VIDEO
By: Dalton Caldwell & Michael Seibel
FAANG jobs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) can be lucrative and stable — but they can also trap talented builders in golden handcuffs.
Stay long enough to extract skills, not so long that you get comfortable.
Leave when your side projects excite you more than your day job.
If your company’s mission or product doesn’t energize you, that’s a signal.
You get to see scale, structure, and operational discipline up close.
You learn how massive systems are maintained, and how teams collaborate.
But you don’t learn how to start something from zero — that’s startup-only experience.
Assumption: FAANG experience prepares you perfectly for startups.Reality: Most work there is optimizing small parts of giant systems.
You rarely make full-stack product decisions.
Risk and ownership are minimal.
It’s safe, but not entrepreneurial.
Technical excellence, debugging at scale, documentation, process discipline. Communication in large teams — useful for leading in startups later.Just don’t confuse skill specialization with founder readiness.
FAANG pedigree helps you get credibility with investors.
Many YC-backed founders started in big tech, but had something to prove.
Use that brand to open doors — not to hide behind it.
Big companies engineer comfort: comp packages, promotions, RSUs, perks.
They want you to optimize for staying , not building.
Every vesting cycle is designed to reset your timeline and delay your escape.
The longer you stay, the harder it feels to leave.
When your job feels predictable but your side projects feel alive.
When learning plateaus — you’re just repeating cycles.
When “security” becomes your excuse, not your strategy.
Before your creativity calcifies into compliance.
Go in with a plan to leave.
Focus on extracting:
Technical depth you can’t get elsewhere.
Network of top engineers.
Money to fund your runway.
Avoid being a lifer. Use FAANG, don’t let FAANG use you.
FAANG jobs teach scale, not creation.
Extract skills and cash — then escape before you plateau.
Use the brand, don’t build your identity around it.
Plan your exit early — ideally within 2–4 years.
The best time to leave is when you’re more excited to build your own thing than to optimize someone else’s.
“FAANG isn’t evil — it’s just comfortable. And comfort kills ambition.”
