It's honestly not that hard to work at these firms as long as you let go of any sense of self and adhere to the dog and pony show of algorithm interviews. After that, your chances of employment are mostly a lottery, which you will eventually win if you're good at the show.
If money is important to you, do it. The sacrifices you'll generally make:
- you'll need to work on POCs (new products) in your off-time. Most of these companies don't schedule innovation.
- promotions are based on project delivery and impact within huge orgs, which makes it more hard.
- you'll probably run through a number of teams before you find one you like. Colleagues are generally good, management is lackluster, and execs are mostly poor. There are exceptions. I found a place where management and execs are great, but I'm not sold that this paradigm will endure.
If money is important to you, do it. The sacrifices you'll generally make:
- you'll need to work on POCs (new products) in your off-time. Most of these companies don't schedule innovation.
- promotions are based on project delivery and impact within huge orgs, which makes it more hard.
- you'll probably run through a number of teams before you find one you like. Colleagues are generally good, management is lackluster, and execs are mostly poor. There are exceptions. I found a place where management and execs are great, but I'm not sold that this paradigm will endure.