Conflicted about my FAANG work place

> However I don’t look forward to what do at work

Why not?

>I know rsijg up at my current job to a Leadership role would get me to financial independence but I just don’t see the path.

Why don't you see a path?

How long can you support your family without a job?

I don't think the choice is that stark. Working at a small startup can be great; you can get a real salary (not 350k, but you can clear 200, let's say, given your experience), and you won't have to deal with a lot of the negatives that can come with working at a big company.

Assuming you make $0 in income, what kind of runway do you have?

I think an important question here is: why do you think that joining/founding a startup will be any different? If you were actively trying to take initiative at your current position and being rebuffed (which certainly can happen in FAANG and other large companies) I could understand why you'd feel that way, but it sounds like you haven't tried, and I'm skeptical that a change of jobs will suddenly inspire you to be more ambitious.

Not from a FANG background but was in a high paying senior role before taking the plunge to start a startup ~6 years ago. Also sole earner. I made the decision to do it as I genuinely loved the problem space, building things and had enough savings to take a chance on building something big. I also am less risk adverse than average (and perhaps what is sensible).

I think if your goal is financial independence at this stage, founding a startup is a poor strategy. Perhaps lowing your cost of living somehow and looking at traditional investments to bulk up savings would be a better option. To combat the boredom you could look for a high paid job in a more interesting large company. Or, experiment with side projects and see how you go. Obviously your chances of success are lower when you don't go "all-in", but it gives you a taste of entrepreneurship.

With that sort of income you should not have this level of anxiety about your options, you should have plenty in the bank to play startup with, fail, and reenter the traditional job market having learned your lesson: with padding to spare.

Id start by seriously reconsidering your finances. If you make all the money, you call all the shots, your three dependents all on a free ride need to respect that. Furthermore- “family of 4 that I support with my income alone” - barring the case that you have an infant, your partner should be pulling more weight, too. Single income households are not feasible in California without major compromise: and that major compromise is currently occurring at your expense

Hmm, if you have been working for 20 years and you're at FAANG making $350k/yr, how come you aren't close to financial independence? Sure, the bay area is expensive, but not that expensive. Have you joined your current company only very recently?

IMHO, financial independence does not mean "Having a fuck-you money to do whatever I want, whenever I do." It's more about managing your own expectation.

Not a FAANG person, but have done a start up. I think a good rule of doing a start up is “ only do it if you must do it” what is meant by that is your passion for the problem you are trying to solve needs to be obsession level. That is generally needed to invest the level of work that success requires and sustain the level of pain required to survive. Wanting to get rich can be a strong motive for people but I think it would need to be coupled with a burning need to address the problem for a start up to have much of a chance.

I’m in a similar position, albeit no dependents.

I don’t see myself getting promoted to leadership because software is generally extremely uninteresting to me. My goal is to just work and save as much as possible for as long as I can until I can retire (relatively young) or work on side projects and hopefully eventually monetize.

Don’t know if this helps, but you definitely aren’t the only person feeling this way.

I am partially in similar situation, maybe the hard questions for you to decide are what if even you get promoted will you enjoy your day to day work? If the money is good to pay the bills and as you said family is priority then you should continue for more to accumulate savings. I am sure there are many people who work very hard and don't even reach to the figures/lifestyle you have, so take day job as your income generation and start using free time to explore if you do have passion for something which can lead to financial independence.

Most of the successful people had some passion/skills which they could monetize but if you start looking for options to just earn money then eventually you would still land in same situation where you don't enjoy what you do but it pays the bills.

How much freedom do you have at work? Is there something that stops you from learning/exploring new things besides boredom?

Also, regarding creating your own startup, do you have any VC friends? How would you like to get funding for it? Network is important.

Not quite like your situation, left a comfortable office job to start my own..

Both can be boring. Solo can be boring when the thrill wears off and becomes a grind.

A lot of my team switched product areas when they needed to spice things up. They had a wide range of years on my team, from 2 to 10 years, and AFAIK there was no stigma attached to it. Have you considered that? If you are an IC, they might have some small project in mind for you to test the waters that it's a good fit. Maybe your manager is giving you the run around because there is just not much growth available in your area. Generally managers _want_ to promote because it makes them more important.

Do you have meetings with your skip manager? It sounds like your manager is not going to bat for you. I have had to drive my own promotions at various times in my career. I am not interested in leadership though, and that's a pretty different skill set. If that's of interest, you may need to actually cut things that don't better demonstrate that skill as best you can.

Do you have a FIRE number? I won't be leaving this cushy gig until I hit my number, but I do have a number. It has helped me time box my working career. I don't really need to be above-and-beyond satisfied with my job because that's not why I am working. I do get that being interested in the work helps the time pass, but IMO that's a double edged sword. People that care too much tend to get sucked into more responsibilities, which in turn can cause a brittle team dynamic with too much landing on one person. Of course experience and personalities vary.

For me, I would easily get obsessive if I were to start my own company and it would not be in a healthy way. I have also had too many friends try the startup route and really paid the price in a stagnated career. With a clear path to FIRE it's just not worth the risk IMO. I have family and plenty of hobbies to enjoy my time until then.

Good luck!

You could get your MBA. It would help with getting promoted, and with operating a startup.

There’s some science behind leadership. It’s not an ability you need to be born with, and it doesn’t matter if you’re introverted or extroverted.

Jumping into a startup is taking a big chance. I did it and spent everything I had. You could try a side project, and if it gets some traction, look for investors. Then think about quitting your FAANG job.

If you’re looking for some more meaningful work, see if your company has 20% time. Then you can work on something because you like it, not because you have to.

Life is too short to do something you don't like. Start your own thing on the side for a while and if it looks promising (hits a $ threshold) put in your notice at work.

It's exactly what I did and I have never looked back (going on 7 years now).

$350k a year is an absolutely massive amount, even assuming you have nothing (no savings/equity) at the moment, you could achieve financial indepdenence within just a couple of years, if you make some lifestyle adjustments.

For starters, check out this blog: https://earlyretirementextreme.com/.

It's written by a guy who achieved FI within just 5 years of making $80k a year. Granted, he didn't have kids, but you're making over 4x as much as he was.

You don’t need to quit your job to start a company.

I'm not Faang but I am OG SV and the problem with a lot of these large, very flat companies is that once you reach a certain level you are stuck and it really takes an ask of god to get a promotion. That said we're paid well and the job is a place where you can stay for a decade or two if you want. As far as doing your own thing, have you talked to your partner about this? When I was young and trying to make a lot of money quickly my now wife was happy to work a steady job and provide the health insurance while I chased startup after startup. In the event that one of those startup took an unexpected crash she could cover the bills. If I was the sole source of income I likely would have taken a much safer route, taking care of my family is my priority, making a killing is nice but not required. If I were you I'd stay at your well paying job and see what you can do during your free time, when you get to the point where you can no longer do both then quit but until then you'll have an income -I had a business once where for the first three years we didn't break even so I'd be the boss during the day and then go baby sit a data center for the second shift, it was how my employees got paid, as a business owner you do what you have to do to keep the doors open.