FAANG is a little bit different, because you're not really evaluating people as much on "how much do they want to be here", because the answer is essentially the same for most people. For smaller companies, this matters a lot more, and a couple of key hires can really elevate or drag down the office culture.
> For smaller companies, this matters a lot more, and a couple of key hires can really elevate or drag down the office culture.
Is that really a thing between global tech company vs small company or rather big vs small? In a 10 people company, everybody makes up 10% of the people, so they have much more impact on everything than in a company of 10000.
I would say that culture matters a lot more in the hiring/interview process when you expect each individual you're hiring to be a multiplicative force. For smaller startups that are growing, this tends to be true. For larger companies, they tend to grow more linearly, so an individual that only contributes raw units of work is usually sufficient. So I don't think it's purely the percentage of the company that each hire represents, but more so what you expect out of each individual.
