
Ask HN: Startups on hiring Big Tech engineers - causehealth101
While I see it&#x27;s common for startups to prefer hiring those with prior startup experience, what has your experience been with engineers from Big Tech (e.g. FANG)?
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giantg2
I've heard a couple stories that seem to make sense which boil down to
compensation or ideals.

If you are highly compensated and in a stable FANNG position, startups might
not be attractive due to instability. There can also be some bias. For an
example, people who want to work for startups would probably be working at one
already, or be an entrepreneur. Obviously there can be exceptions.

The biggest factor will be if the person believes in the startup's
idea/product. This can be them wanting a smaller company where they have more
control, wanting to help a cause, wanting to work that concept/product, or
wanting equity in the company that could be worth a lot.

Without those sorts of motivations, it can be hard for some startups to
compete with FANNG on pay, benefits, and stability.

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causehealth101
Interesting.

What I'm most curious about is the Hiring Manager's POV. Do they, in fact,
even want FAANG engineers?

Money aside for a moment, do startups require too much of a transition in
culture (small, fast & unpredictable) or skills (more generalist & unsiloed)
for FAANG engineers to perform successfully?

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giantg2
I don't know about those points.

I remember a well publicized story that talked about a startup trying to poach
a google engineer (they offered him $1M but he turned it down because Google
was paying $3M). So I guess some startups want them depending on the skillset
or reputation.

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quickthrower2
Funny because you poach the Google engineer, and probably they are hamstrung
because the startup doesn't have Google's infrastructure. E.g. you are stuck
with Kubernetes, not whatever Google now uses. I could understand maybe
Microsoft poaching for the long term brain dump value.

~~~
giantg2
I think they were headhunting him because he had a reputation for being
excellent in a technology that wasn't specific to Google. He definitely wasn't
just an average employee (Google was paying $3M/yr!).

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gshdg
Some have been great; some have been awful. The lifers are incapable of
thinking for themselves or working without someone else creating structure for
them. Or are way too specialized for a startup.

With shorter tenured engineers who’ve never worked outside a larger company,
watch out for over-engineering. But those who are comfortable launching non-
terascale solutions to non-terascale problems can typically adapt well.

People who have gone back and forth often have a good perspective and are
great to work with!

