While this is great pay for many, it's not especially easy to get a job at Google or elsewhere in FAANGM, Many who aren't top engineers have the option of startups or a c list firm.
That's why I'm at a big company now instead of startups, where I have most of my experience in my career (about 5 years). 2 years of working at a lower paying FAANG and I am getting ~$320k total compensation for a mid-level dev (granted, that is as a top performer) - that is double what my last job (startup) was paying me.
I think I'm now on a road of buying a house in the Bay Area sometime down the line, whereas my previous years of working brought me no closer.
Right. The big players have salary on lock down and small players can't compete on that front. You pretty much have to believe in your startup. It's a gamble.
The startup can get you hired at bigcorp at a higher level than if you joined and crawled up the ladder. This is never mentioned when discussing comp comparisons.
Yeah, but it's still a gamble. Unless you become a VP/Director it's tough to get to a sufficiently high level to make it worth it. It's rare, for instance, for someone from a start-up to come in as a Staff/Senior Staff engineer (L6/7).
L4 is ~2 years out of school.