I work for a small company in a lead role where i get absolute freedom of tech and a vested interest in the company. Its rare to find a fellow engineer with the same mindset as myself. Youve hit the nail on the head mate. I also find with the aspiring devs who are focused on these huge companies to be some of the worst and who only care about the status of the job and not the actual job it self.
I have the exact same situation, the only thing I don't love is a lack of more experienced mentors but it makes you care about the job so much more. Hope you're still going strong with it.
You'll never know how it is until the moment you experience it. I had the same thoughts of you before I joined a major company here in my country, the one that everybody dreams of working at, and being there I confirmed most of my assumptions, similar to yours, but on the other side I learned so much stuff I didn't even know existed, both technical and no technical knowledge. Now I moved to a smaller company because it fits better with my life, but I'm extremely glad I had that experience, both nice and not so nice stuff I experienced there are things that definitely shaped my career as a professional. To anyone who is starting his/her career, if you read this, I'm not trying to deny what Ben says, but if you have the chance, don't close to it. You can have assumptions and experiences from others, but small, middle, large companies, or even having your own, they all have different dynamics and rich room to anyone to take key lessons from them. Be open to experience it all, you'll ve glad for it later in your career.
I think just don't be tunnel vision is the one advice I took from Ben's video. If a company gives me growth and sufficient compensation, I'll take it. Faang or not.
@@giangta1655 I would be more convinced if he actually worked for any of the FAANG and then quit. From what I hear, FAANG (I'm in the UK) actually seems to give more freedom to the developers than what he describes and they have much more impact. It also helps that ex-FAANG gives you much more prestiege than Bank of America for example. I'll let you be a judge (feel free to take a look at his LinkedIn profile)
I mean FAANG experience is great...but the truth of matter is you don't need to work at a FAANG to get comparable experience. I'm sure whatever you learned at the FAANG you worked at you could've just as well either learned it yourself, or at another company. And there are plenty of companies where you can have freedom of development. I've worked at two now where I had freedom to solve problems whichever way I saw fit...as long as I didn't negatively effect the existing codebase.
This is insanely late but I want to work an easy (non-stressful) remote job that doesn't take too much time but pays well because I'll have experience. This way, I can focus on something I'm more passionate about. Don't get me wrong, I like coding, but I'm not obsessed with it. As a job, it's comfortable but challenging in it's own way but it doesn't have any social ties that I wish it had. Why people have their lives based off of software is beyond me when there's so much more to life than writing code for a company that sees you as replaceable. Work for an easier company, get paid a little less, and be happier.
I'm also quite uncomfortable with the obsession around working at fang. The same way that in entrepreneurship, getting VC money used to be glamourous and now the mindset on that has really shifted, we need to also realize that working for these companies shouldn't necessarily be a goal in itself. Thanks for making a video on this topic 🙌🏻
@MikeProductions1000 google and apple started from a warehouse. Every big tech starts somewhere. I just want to say your dream should not be of labour but owner.
Love your videos man, great stuff. I've been a software engineer for over 20 years across a bunch of languages and stacks. After a while it becomes a living, not so much an art. If you want to chase the title and the pay, do it, but you probably won't love the work you do. If you want to love the work you do, do it, but you might not be getting the bigger house or flashy car (that's not always a bad thing). Put marriage and kids on top later in life and you'll realise you simply don't have infinite time to learn everything, only the stuff that will help you survive. That's a skill the young guys aren't taking about, but they will. Good luck!
@@pulga961 don't spread misinformation just because you don't like someone. Call up the Google and Facebook HR to verify if you're full of doubts yourself
Dude you the real goat I remember watching your videos a while ago preparing for interviews. Will always come back to your channel if I need help with leet code.
Wow it's so uplifting to hear other people going through and thinking about the same problems, I was starting to feel frustratedly alone. This video really picked my up, much love!
Spitfire don’t worry I know nothing about frontend I watch Ben and Travesy to stay up to date on frontend tech. I am way comfortable staying on the backend 😅
@@hnasr I'm just kidding, my friend 😉 Ben is a real master, especially in terms of Graphql. He helped me a lot. Just like you did with db architecture and other topics of software engineering.
4:44 is exactly the reason why I have zero interest to working in any of those companies... You still going to get the same salary no matter how hard you work
5:17 dude...... DUDE you have no idea how deep this spoke to me man. I saved my company over 150k with my app and was still being paid just above minimum wage at the time.... and this was the largest retail store in the US, and all I got was a pat on the back and a baseline salary job starting at 60k. I never realized that the burnout/demoralization really did start that early. I’ve been with them for years now and I’ve really struggled with burnout and motivation as a result.
I would love to get more videos about your business and what goes on there exactly. I’m in a similar situation couple years behind :) Great vid, cheers!
"It's demotivating when the amount of work you put in is not correlated to what you get back" - YUPPP. I also think it's especially frustrating with our skillset because we can create the next big thing but lose the time and energy to do it when we work for a company.
I think we need change in work culture and process. If I were to start company today I would make sure employees care about enjoying stuff we do instead of being puppet of manager. I would give paid vacations not to attract but to give peace of mind, freedom to enjoy time be creative. My dad work really like machine weekends off then back to work just couple leaves in years and I hate it because I see how much important is having personal time. These companies absolutely don't respect it. I hope for a future where employees would join based on vision of future of humanity than the sole reason to survive.
I didn’t know you were a fellow austinite! I totally agree with everything you said. It’s so easy to get caught up in the fantasy of working for FAANG - especially the financial aspect - but instead I work for a healthcare company and actually feel like my contributions mean something.
I actually gave an interview at Amazon. I got to the last technical round but didn't get accepted. My mistake? As far as i know, i wasn't able to fully solve one question out of the 3 they asked in the last round. It was then i realized..that i don't want to be in a company that judges someone's skill level like a robot. Got a job offer from a startup soon after that for a similar take-home package. It was my first startup and the best decision. Learning so much and so fast everyday. I don't think any FAANG company could give a learning experience like a startup does. Also, i have met much smarter people at this startup than i think i would meet at a FAANG company.
Even if you did solve all three problems, they would pigeon-hole you just like a robot. You would never truly move above the level that you were brought in at. Meanwhile, someone with far less technical skills but better people/networking skills will zoom ahead of you into upper management with much, much higher pay.
@@edmundob.guevarra9565 The most successful person ($500K/yr) in my former field graduated with a degree in drama and psychology. It was a technical field, and he was among the least technically capable people that I've ever worked with.
Nice honest video Ben. Love your attitude!! Common path is startup after working at FAANG after learning best practises, building production grade systems and the mentorship You're skipping that step entirely means you're ahead of the game.
I have quite a few friends at FAANG and honestly they aren't anything remarkably special compared to Ben. All it takes is grinding leetcode. What Ben is doing is far more rewarding/fulfilling than being a FAANG-bot and it's why I respect him. Takes more balls to start your own company than be a leetcode/FAANG drone.
5:20 - I have been successful over my 30+ year career as a software developer in avoiding promotions. Even in my current situation, I have twice refused management promotions because my real passion is development. I do not want to be led away into a lifestyle that involves LESS coding time. I love what I do. Why would I want to take a position that offers LESS of what I love doing?
"Successful" products at FAANG must have much larger revenue streams which means it solves more general problems. This leave a lot of niche markets, especially small and mid-sized B2B, open to the rest of us.
I just graduated and have been applying places. The crazy part is, when I started studying, I didn't expect to find so many FAANG-sexuals (as you put it, I'm stealing it) as there are. I started learning to make sure I didn't end up poor like I was growing up. That's it. I never cared about getting into Google. I've even seen people on r/cscareeradvice say that 80k was low for an entry level position. And it makes you think... do they think FAANG is the bare minimum? Do they not realize that 80k to start for a lot of people, especially people like me just trying to be OK, is actually pretty decent and also completely normal in the industry that they're trying to get into?
It's been a long time since you've posted this, did you end up finding a good place to work at? As someone who's also looking now, I'm genuinely curious.
Late to the video but, here's my 2 cents. My background was 6 years in the food industry, most I ever made was $11 an hour after taxes. Went to school for CS, got my degree along with tons of solo/team projects on my resume, my first job pertaining to CS was a simple web dev gig for a local business in my hometown making $24 an hour. Yes FAANG would be amazing, but even the bottom of the barrel in this industry is far, far better than what it could be. I would be entirely grateful to even make minimum wage doing what I love (game dev), thankfully it's a beast of a salary instead
There are many career paths to follow. The most important thing is to recognize what really drives you, just as you did. I have some hard time thinking about launching a product. I actually prefere the idea of joining a company that can give me resources to build their products. To not follow on this underpayed trap, I prefere to set deals per contract
Well, the problem is that you're working more than you should and then expecting something good in return, basically you were asked to do 100% and you delivered 200% and expected 200% of your salary instead of 100%. If your employer asks you to do more than what you were hired to do, leave that company, that's a toxic company. You were hired to do a job, do that job, claim your pay, and go home and work for side hassle that actually improves your skills and pays you in return. No need to do more than what you should be doing.
Ok, it's official. You have the best developer channel out there. I love how you approached the topic. 99% humor, and then pointing out some good personal reasons why you, and anyone else, shouldn't be FAANG obsessed. I'm in the same boat. Why use it as a stepping stone when it's not where I want to be, and it doesn't help me reach my real goals.
I think that one of things young people simply dont appreciate enough about FANG companies is the experience and lessons learned that you can just consume without effort. There is no compression algorithm for experience. And now multiply that by thousands of engineers. By working at FANG you do have a chance to tap into that knowledge, learn from what didn't work and experience that velocity of improvement powered by loads of smart humans. TLDR: there are far better things than free food at FANG
I work on a team at a FAANG with multiple coworkers with PHDs and senior and principal engineers who super smart and have been doing this stuff forever. I am learning way more than I did at my previous small company job. Hopefully the next job hop is easier for me too because I have the name on my resume now. I think it’s worth it.
I like how he singled out Google in the beginning as his least preferred option, and then towards the end he was mostly talking about how he was considering Google (mentioned by name) There might be more than meets the eye :p
I saw the Software Engineering "Best Practices" video and I instantly subscribed, now I can't stop watching your videos. Good content and btw your code jokes are hilarious xd
this is gold lol... it's crazy starting my engineering career in college first year i wanted to be at google and then i realized i didn't want to be at such a huge company where i'd just be another programmer. I'd rather start my own company or just work at smaller to midlevel companies until i could go off on my own
Am a CS student and this is the first time i watch your videos and MAN you just read my mind word for word! i'd rather do something that i enjoy and earn less or run my company and fai than to have more money and feel that my job is meaningless, count down the hours to go home or count down the days until the weekendl!It's really great to find someone whos not toxic and narcissistic on the tech YT.
I am in my graduation and all my friends are like they have just one goal to work in faang. I have same thoughts like yours. Sometimes i feel i am an idiot who is not faang sexual but now i know its ok not to be a faang sexual. I have my goals just like yours and i am happy with them. Thank you for the motivation 😌
My favorite part: "I would much rather be the Noob in charge, making those bad decisions." This really resonated with me. From my experiences, people make bad decisions all the time. Or, worse, don't want to make the wrong decisions, so they end up not making any decisions at all. However, when these bad decisions are made, many people won't own them. They point fingers, make excuses, and find scapegoats. The cycle continues and crap products are the result. Thanks for this video.
I've worked at a start-up before with very young founders (like 3 YoE). It was an absolute nightmare. It really made me realize how good it is to have seasoned veterans at the helm and solid infrastructure around me.
This comes down to having your values in place which have allowed you to make some really good decisions. A lot of us don't take the time to understand what's important to us as reflection requires time. It's just easier to go down the beaten path.
"Best way I could prepare for starting a business is by starting a business" - I whole-heartedly agree with that, as someone who works as a SE in big tech, working at a big tech company definitely has its perks in terms of learning enterprise programming, constant exposure to new technologies and frameworks, but the most I've learnt for development and business was by creating one myself. It's important to remember a software/SAAS company requires many more skills than just the development; I've found myself spending extensive time within marketing, ux design, networking, PR and more. While big tech can teach you how to code, it cant teach you these other lessons - you have to venture for yourself (and read some books)
Unless you're in a country where running a business is really expensive. Like, pay the amount of money I spend on rent in taxes, regardless of whether you made any money expensive.
im in the same boat! I have been laying low and doing QA-Automation for smaller companies, enough money to get by and enough free time for all my side projects
Totally agree about noobs in charge. It gets to the point where people who have zero understanding of software development get to be in charge of whole projects. HOW??
Ben... awesome channel, you're the man-for real! Question.. can you do a video about your preferred design patterns/file structure for a large source code base? Very much appreciated! Keep up all the great work!
Agular 2+ (not really sure what's different in JS version) is one of the most robust frameworks imo. It's true it is not beginner friendly but once you overcome that part it becomes so satisfying.
I never really cared about FAANG either. I love how no one ever talks about Microsoft. The true tech giant. The reality is you are likely not the best dev in any large company. You don’t have enough experience.
It's hard to get a job in massive companies without specialising, eg Java backend, JS frontend, Data Engineer etc. Projects are highly complex and full stack is ok up to a certain point.
These are the exact reason why I don't work as a 'Professional Developer'. I'd rather just build things I enjoy while risking everything. It actually makes for a very dramatic life.
@@tonskreee6213 I honestly think that he can pass the interview...I think that its just the point. Their asking you to complete a task that has nothing to do with your day to day work.
@@jonbee5782 Look at his pathetic coding interview performance trying to invert a linked list. This guy can't pass the coding test, and he's complaining about technical interviews...
It's slow as fuck, mobile apps that use it and are complex run like ass. And to top it all off it has no backwards compatability. And then dependency injection, two way data binding, complicated debugging, and scope inheritance.
Honestly couldn't think of anything worse than working at FANG. You learn FAR faster in a small company/start up. Yes, it's a risk, but the advantage pay off 10 fold
Ex-* just lets me know you're living in the past. It's the software engineer version of talking about that one high school football game you scored the winning touchdown in all the time when you're 45.
I used to like TechLead when he was first starting out. Thought that he was funny with his sarcasm, but when he released more vids especially the one with his ex-wife, I started to question his mentality. I actually think that guy is a narcissist. I understand on making a video on your personal life and how that emotionally affects you, but his video rarely (or never) mentions the complex reason on why his wife left. I always believe there are 2 sides of the story, but he always presents it as 1 side in almost all his videos with/without the topic on his family. He might be good at what he does with programming, but he can't see his own flaws (and possibly his toxicity) and how that affects others
I honestly never took to him. He’s got issues, thinks he’s above the cloud yet lonely and isolated. That type of person that has no one around because no one wants to be around him. Seeing himself on UA-cam with a crowd is his way of filling his void.
@@akbg There are some people on UA-cam whom generally want to help others like math or physics teachers (don't know what you call someone who teaches on UA-cam), but are not narcissists. There are others both in the Entertainment Industry and UA-cam who like to make people laugh and are not narcissists like Ben Awad or some comedians. The argument isn't that people who seek attention on UA-cam are narcissists, but based upon how they individually act towards others. TechLead does display narcissism, and possibly codependency, especially after his first ex-wife video bringing only one side to the reality of the situation. Yet, I have not seen any of his videos for a little over a year, and perhaps he has changed
@@blackcubes of course it doesn't follow automatically they are narcissist, but many of these software engineer dispensing tips on UA-cam seem to be more concerned in sounding smart than actually dispensing good content (this UA-camr included)
This video is a godsend, it confirms a lot of what I thought. Folks do put FAANG on a ridiculous pedestal. FAANG does pay the highest salaries, but there are plenty of companies that can pay almost as much or a pretty good amount. People need to remember that FAANG companies are billion-dollar companies, so they have the capacity to pay engineers high salaries, however, they can also be very rigid and strict in how they do things. For example, Netflix is opposed to remote work despite paying the highest salaries. Working at FAANG can feel like having a rich but strict parent whereas smaller companies may not pay as much, but you have more freedom and flexibility. Also the most interesting challenges are not necessarily at FAANG, which is another misconception. Like he said in the video, there are plenty of companies working on interesting things.
this kind of talk resonates with me, and i dont work in tech, i work in other big companies and what you describe can be easily ported over. Im not so lucky, i decided to work for that particular company and my soul got grayed, if that makes sense. DONT GO WORK FOR THE BIG COMPANIES IF THEY DONT OFFER YOU WHAT YOU NEED and YOU ARE NOT THEIR TYPE OF EMPLOYEE!!!
Is love a coding job where I can code on my own schedule, that’d be awesome. But I’m also down for those 3 days a week type of jobs where I’d be free to work on my own projects too
One advantage of Google: you'll be working with systems of enormous scale. Hard to do it elsewhere. Not saying it's super important to learn some skills in that area, but it's certainly illuminating.
Ben: *wakes up*
Angular: “oh sh** here we go again”
🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣
As a 3 year full time angular developer, this is hilarious.
Hi I'm new here, may I ask why does he dislike Angular so much?
@@superharryboy Because angular makes everything in the front-end development worst?
1:42 "It is a huge turn-off when I see the company do so many things just to make the world a worse place: most notably, create Angular JS". LOL
I was thinking he was going to talk about Google’s new deals with the U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.
It's like saying, we could have directly evolved into a human from an ape.
Angular 1 wasn't that terrible... Angular 2 however, but it seems like Magento is taking the same footsteps
@@shishirarora8808 wtf are you talking about
Ben: *Thinking about making a video*
Angular: *Fear Sweating*
Framework; because JS isn't slow enough as it is.
@@answervalidargumentsonly1850 Slow... Good joke. Honestly if your code is slow then you are just bad at writing fast code. No matter the language.
@Vizman216 vomit on his sweater already
@@AbhishekBM Eminem in comment section🤣
@@philheathslegalteam Good luck writing 'fast' code in Python
Netflix needs to give Ben a comedy special 😂
Yes
my man! learned wordpress thanks to you.. Luv you man!
Will he be considered ex-Netflixer then 🤔
I work at Google (as a janitor) so clearly I'm a big deal.
even though StackOverflow adaptation for comedy with Ben will work
This mans Angular stabs are legendary
They are angled.
Lol he didn’t know what he was talking about
😂
As a someone who hasn’t even graduated highschool yet, may I ask what this “Angular” is?
@@Marstio1 It's what they use in software dev companies to punish developers who messed up. It's a demotion, a step below the janitors position.
I work for a small company in a lead role where i get absolute freedom of tech and a vested interest in the company. Its rare to find a fellow engineer with the same mindset as myself. Youve hit the nail on the head mate. I also find with the aspiring devs who are focused on these huge companies to be some of the worst and who only care about the status of the job and not the actual job it self.
I have the exact same situation, the only thing I don't love is a lack of more experienced mentors but it makes you care about the job so much more. Hope you're still going strong with it.
Ben : Doesn't say Ex googler, Ex Faceooker
TechLead : 👀
:D
that's what I am just about to say!
I see his face 🤣, techlead
Ex millionaire , ex husband , 😐😐
Shots fired!
Ironic part is to see a Algoexpert ad the end ,
"Do you want to be a software engineer at Google"
Me - Yeah , I mean I wanted to , but not sure now
This is becoming a troll channel... And I'm here for it.
Heck yeah
420 likes
???
Maybe look at mine too, that I just started :)
Oh turns out hahaha
"it's a huge turnoff when i see the company do so many things to make the world a worst place. Most notably creating angular js" LMAO
You'll never know how it is until the moment you experience it. I had the same thoughts of you before I joined a major company here in my country, the one that everybody dreams of working at, and being there I confirmed most of my assumptions, similar to yours, but on the other side I learned so much stuff I didn't even know existed, both technical and no technical knowledge. Now I moved to a smaller company because it fits better with my life, but I'm extremely glad I had that experience, both nice and not so nice stuff I experienced there are things that definitely shaped my career as a professional. To anyone who is starting his/her career, if you read this, I'm not trying to deny what Ben says, but if you have the chance, don't close to it. You can have assumptions and experiences from others, but small, middle, large companies, or even having your own, they all have different dynamics and rich room to anyone to take key lessons from them. Be open to experience it all, you'll ve glad for it later in your career.
I think just don't be tunnel vision is the one advice I took from Ben's video. If a company gives me growth and sufficient compensation, I'll take it. Faang or not.
100% agree. The experience you’ll gain at a larger company is hard to recreate elsewhere!
@@giangta1655 I would be more convinced if he actually worked for any of the FAANG and then quit. From what I hear, FAANG (I'm in the UK) actually seems to give more freedom to the developers than what he describes and they have much more impact. It also helps that ex-FAANG gives you much more prestiege than Bank of America for example.
I'll let you be a judge (feel free to take a look at his LinkedIn profile)
I mean FAANG experience is great...but the truth of matter is you don't need to work at a FAANG to get comparable experience.
I'm sure whatever you learned at the FAANG you worked at you could've just as well either learned it yourself, or at another company.
And there are plenty of companies where you can have freedom of development. I've worked at two now where I had freedom to solve problems whichever way I saw fit...as long as I didn't negatively effect the existing codebase.
It's a very cool insight!
This is insanely late but I want to work an easy (non-stressful) remote job that doesn't take too much time but pays well because I'll have experience. This way, I can focus on something I'm more passionate about.
Don't get me wrong, I like coding, but I'm not obsessed with it. As a job, it's comfortable but challenging in it's own way but it doesn't have any social ties that I wish it had. Why people have their lives based off of software is beyond me when there's so much more to life than writing code for a company that sees you as replaceable. Work for an easier company, get paid a little less, and be happier.
I'm also quite uncomfortable with the obsession around working at fang. The same way that in entrepreneurship, getting VC money used to be glamourous and now the mindset on that has really shifted, we need to also realize that working for these companies shouldn't necessarily be a goal in itself. Thanks for making a video on this topic 🙌🏻
it's a big tech company, I'd like to work there
@@axea4554 why you dont want to start your big tech company instead of working in there 🤔
But that cheddar tho...
@MikeProductions1000 google and apple started from a warehouse. Every big tech starts somewhere. I just want to say your dream should not be of labour but owner.
@@newgamesaga What if the person doesn't want to
Love your videos man, great stuff. I've been a software engineer for over 20 years across a bunch of languages and stacks. After a while it becomes a living, not so much an art. If you want to chase the title and the pay, do it, but you probably won't love the work you do. If you want to love the work you do, do it, but you might not be getting the bigger house or flashy car (that's not always a bad thing). Put marriage and kids on top later in life and you'll realise you simply don't have infinite time to learn everything, only the stuff that will help you survive. That's a skill the young guys aren't taking about, but they will. Good luck!
"I'd much rather be the noob in charge."
Ben Awad 2020
Conclusion: Audrey‘s fine, Chelsea is overrated
which show?
And angular should burn
Nash's equilibrium...
Techlead gonna take up carrot farming after that burn.
As a millionaire
techlead is trashman pretending to be ex google,ex facebook...many people believe him.He has many reasons to lie...
@@pulga961 don't spread misinformation just because you don't like someone. Call up the Google and Facebook HR to verify if you're full of doubts yourself
@@micosair as a self-made millionaire
@@dollarquantums Go watch him. You will become rich.
Bro, when I graduate I just want to work at A company. Lmao
now we’re even !
Nick is here, still no on recognised, WTF!!
Nick!! Gotcha..
Dude you the real goat I remember watching your videos a while ago preparing for interviews. Will always come back to your channel if I need help with leet code.
xqc notice me
@@gestucvolonor5069 lmao
Wow it's so uplifting to hear other people going through and thinking about the same problems, I was starting to feel frustratedly alone. This video really picked my up, much love!
Same thoughts bro. I think we should make a community like us so that we will not get frustrated. 🤔
Ben: *Mentions carrot farmers*
Angular: *Sobbing uncontrollably*
Next video:
Why I work for FAANG
Basado
omg I didn’t know faang sexuality exists
Hussein. Please stay on your side of stack. We will watch your videos about architecture.
Spitfire don’t worry I know nothing about frontend I watch Ben and Travesy to stay up to date on frontend tech. I am way comfortable staying on the backend 😅
@@hnasr I'm just kidding, my friend 😉 Ben is a real master, especially in terms of Graphql. He helped me a lot. Just like you did with db architecture and other topics of software engineering.
omg Hussein Nasser watches these videos too!
Do Collab with Awad Hussain
This is simultaneously some serious information and a whole ass comedy show 😂
Most notably, creating *AngularJS* 🤣🤣🤣
Shots fired!
Even the Angular team doesn't like AngularJS 🤣
4:44 is exactly the reason why I have zero interest to working in any of those companies... You still going to get the same salary no matter how hard you work
Google: say react one more time.
Ben: 😡
facebook needs you
5:17 dude...... DUDE you have no idea how deep this spoke to me man. I saved my company over 150k with my app and was still being paid just above minimum wage at the time.... and this was the largest retail store in the US, and all I got was a pat on the back and a baseline salary job starting at 60k. I never realized that the burnout/demoralization really did start that early. I’ve been with them for years now and I’ve really struggled with burnout and motivation as a result.
I would love to get more videos about your business and what goes on there exactly. I’m in a similar situation couple years behind :)
Great vid, cheers!
"It's demotivating when the amount of work you put in is not correlated to what you get back" - YUPPP. I also think it's especially frustrating with our skillset because we can create the next big thing but lose the time and energy to do it when we work for a company.
I think we need change in work culture and process. If I were to start company today I would make sure employees care about enjoying stuff we do instead of being puppet of manager. I would give paid vacations not to attract but to give peace of mind, freedom to enjoy time be creative. My dad work really like machine weekends off then back to work just couple leaves in years and I hate it because I see how much important is having personal time. These companies absolutely don't respect it. I hope for a future where employees would join based on vision of future of humanity than the sole reason to survive.
@@yashaswikulshreshtha1588 slave system with extra benefits
Ex-millionare reference OP
next video he's bringing out the (as an ex-husband) reference
explanation?
@@finfan2101 Referring Tech Lead guy :)
I didn’t know you were a fellow austinite! I totally agree with everything you said. It’s so easy to get caught up in the fantasy of working for FAANG - especially the financial aspect - but instead I work for a healthcare company and actually feel like my contributions mean something.
1:52 seconds to build up to a classic angular joke
I actually gave an interview at Amazon. I got to the last technical round but didn't get accepted.
My mistake? As far as i know, i wasn't able to fully solve one question out of the 3 they asked in the last round.
It was then i realized..that i don't want to be in a company that judges someone's skill level like a robot. Got a job offer from a startup soon after that for a similar take-home package.
It was my first startup and the best decision. Learning so much and so fast everyday. I don't think any FAANG company could give a learning experience like a startup does.
Also, i have met much smarter people at this startup than i think i would meet at a FAANG company.
Even if you did solve all three problems, they would pigeon-hole you just like a robot. You would never truly move above the level that you were brought in at. Meanwhile, someone with far less technical skills but better people/networking skills will zoom ahead of you into upper management with much, much higher pay.
@@Yavin4"people/networking skills" aka conformity/psychological manipulation skills
@@edmundob.guevarra9565 The most successful person ($500K/yr) in my former field graduated with a degree in drama and psychology. It was a technical field, and he was among the least technically capable people that I've ever worked with.
Agree with the fixed office hour thing, self-employment is the ultimate goal!
Yes mate, self-employment gives more freedom
Nice honest video Ben. Love your attitude!!
Common path is startup after working at FAANG after learning best practises, building production grade systems and the mentorship
You're skipping that step entirely means you're ahead of the game.
YES! YES! YES! Give me more of that dry humor! I want more! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Damn that's cold 😂😂😂
I was gonna like your comment. I see 69. I took my hand off.
*d r y*
Such humour, much subtle. Wow! The logic is great, thank you for sharing.
I have quite a few friends at FAANG and honestly they aren't anything remarkably special compared to Ben.
All it takes is grinding leetcode. What Ben is doing is far more rewarding/fulfilling than being a FAANG-bot and it's why I respect him.
Takes more balls to start your own company than be a leetcode/FAANG drone.
5:20 - I have been successful over my 30+ year career as a software developer in avoiding promotions. Even in my current situation, I have twice refused management promotions because my real passion is development. I do not want to be led away into a lifestyle that involves LESS coding time. I love what I do. Why would I want to take a position that offers LESS of what I love doing?
"Successful" products at FAANG must have much larger revenue streams which means it solves more general problems. This leave a lot of niche markets, especially small and mid-sized B2B, open to the rest of us.
I just graduated and have been applying places. The crazy part is, when I started studying, I didn't expect to find so many FAANG-sexuals (as you put it, I'm stealing it) as there are. I started learning to make sure I didn't end up poor like I was growing up. That's it. I never cared about getting into Google. I've even seen people on r/cscareeradvice say that 80k was low for an entry level position. And it makes you think... do they think FAANG is the bare minimum? Do they not realize that 80k to start for a lot of people, especially people like me just trying to be OK, is actually pretty decent and also completely normal in the industry that they're trying to get into?
It's been a long time since you've posted this, did you end up finding a good place to work at? As someone who's also looking now, I'm genuinely curious.
I'm confused, is he coming out as a yellow haribo gummy or as not straight?
Late to the video but, here's my 2 cents. My background was 6 years in the food industry, most I ever made was $11 an hour after taxes. Went to school for CS, got my degree along with tons of solo/team projects on my resume, my first job pertaining to CS was a simple web dev gig for a local business in my hometown making $24 an hour. Yes FAANG would be amazing, but even the bottom of the barrel in this industry is far, far better than what it could be. I would be entirely grateful to even make minimum wage doing what I love (game dev), thankfully it's a beast of a salary instead
Yeah, but if you know you can make 70$ an hour, why not? Srsly.
There are many career paths to follow. The most important thing is to recognize what really drives you, just as you did. I have some hard time thinking about launching a product. I actually prefere the idea of joining a company that can give me resources to build their products. To not follow on this underpayed trap, I prefere to set deals per contract
Well, the problem is that you're working more than you should and then expecting something good in return, basically you were asked to do 100% and you delivered 200% and expected 200% of your salary instead of 100%.
If your employer asks you to do more than what you were hired to do, leave that company, that's a toxic company. You were hired to do a job, do that job, claim your pay, and go home and work for side hassle that actually improves your skills and pays you in return. No need to do more than what you should be doing.
damn, that haircut looking fresh!
So funny, before watching this vid I saw an ad that said "So you wanna be a software engineer at Google?" LOL
As a Richard, I feel attacked
Ok, it's official. You have the best developer channel out there.
I love how you approached the topic. 99% humor, and then pointing out some good personal reasons why you, and anyone else, shouldn't be FAANG obsessed. I'm in the same boat. Why use it as a stepping stone when it's not where I want to be, and it doesn't help me reach my real goals.
"It's a huge turn off when I see the company do so many things to just make the world a worst place, most notably creating Angular JS." hahahahah
On a related note, I'm not dating Angelina Jolie because she's not really my type. That's totally it.
agreed. me from south Asia, the same reason that's why am not dating Hollywood celebrities.
Guys there are other companies. There are more satisfying things you can do.
This but unironically. 90% of celebrities look ugly to me. Like, uncanny valley ugly.
But there are people who will say Angelina Jolie isn't their type
@@emilyau8023 I would have stayed with Jennifer Aniston
I think that one of things young people simply dont appreciate enough about FANG companies is the experience and lessons learned that you can just consume without effort. There is no compression algorithm for experience. And now multiply that by thousands of engineers. By working at FANG you do have a chance to tap into that knowledge, learn from what didn't work and experience that velocity of improvement powered by loads of smart humans. TLDR: there are far better things than free food at FANG
I work on a team at a FAANG with multiple coworkers with PHDs and senior and principal engineers who super smart and have been doing this stuff forever. I am learning way more than I did at my previous small company job. Hopefully the next job hop is easier for me too because I have the name on my resume now. I think it’s worth it.
I'm so happy I found you. I was dying within 30 seconds of this
I used to be MIT-sexual. Serious infatuation. Then I went there, got a degree, and the next five years felt like a walk of shame. During February.
Interesting 😂
I like how he singled out Google in the beginning as his least preferred option, and then towards the end he was mostly talking about how he was considering Google (mentioned by name)
There might be more than meets the eye :p
Thanks Ben, you always provide good entertainment while actually sparking meaningful and good discussion.
I saw the Software Engineering "Best Practices" video and I instantly subscribed, now I can't stop watching your videos. Good content and btw your code jokes are hilarious xd
Lmaooo that shots fired at angular
Brave coming-out video. Well done!
this is gold lol... it's crazy starting my engineering career in college first year i wanted to be at google and then i realized i didn't want to be at such a huge company where i'd just be another programmer. I'd rather start my own company or just work at smaller to midlevel companies until i could go off on my own
Am a CS student and this is the first time i watch your videos and MAN you just read my mind word for word! i'd rather do something that i enjoy and earn less or run my company and fai than to have more money and feel that my job is meaningless, count down the hours to go home or count down the days until the weekendl!It's really great to find someone whos not toxic and narcissistic on the tech YT.
He make AngularJs sound like Angular .
I am in my graduation and all my friends are like they have just one goal to work in faang. I have same thoughts like yours. Sometimes i feel i am an idiot who is not faang sexual but now i know its ok not to be a faang sexual. I have my goals just like yours and i am happy with them. Thank you for the motivation 😌
My favorite part: "I would much rather be the Noob in charge, making those bad decisions." This really resonated with me. From my experiences, people make bad decisions all the time. Or, worse, don't want to make the wrong decisions, so they end up not making any decisions at all. However, when these bad decisions are made, many people won't own them. They point fingers, make excuses, and find scapegoats. The cycle continues and crap products are the result. Thanks for this video.
I've worked at a start-up before with very young founders (like 3 YoE). It was an absolute nightmare. It really made me realize how good it is to have seasoned veterans at the helm and solid infrastructure around me.
Your humor is dead pan and subtle. I love it. it is sprinkled all over the place in this video with no hint.
"well, the search engine.... "
I feel you, bro!
This comes down to having your values in place which have allowed you to make some really good decisions.
A lot of us don't take the time to understand what's important to us as reflection requires time. It's just easier to go down the beaten path.
The irony when he now lives on youtube videos, so basically works for google.
"Best way I could prepare for starting a business is by starting a business" - I whole-heartedly agree with that, as someone who works as a SE in big tech, working at a big tech company definitely has its perks in terms of learning enterprise programming, constant exposure to new technologies and frameworks, but the most I've learnt for development and business was by creating one myself.
It's important to remember a software/SAAS company requires many more skills than just the development; I've found myself spending extensive time within marketing, ux design, networking, PR and more. While big tech can teach you how to code, it cant teach you these other lessons - you have to venture for yourself (and read some books)
Unless you're in a country where running a business is really expensive. Like, pay the amount of money I spend on rent in taxes, regardless of whether you made any money expensive.
im in the same boat! I have been laying low and doing QA-Automation for smaller companies, enough money to get by and enough free time for all my side projects
Once in a while yt algorithm suggested a really good content. I like your perspective. Thank you for sharing!
Totally agree about noobs in charge. It gets to the point where people who have zero understanding of software development get to be in charge of whole projects. HOW??
business and politics
Agree, it is hard to find a boss who will say hey I want this and go make it I don't care what tech you going to use.
Ben... awesome channel, you're the man-for real! Question.. can you do a video about your preferred design patterns/file structure for a large source code base? Very much appreciated! Keep up all the great work!
github.com/benawad/destiny
For some reason you've been popping out in my feed lately. I subscribed thanks to this video.
Agular 2+ (not really sure what's different in JS version) is one of the most robust frameworks imo. It's true it is not beginner friendly but once you overcome that part it becomes so satisfying.
angular is dead since V2
5:09-5:45 exactly man, to the point, this is my current situation right now
I never really cared about FAANG either.
I love how no one ever talks about Microsoft. The true tech giant. The reality is you are likely not the best dev in any large company. You don’t have enough experience.
The term FAANG is such obvious attempt to disregard Microsoft, it's hilarious.
Here's a shocker, no one is.
It's hard to get a job in massive companies without specialising, eg Java backend, JS frontend, Data Engineer etc. Projects are highly complex and full stack is ok up to a certain point.
Why I don't work at FANG?
A: because they didn't hire me.
These are the exact reason why I don't work as a 'Professional Developer'. I'd rather just build things I enjoy while risking everything. It actually makes for a very dramatic life.
You're basically just letting us all know that you could work at a fang company if you wanted to.
no he cant pass the interview there thats why hes hating FANG. special snowflake
@@tonskreee6213 I honestly think that he can pass the interview...I think that its just the point. Their asking you to complete a task that has nothing to do with your day to day work.
@@jonbee5782 technically maybe, but on social skills he is gonna have a very real problem.
@@jonbee5782 Look at his pathetic coding interview performance trying to invert a linked list. This guy can't pass the coding test, and he's complaining about technical interviews...
@@0114mercury if you have an inflated ego and poor core skills it's the obvious conclusion: "I'm God and yet I can't pass them, they must be flawed!"
Looking back at this a year later, I think you made the right choice ben
When did this hate for angular originate 😂😂
It's slow as fuck, mobile apps that use it and are complex run like ass. And to top it all off it has no backwards compatability. And then dependency injection, two way data binding, complicated debugging, and scope inheritance.
Honestly couldn't think of anything worse than working at FANG. You learn FAR faster in a small company/start up. Yes, it's a risk, but the advantage pay off 10 fold
Ex-* just lets me know you're living in the past. It's the software engineer version of talking about that one high school football game you scored the winning touchdown in all the time when you're 45.
oh really?
@@qwertypnk9401 ye, really
Did you even manage to get an interview at FANG?
I used to like TechLead when he was first starting out. Thought that he was funny with his sarcasm, but when he released more vids especially the one with his ex-wife, I started to question his mentality. I actually think that guy is a narcissist. I understand on making a video on your personal life and how that emotionally affects you, but his video rarely (or never) mentions the complex reason on why his wife left. I always believe there are 2 sides of the story, but he always presents it as 1 side in almost all his videos with/without the topic on his family. He might be good at what he does with programming, but he can't see his own flaws (and possibly his toxicity) and how that affects others
He is actually a blackmailer
I honestly never took to him. He’s got issues, thinks he’s above the cloud yet lonely and isolated. That type of person that has no one around because no one wants to be around him. Seeing himself on UA-cam with a crowd is his way of filling his void.
Guy who seeks attention on UA-cam might be a narcissist... what a shocker!
@@akbg There are some people on UA-cam whom generally want to help others like math or physics teachers (don't know what you call someone who teaches on UA-cam), but are not narcissists. There are others both in the Entertainment Industry and UA-cam who like to make people laugh and are not narcissists like Ben Awad or some comedians. The argument isn't that people who seek attention on UA-cam are narcissists, but based upon how they individually act towards others. TechLead does display narcissism, and possibly codependency, especially after his first ex-wife video bringing only one side to the reality of the situation. Yet, I have not seen any of his videos for a little over a year, and perhaps he has changed
@@blackcubes of course it doesn't follow automatically they are narcissist, but many of these software engineer dispensing tips on UA-cam seem to be more concerned in sounding smart than actually dispensing good content (this UA-camr included)
This video is a godsend, it confirms a lot of what I thought.
Folks do put FAANG on a ridiculous pedestal.
FAANG does pay the highest salaries, but there are plenty of companies that can pay almost as much or a pretty good amount.
People need to remember that FAANG companies are billion-dollar companies, so they have the capacity to pay engineers high salaries, however, they can also be very rigid and strict in how they do things.
For example, Netflix is opposed to remote work despite paying the highest salaries.
Working at FAANG can feel like having a rich but strict parent whereas smaller companies may not pay as much, but you have more freedom and flexibility.
Also the most interesting challenges are not necessarily at FAANG, which is another misconception. Like he said in the video, there are plenty of companies working on interesting things.
"It's a huge turn-off when I see the company doing so many things to just make the world a worst place" Lmao
this kind of talk resonates with me, and i dont work in tech, i work in other big companies and what you describe can be easily ported over. Im not so lucky, i decided to work for that particular company and my soul got grayed, if that makes sense. DONT GO WORK FOR THE BIG COMPANIES IF THEY DONT OFFER YOU WHAT YOU NEED and YOU ARE NOT THEIR TYPE OF EMPLOYEE!!!
Dude, this video is just great and sums up our industry perfectly 😆
I work for an enterprise as a software engineer. Not even a tech company. And this hits so hard... We use Spring and Angular...
Ben: Uploads video
Me an angular developer: 😬
Your wisdom exceeds your age. In 20 years your soul will still be intact.
"most notably, angular JS"
To be fair, as a SE in a SME (
Is love a coding job where I can code on my own schedule, that’d be awesome. But I’m also down for those 3 days a week type of jobs where I’d be free to work on my own projects too
One advantage of Google: you'll be working with systems of enormous scale. Hard to do it elsewhere. Not saying it's super important to learn some skills in that area, but it's certainly illuminating.