https://twitter.com/LBacaj)
- LinkedIn: [**https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiebacaj/**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiebacaj/)
- Newsletter: [**https://newsletter.memesmotivations.com/**](https://newsletter.memesmotivations.com/)

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 20] - Do Not Lie

The tech job market is incredibly brutal for software engineers, and this can make less ethical approaches far more appealing, including with your resume. This lesson teaches you:

- Why lying on your resume ultimately hurts you far more than it helps you
- What to do instead of lying when your resume is struggling

Write A Stellar Resume As A Software Engineer [Part 8] - Intro Summaries

It's common practice for engineers (and almost everyone else) to include a paragraph at the very top of their resume summarizing their overall experience and explaining why they're great. This lesson teaches you:

- Why those intro summaries actually hurt you, especially in tech
- What to do instead of having an intro summary

Tech Career Growth Videos

Our instructional videos provide software engineers with insights needed for career growth. Masterclasses go incredibly in-depth on a specific tech topic while case studies are real examples from established engineering leaders.