Startups offer pretty good compensation for folks who lack the ability to pass a FAANG interview. Folks lacking traditional CS backgrounds but with an actually high level of skill for writing software, specifically web software, tend to be over-represented in this group.
A lot of the downsides of startups people mentioned here are 100% true. If you didn't study CS in college though, consider the hours of reading Cracking the Coding Interview you'd have to do and divide those hours by your FAANG comp, and you might come out with an equal or slightly higher hourly rate going the startup route. And your interview process might be a lot less stressful.
A lot of the downsides of startups people mentioned here are 100% true. If you didn't study CS in college though, consider the hours of reading Cracking the Coding Interview you'd have to do and divide those hours by your FAANG comp, and you might come out with an equal or slightly higher hourly rate going the startup route. And your interview process might be a lot less stressful.