One thing I've seen smaller companies do some times to attract the same type of talent from FAANG is to bump up the level of candidates. So L5 (or whatever equivalent) at FAANG would go in at L6 or L7 and get a pay bump that way that's somewhat close to FAANG comp levels.
This would be a ridiculous trap, but some people do find titles to be important, so I guess its fine if they're attracted to jobs that can't pay enough but make up for it with inflated levels.
I get the impulse behind trying to level employees but it always seemed ridiculous to me. Either you care about it enough to game it (which is pretty easy to do) or you don't an you just do what you think is important to you and your team and it works out... so you level up by accident.
This is actually a huge reason I don't like bigger companies. There is so much emphasis on Seniority, Levels etc. Its complete bullshit. You see people game the system, rise to the top, get all kinds of bullshit honors for doing bullshit things. Meanwhile the grunts doing all the actual work and innovating like crazy are just happy to make the higher ups look good in front of _their_ peers and don't really give a shit about the product or the market.... its a vicious, self-sustaining and self-dealing beast.
At these big tech companies, your level is not just a puffy title. Within whatever your current level is, there is not much opportunity for compensation growth. L+1 usually represents a large leap in compensation, which explains the emphasis on it.
Nobody leaves FAANG1 for FAANG2 to simply get a title bump. They leave to get the level bump which sometimes means +20%, +50% or even +100% in terms of total comp.
I think you’ve illustrated perfectly the phenomenon I describe.
Levels are fictional rat races designed to keep the rats working hard in hopes of “making it” without necessarily having achieved anything of substance.
Your counter argument is that they’re not just titles but have associated compensation components .... great. Doesn’t mean that you’ve accomplished anything significant at all. And now that these levels are normalized across companies, the only thing employees care for is leveling up, who gives a shit about whether you’re really learning or making a difference.
Unless you’re assumption is that levels are more than just a financial totem pole but an accurate representation of skills and accomplishments. I think that’s what they aspire to be but are not so in practice.
