Interesting projects. Pushing your code to a billion users. TC in the $500k-$1MM range.
I would really encourage people that don't mind big companies to study for the interviews and just get the job. I promise you that you'll someday run into the algorithms questions you studied in real life. And you'll grow your software engineering career and make a lot of money. Dismissively writing it off feels cool, but you're really missing out on a good experience.
(I don't work for a FAANG anymore, but I did once, and it was fun. Super smart coworkers. Interesting work. Great pay.)
Not unless you managed to get hired as a (quant) trader with a performance fee. Privatized gains, shared losses. Of course, it's very hard to get hired for such a role.
I have a ton of friends in finance. Many worked for the most prestigious IB firms out of undergrad and moved on to PE/hedge funds where they make mountains of cash. I don't know 1 of them who has even considered retiring anywhere close to 35, nor of anyone in their professional networks who've done so. Not saying its impossible but the likelihood of doing so is vanishingly small.
