Why Should You NOT Work in Big Tech? Beware of this Trap.

We all know landing a gig at these large companies can be great for your career as a developer, but what are the downsides?

The biggest risk I see is what many refer to as wearing "golden handcuffs."

The idea is simple: the more you get paid, the harder it is to justify leaving such a high-paying opportunity for something "riskier", like a startup. Higher salaries can make you feel financially obligated to stick with your job, even if it no longer aligns with your career's optimal growth trajectory.

Sounds like a good problem to have though, right? Can you really get paid too much money?

To understand what the real cost is to your own career, we have to understand what Steven Bartlett calls, "The 5 Buckets of Success."

Each of the 5 buckets represents an area of potential investment in yourself and your career: Knowledge, Skills, Network, Resources, and Reputation. The order of these buckets matters, because the filling of each bucket will in turn spill over to help fill up the next.

The story goes something like this:

The more knowledge you have, the easier it will be to apply that knowledge in the form of skills. The more skills you have, the more value you can offer to other people, hence the bigger your network will become. The bigger your network becomes, the more resources you'll have at your disposal. And the more resources you have, the greater a reputation you'll develop for how you grow, maintain and allocate those resources.

A shrewd observer will notice 1 key insight:

The buckets toward the beginning of this sequence represent higher leverage investments, due to the spillover effect they can have on subsequent buckets. The more knowledge and skills you obtain, the easier it will be to expand your network, acquire more resources, and develop an influential reputation.

From this observation we can already see where certain big tech roles might lead you astray, by focusing your attention on buckets further down the chain, rather than optimizing the rate at which you're filling the first two.

"Wait wait wait," I hear you asking, "are you saying that earning a cushy 6-figure salary today could actually impede my ability to earn 7+ figures down the road?"

It depends. The golden handcuffs might be helping you fill up the resources bucket more quickly than many of your peers. On paper, it seems like you're coming out ahead.

BUT. If those handcuffs are chaining you to a job that has slowed your rate of acquiring new knowledge and skills, then in the long run, your role might be hamstringing your career growth and future earning potential.

There's one more catch.

At any point, things well outside of our control can meaningfully impact our professional and personal lives. You might break your leg in a skiing accident (been there), get laid off, or buy a house just before the 2008 recession.

When these events happen, the final three buckets can be depleted or even emptied in the blink of an eye. But your knowledge and skills can't be taken away from you, meaning they're practically risk-free investments. Their only potential downside is the opportunity cost of investing in them differently.

So what can YOU do to ensure that golden handcuffs aren't holding you back?

First, you must regularly evaluate your job to determine if it's continually offering meaningful learning opportunities. If not, and you find that your knowledge and skills are stagnating, then it might be time to look for something new.

Second, you must live well below your means, so that lifestyle creep doesn't strengthen the grip of those golden handcuffs, making it even more difficult to prioritize investments into your knowledge and skills over time.

Do you agree? Let me know if you see these buckets differently, or if there's another career risk worth calling out about working in big tech. I'm always eager to learn. 🙂

P.S. I just started reading Steven Bartlett's book, The Diary of a CEO, after being a fan of his podcast for many months now. He talks about The 5 Buckets of Success in the very first chapter. If you're a Spotify Premium subscriber, you can access the audiobook for free here.

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