Inside the Culture of the Top Tech Companies

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In my previous post titled “Salaries for Software Engineers are On FIRE!” I compared the compensation packages for the top high-tech companies. However, high compensation is not the only reason to join a specific company. In this post I will provide a detailed comparison of the culture in the top tech companies (FAANGM: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google, Microsoft). As I discussed in my previous post, my suggestion to Software Engineers in order to maximize their income is to work in a top-paying tech company. The goal of this post is to help find the best corporate fit based on each person’s criteria.

The content of this post is based on my own experiences, as well as on discussions with my contacts in each company.

If you are interested in following my career path, then you can also look at my other posts:

• My Experience As A Microsoft Software Engineer: A Deep Dive
• My Experience As An Amazon Product Manager: A Deep Dive
• My Experience As A Microsoft Product Manager: A Deep Dive
• My Experience As A Google Technical Program Manager: Full Story
• Google vs Amazon vs Microsoft PM Roles: A Deep Dive
• Salaries for Software Engineers are On FIRE!

Corporate culture matters. How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything – for better or for worse.

Simon Sinek

Comparison matrix

	FB	Amazon	Apple	Netflix	Google	Microsoft
Work-life Balance (average)	Not Good	Not Good	Not Good	Not Good	Great	Great
High PIP Rate	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Market pay percentile	90%	75%	75%	95%	80-85%	60-65%
Stock Refresher	High	Low	High	None	High	Low
Bottom-up decisions	Top-down	Top-down	Top-down	Yes	Yes, eng- driven	Top- down
Internal information flow	High	Low	Low	Low	High	High
Food	Free	None	Sub-sidized	Free	Free	Sub-sidized
Promotions	Fast (Up-or-out)	Fast	Slow	No promos	Slow	Slow
Mega backdoor Roth	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
401k match	50% (up to 7% of pay)	3-year vest period 50% (up to 4% of pay)	50% (up to 6% of pay)	100% (up to 4% of pay)	50% (up to $9k) or 100% (up to $3k)	50% (up to $9k)
ESPP	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes

In summary

• Facebook
  • Pros: Great pay, “move fast and break things” mentality
  • Cons: Up-or-out culture, high PIP rate
• Amazon
  • Pros: Good pay for those who stay 4+ years, great stock growth, fast promotions
  • Cons: Bad work-life balance, competitive culture, high PIP rate, high attrition, most sign-on RSUs vesting on 3rd and 4th year of employment (vesting schedule: 5%/15%/40%/40% each year), 401k match vests only after 3 years, salary capped at $160k, Total Compensation Target (TCT) means that performance refreshers might be minimal/zero for high performers due to increases in the stock price that was awarded
• Apple
  • Pros: Good pay
  • Cons: Secretive culture, bad work-life balance
• Netflix
  • Pros: Top-of-the-market compensation (cash-only), bottoms-up culture
  • Cons: Bad work-life balance, high PIP rate
• Google
  • Pros: Great pay, great work-life balance, engineering-driven bottoms-up culture
  • Cons: Slow promotions
• Microsoft
  • Pros: Great work-life balance (also known as the “country club”)
  • Cons: Low pay, slow promotions

Additional information

1. Benefits comparison
   • Levels.fyi: Detailed comparison for all the benefits of the biggest tech companies
2. Facebook
   • CNBC: Inside Facebook’s ‘cult-like’ workplace, where dissent is discouraged and employees pretend to be happy all the time
   • Forbes: What You Can Learn From The Facebook Culture Crisis?
3. Amazon
   • New York Times: Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace
   • FACE of Amazon: Hundreds of personal stories from mistreated Amazon employees
   • TeamBlind: How performance refreshers work at Amazon
4. Apple
   • Vox: How I survived and thrived in Apple’s legendary environment of super-secrecy
   • Business Insider: Apple employees break their vow of secrecy to describe the best — and worst — things about working for Apple
5. Netflix
   • Netflix: Official description of the corporate culture, as conceived by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and HR chief Patty McCord.
   • The Week: Netflix’s “Culture of Fear”
   • Wall Street Journal: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
6. Google
   • Investopedia: Top 10 reasons to work at Google
7. Microsoft
   • Happymillfam: Guide for the maximization of all the monetary benefits that are provided to Microsoft employees
   • Teino Boswell: Comprehensive list of all the Microsoft benefits

Interview preparation guides

If you are interested in switching to a higher-paying role, then you will find lots of great information in the following interview preparation guides:

• How to Prepare for Software Engineering Interviews
• How to Prepare for Product Manager Interviews
• How to Prepare for Technical Program Manager Interviews