Anyone else feels like the 'golden age' of Software Engineering, with $100k sign-on bonus out of college, is coming to an end?

If you are in school it seems now better to just become a founder/creator than aiming for FAANG

building far.quest & @wieldlabs.eth. cofounder at miy.com ventures. FID #274. Previously Square/Cash App. https://hiimnico.xyz/

I graduated 1.5 years ago and I can tell you that FAANGs still pay 99% better than other jobs, also offering H1B sponsorship.

Sign on bonuses are a bit lower but still significant

🕯️They/them. Scaled cos from 0-$300k in arr, 7-35 employees, 0-100k users. Now I make beautiful, functional, and ethically made candles at humankind.place

You had way better upward mobility at FAANG, but not anymore. aside from Visa issues, the payoff is now significantly higher as a founder. 

Hence if you are smart & ambitious you should have less fomo about the 'big tech salary'

I think a lot of people who are smart and ambitious would make great founders. But I also find that many people attracted to FAANG roles are looking for a comfortable lifestyle, and a bit risk averse. 

How would you quantify better payoff as a founder?

I think there was an era where you had a hard time choosing between big tech and founder because of the perceived social prestige, high upward mobility (fast promotion) & low risk

but now the promo is slow, risk is high with layoffs & prestige seems to be dimming. Hopefully the choice becomes clearer.