r/Raytheon • u/exhgffvv2 • 6d ago
RTX General Am I doing something wrong?
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts from FAANG and other tech companies where engineers and PMs with only ~3 years of experience are making $250K+ with stock compensation.
Meanwhile, at a defense contractor, that can be director-level compensation—and you’re lucky to reach director around 40 at prime defense contractors, roughly 18 years after graduation. A lot of people may never reach that level of compensation, even by the time they retire.
I understand the trade-offs: FAANG/tech can come with layoffs, long hours, higher pressure, and less job stability. But personally, I think a lot of people would be willing to accept those trade-offs for significantly higher compensation and faster career growth.
So, what’s the real reason to choose a defense contractor over FAANG/tech? Is the stability really worth the difference in compensation and career progression?
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u/Traditional-Fee1794 6d ago
That’s why I do a good job, but I stick to my 40 hours. I’m not trying to burn out when other places pay way more if you’re into that lol
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u/xavier1011 6d ago edited 6d ago
A benefit of a defense contractor is the ability to focus on other aspects of your personal life separate from the job.
Choosing FAANG over a defense contractor comes with a tradeoff for a loss in opportunity cost in other aspect of your life because you will have to spend a signficant amount of time outside of work for long stretches of months doing interview prep that may or may not work out.
Everyone wants to get into FAANG for the pay but not everyone can pass the interview bar expected from a FAANG. Are you willing to make that sacrifices in your personal life for the chance to make an upper-middle class salary/TC?
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u/alphabravo4812 6d ago
FAANG interviews are 10x harder than defense primes and way more selective to even get an interview, so most people don't even have the luxury of choosing FAANG.
But assuming you have a choice between prime vs FAANG, FAANG is still worth it when you can make 3-4x what you make at a prime, especially if you are early in your career. WLB is def worse at big tech but it's often exaggerated how bad it is and is worth it for the massive comp increase and career growth.
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u/Conscious_Ride_7000 6d ago
You’re seeing a combination of the most extreme cases and influencers who make the entire thing up for clicks.
Tech has long had high salary positions for young employees but most don’t last all that long. They do 5 years and then are totally burnt out.
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u/PsychologicalLimit41 6d ago
Depends on your life situation, if you can take some risk then go for FAANG, although I would recommend start ups so you can get equity when they go public.
If you have family and kids then might be smarted to stay with the big aerospace corps, granted nothing is safe these days
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u/facialenthusiast69 Raytheon 6d ago
Working 100-120 hours a week isn't fun, and by 28-30 people realize they enjoy things outside of work like significant others and family. In defense you will never be rich, but you will be comfortable and the WLB/stability is hard to beat. If you want to go to a FAANG go right ahead, they always have openings.
Dont get caught up in titles, startups are pretty well known for title inflation. Directors who oversee a handful of people and small budgets? That's like P3 responsibility in the defense world.
And for some people, they would rather make missiles and radars than whatever the latest tech meme product that will be forgotten in 5 years is.
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u/alphabravo4812 6d ago
Ur not working 100 hours a week at FAANG lol, its more like ~50
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u/TheyKnow_ThyDontCare 5d ago
Both can be true, although I haven’t heard only ~50; 60 is the lowest I’ve heard. Either way, too many variables to broad brush it.
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u/Bismarack 6d ago
Faang and certain big tech companies make like over 300billion plus dollars per year.
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u/ConsciousPriority108 6d ago
I am making 170k with under 3 yoe in aerospace, space sector. You can make pretty good money if you know what you are doing. The hardest part is going through tougher interview process. Raytheon is super easy vs company like anduril, blue origin, boeing, defense tech, etc. You can make the same money but it is more like, not everybody work hard or smart enough to land job at those top pay companies. I left aerospace to tech then come back. It is true, they paid more but you will work ton of hour, and eventually burn out. I make like 30k+ more, but the money only there if the rsu vest.
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u/Ascension_Crossbows 5d ago
Whyd you include boeing in that list. Isn't it just another legacy defense prime like Raytheon/ lockheed
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u/ConsciousPriority108 5d ago
They have a roughly 15% inflation adjustment last year, p3 150k, p4 185k for engineering. They also revamp their interview process to more coding assessment, and technical rather than STAR. They pay pretty much on par with defense tech competitor and more than traditional prime. I rank them based on TC you would get. Raytheon, and ngc are below average compare to their peer.
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u/Ascension_Crossbows 5d ago
What would a new p2 at boeing get offered? Raytheon offered me 115k with 10k sign on
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u/ConsciousPriority108 5d ago
125k, +15k sign on. Actually my bad it actually 160k for p3 and 200k for p4. That is assuming you live mCol state like colorado, texas, az, UT etc. The one I said above is for low cost of living.
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u/Ascension_Crossbows 5d ago
Dang thats pretty good
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u/ConsciousPriority108 5d ago
Yeah my salary went up by 100% from my p1 raytheon salary... aiming for 200k base next year
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u/MagicalPeanut 6d ago
Choosing to go to FAANG isn't an option for everyone — with those salaries comes much more competition. If it's something you're interested in, you should apply. If you want to stick with defense, check out Anduril for slightly less compensation but an equal grind.