Which transactional in-house gig would have better QOL/pay -- FAANG/bigtech or IB? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 5th year making some strategic decisions re: bailing from biglaw and want to get a better sense of which industry is likely to suck less/pay more. Would love to hear any insights anyone has

[Anonymous User]

Bumping because interested to see these exit options compared head-to-head

[uncle_rico]

What practice group are you in OP?

[Anonymous User]

What practice group are you in OP?

OP here. I'm in lender-side finance.

[Anonymous User]

As far as I have heard, QoL varies a lot between the different FAANG companies and within big tech generally. Eg, Amazon has a reputation as an awful place to work, but Google has a reputation as a good place to be a lawyer. My sense is FAANG pays something like $275k salary, $325-350k all-in for mid/early senior associates, but there are a lot more data points if you search this site.

I work at a tech company with ~$100 billion market cap in a specialty role, and my starting salary leaving as a 5th year associate was ~$200k cash, $250k/yr all in including RSUs/bonus. (It has ended up being worth a lot more because tech stock has done amazingly this year, but you can’t assume that.) The job is super chill, genuine 9-5 in terms of actual hours worked.

Can’t speak to IB, but can’t imagine the QoL is better than tech on average.

[Anonymous User]

As far as I have heard, QoL varies a lot between the different FAANG companies and within big tech generally. Eg, Amazon has a reputation as an awful place to work, but Google has a reputation as a good place to be a lawyer. My sense is FAANG pays something like $275k salary, $325-350k all-in for mid/early senior associates, but there are a lot more data points if you search this site.

I work at a tech company with ~$100 billion market cap in a specialty role, and my starting salary leaving as a 5th year associate was ~$200k cash, $250k/yr all in including RSUs/bonus. (It has ended up being worth a lot more because tech stock has done amazingly this year, but you can’t assume that.) The job is super chill, genuine 9-5 in terms of actual hours worked.

Can’t speak to IB, but can’t imagine the QoL is better than tech on average.

Did you learn everything on the job like biglaw or are actual skills required on day 1?

[Anonymous User]

As far as I have heard, QoL varies a lot between the different FAANG companies and within big tech generally. Eg, Amazon has a reputation as an awful place to work, but Google has a reputation as a good place to be a lawyer. My sense is FAANG pays something like $275k salary, $325-350k all-in for mid/early senior associates, but there are a lot more data points if you search this site.

I work at a tech company with ~$100 billion market cap in a specialty role, and my starting salary leaving as a 5th year associate was ~$200k cash, $250k/yr all in including RSUs/bonus. (It has ended up being worth a lot more because tech stock has done amazingly this year, but you can’t assume that.) The job is super chill, genuine 9-5 in terms of actual hours worked.

Can’t speak to IB, but can’t imagine the QoL is better than tech on average.

Did you learn everything on the job like biglaw or are actual skills required on day 1?

My Biglaw job was about a third focused on the specialty area, so I definitely came in with a lot of substantive knowledge, and that was necessary to get hired. For something more generalist, like product counsel/AGC, it’s inevitable that there will be big chunks of the job you haven’t dealt with before, though, if you’re getting hired straight from a firm.