They're both in MCOL suburb areas and are decent names within their own industry, but they're not super popular or tech companies. One is notably higher pay ($110k USD vs $90k) but a lot worse WLB (in person 5 days, 45-50hrs a week, almost no vacation/sick days, notably higher rate of turnover) vs the other co. is hybrid, ~30-35 hours/week, slower moving, and a lot more vacation/sick days overall. Both have decent benefits.
The tech stacks for both companies vary a bit but they're both on the legacy side of things with a lot of work done maintaining old crappy code, also it's really team dependent (I don't know what team I will be on). The caveat for the second lower-paying company is that I will have the chance to try out two different teams for 6 months to see which I like.
My goal is either FAANG or a major tech company within a couple years. I would love the extra money but I also value WLB quite a bit so its either between putting my head down and grinding or trying to enjoy life after uni. The learning opportunities at either company seem to be completely variable depending on which team I get put on.
