from Gergely Orosz | by Gergely Orosz

FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) came about purely with regards to total compensation. ~2014 onwards these companies paid the most TC, in a large part thanks to large stock grants & stock 📈. There are still few places you can make so much with so little risk. t.co/bGuKpfU3Aw

There are plenty of places where as an eng you could outperform total compensation packages of FANG: most notably recently IPO’d companies (eg Doordash, Robolox, Coinbase, Robinhood etc) or when joining companies with good timing (eg Snap). You had to take more risks for these.

I also feel FAANG is overhyped especially for new grads who desperately want to get in and somehow this naming fuels it’s own “myth”. Professional growth-wise there are so many comparable places - with less competition to get in, similar cultures and compensation.

Other abbreviations that never stuck: PAULS: Pinterest, Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Stripe. ~2017 was expected they can beat FAANG total compensation after they IPO. FAANGMULA - adding Microsoft, Uber, Lyft, Airbnb around 2018 (similar expectations). U & L fell short on expectations.