When I started working at one of the Big Four tech companies – namely Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google – my compensation more than doubled.
People around me told me I was lucky.
And I did feel lucky – what’s not to like? One, I was working with a team full of smart people. Two, I was building a stellar addition to my resume as a calling card for future employers. And, maybe the most important reason: I was enjoying a generous salary bump. When living and working in the most expensive city in the country, this was more than welcome.
I never expected that several years later, I would reconsider working for one of the tech giants to be the ultimate goal in my career.
Despite what many people believe, working in Big Tech is not some workplace utopia, nor will it provide a magical financial panacea that will shower everyone with life-changing money.
Here are some of the money lessons I have learned from working at one of the biggest tech companies today:
After you reach a point of financial stability, you will feel unhappy if your job is misaligned with your values and priorities.
When I was starting out my career, I didn’t consciously think about what my core values were. I was living and working in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the United States. All I could think about was how much I would be paid, because the next thing that I thought about was how much everything cost.
So when I landed a job offer that almost doubled my salary, it was a no brainer. I accepted the job simply due to the money and opportunity (to make more money). That was my entire compass.
I spent the next couple of years building up both my resume and net worth. Although I was starting to make a comfortable living, even in a city with a very high cost of living, I began to feel a sense of growing disconnect.
At first, I was in denial of this shift. After all, I was being paid much better than I ever had before. I enjoyed perks like free meals, snacks, transportation, and wellness stipends. All my friends and family thought I couldn’t find a better company.
So what gives?
The Lesson: Before you meet a baseline where certain needs are assured, it makes sense that you would be motivated mostly by money and focused on financial stability. But once you reach that level, you will not feel fulfilled if you are ignoring your values and priorities.
My core values are freedom, connection, and balance. But until recently, I couldn’t even articulate what my values were. I just knew when things felt off.
Unlike my previous roles, this was the first job where I was unable to unplug from work after I left the office. As with any thriving industry, tech attracts ambitious, hypercompetitive high performers doing whatever it takes to climb the corporate ladder. I found my teammates working and communicating with the team late into the evening, into the wee hours of the morning, on the weekends, and while they were “on vacation”. Mirroring the expectations from management and tone at the top, I found myself doing the very same.
So while I had more money, I was also thinking about work more than ever. Work and work-related stress were filtering into my personal life, causing me to neglect my sleep, my health, and my relationships with my friends and family. This was the total opposite of freedom, balance, and connection.
Aaaaand, that was the problem
What I realized was that after you meet a financial baseline, work doesn’t always have to be about the money anymore. In fact, if the ultimate goal of money is to be able to live the life that you want, you are going against that principle if you are sacrificing your values and priorities when you no longer need to.
From the outside, a job with a Big 4 Tech company could look like an incredible opportunity and the answer to success. It’s a job a million folks would kill for – or so I’ve been told many times by my well meaning friends and family. But if your values and priorities aren’t aligned, then it may not be the best choice for you in the long run, no matter how shiny it may look.
The real money in tech is in the equity
As they say, the real money in tech is in the equity. When you hear stories of people making millions in Silicon Valley, they are usually founders or early employees with significant ownership in a startup. Against all odds, these people go through a successful exit and end up with life changing money.
As warm and fuzzy as these Hollywood-esque stories are, these are NOT the norm.
While you may hear some pretty crazy compensation numbers for tech companies shared on Reddit or Blind, these are usually reserved for certain departments, teams, and levels. You are looking at the narrow slice of the top salaries of the top paying roles of the top paying tech companies in a top paying city. The higher up you are on the totem pole, or the more valuable you are considered in the hierarchy of teams, the more equity you will receive. Executives, for example, may see 90%+ of their compensation in equity.
Such equity is not available or not significant for many. If you are in a senior contributor role in teams such as HR, Finance, or Customer Support, you probably aren’t seeing much equity, especially compared to those in Engineering, Product, or upper management. When most of your compensation is in base salary, the upside is extremely limited by company leveling guidelines and salary bands.
The growth in FAANG (Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix Google) stocks in the past few years has really shown how valuable it is to have significant equity. A salary alone will not make you rich. But ownership is the real x-factor when it comes to generating income and building wealth, as that is where you enjoy unlimited upside.
The real power of money is in the freedom and choices it affords you
When you are working for a tech company, you still do not enjoy the luxury of freedom and optionality in the truest sense.
Like most workers, you are still location dependent and restricted to an office. You have to adhere to certain working hours and do not have full control over your daily schedule. If you go through health issues, family emergencies, or bereavement, you will still be facing pressure to forgo the time you need to get back to work. Chances are, you will not be able to take as long of a vacation as you would like.
This is all to say that despite the uptick in salary, you still don’t enjoy control over your time.
The enthusiastic response of many employees to remote working during the pandemic has shown that flexibility and added control of your time are luxuries that we have lived too long without. Many people see that as a huge benefit that trumps free lunches or ping pong tables.
To truly get in the same mindset as those who have optionality over their time, we need to reframe our end goal as becoming part of the owner class, rather than moving up classes that are defined by income.
The owner class is made up of people who own assets that generate income for them. These people own significant stock, rental properties, intellectual property, and businesses, just to name a few. The owner class do not need to trade their time and labor for money, unless they want to.
The Lesson: the endgame is not to end up in the so-called “model” of the corporate workplace. Rather, it’s that when you trade your time for money, your ultimate goal is to convert as much of it as you can to income generating assets. When you reach a point where your assets can generate enough money for you to live off of, that is when you have ultimate financial freedom.
As Warren Buffet says: “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”
You want to stop being the worker bee without the power of freedom and options, always being compelled to trade your time for money. Even if you’re at a “cushy” tech company.