Wow there's a lot of prejudice to unpack there, but the one I'm most curious about is your impression that people are working at non-FAANG businesses because of their excellent social skills.
There's a lot of imagined, manufactured offense here which should perhaps remain packed up.
You know a strawman fallacy makes your paraphrasing both inaccurate and rude, no?
> neurodivergent savants, most of whom are likely significantly smarter than most engineers at any non-FAANG tech company, just without the necessary social skills for the hiring game.
Was replying to this.
> neurodivergent savants
That's stereotyping.
> significantly smarter than most engineers at any non-FAANG tech company
Elitist in more ways than one by claiming engineers working anywhere but a FAANG are not only dumber than FAANG engineers, but also inexperienced kids.
> just without the necessary social skills for the hiring game
Ah yes all it takes is "one weird trick" to get hired!
That "one weird trick" is probably 60-70% of why you would pass an interview.
If you've gotten to an interview, they already believe you have the technical qualifications. The technical / white board interview is just due diligence. Having social skills requisite to make the interviewers like you is very literally the only thing they don't know about you, which is what they're testing for.
The hiring requirements for FAANG / MAGMA / F100 companies are higher than those for non-FAANG. Maybe smarter isn't the best term, knowledgeable or competent would work better. His point still stands though.