There is a valid criticisms against FAANG companies but I also think if you are in the right groups you get to work with some of the smartest people in the industry. Before boomeranging back to my company, I worked at a startup for 18 months which sounded promising on paper, and the reality was the absolute opposite of it. I spent 80% of time dealing with overtly sensitive engineers, PMs and other people in the company. The whole time I was there I felt like I was walking on eggshells, and absolutely nothing got done because everyone seemed to be on edge of blowing up all the time, in the name of DEI and umm, wokeness. I couldnt get ONE fucking thing launched in the company because of the sensitive babies at work who needed so much mollycoddling and hand holding it felt like I was in a fucking toddler day care. So when I came back it was refreshing that I could be… myself and get shit done. Everyone’s got a job to do, we are blunt with our feedback, there’s no hard feelings at end of the day, and at the end of it all I was able to a launch something with 5x less engineers than I had at the startup. What a fucking relief.