There are only two ways to ascend economically. Find a growth area and bootstrap a business (lending to yourself to capture more market share before others) or chasing risk taking investors.
What is happening is a huge ecosystem based around chasing California style VC risk takers is getting less water and it's starting to dry out at the edges.
But chasing local growth has never been easier thanks to the legacy from the California VC ecosystem. One or two persons with knowledge of programming and networking (and some old timey human networking) can now easily throw services at a local big city market and see what sticks.
If you’re making as much or more than a medical doctor, should you really complain if your comp is flat?
I’m in that boat, and my comp was more or less flat this year, as was most of the company. I’m overjoyed and ecstatic and thankful to be making this much.
But some of my colleagues are furious and upset. C’mon, really?
I guess if you’ve been making FAANG comp all your career, you have no experience making anything less? Versus if you’re coming from the non tech world where a senior or staff SWE will retire in their 60s making about as much as a FAANG junior SWE, you have a lot more to be thankful for.
The employment market is very much a free market system right now. There is enough supply to meet the current demand and keep the existing inflated salaries. We seem to have reached an equilibrium.
There are plenty of free markets with indirect forced participation. The freedom doesn't come from choice to participate but rather choice of who to engage with and competition.
What is happening is a huge ecosystem based around chasing California style VC risk takers is getting less water and it's starting to dry out at the edges.
But chasing local growth has never been easier thanks to the legacy from the California VC ecosystem. One or two persons with knowledge of programming and networking (and some old timey human networking) can now easily throw services at a local big city market and see what sticks.