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Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#201

Post by mmarian »

piltdownman wrote: post #114
thorin wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm under the impression that Google/Microsoft etc get paid far less in the UK than in the US though, would you say that's correct? I've been working in the UK since the late 90s. Started in banking and banking contracts are still probably the primary source of big cash in the UK as there aren't many startup and much less FANG. I moved away from banking pretty quickly as I didn't really want to stay in London much lo…

Yeah the employers side of hiring someone in UK/Ireland is far more expensive than in the US, plus we have incredibly strong workers rights and mandatory 23 day paid leave + 11 other bank holidays/national holidays a year. Not to mention redundancy pay. Downsizing ain't a knee-jerk thing here, it's a costly process. In France its basically like they don't want a tech sector. Employee's rights are skewed so far to the…

> Downsizing ain't a knee-jerk thing here, it's a costly process.

Not if you're less than 2 years in the company (in the UK). Which probably applies to a large proportion of software engineers.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#202

Post by simantel »

oarla wrote: post #185

Tangential to this topic, but are there publicly traded companies that pay only in stocks? I'm curious to know if someone who gets paid only in stocks will come out ahead in terms of taxes they owe than someone getting a comparable base pay.

RSUs are taxed as income when they vest, it's only capital gains that are treated differently, so there wouldn't really be much benefit.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#203

Post by reaperman »

orochimaaru wrote: post #189
unregistereddev wrote: post #176

Anecdote: I'm a Sr. Staff Engineer at a large employer in a LCOL city. Typical middle class houses cost $300k - $500k here, with luxury houses costing roughly $1m and small starter homes costing $200k (just using real estate as a rough proxy for cost of living). My base salary is $150k/yr. My cash bonus maxes out somewhere around $80k/yr, and typically falls in the $50k - 70k range. I also receive equity worth roughl…

[flagged]

[Edited to remove snark/barbs as per HN guidelines].

I am genuinely curious though - you seem like you've had a successful career and life. I typically assume people in your position are rather familiar with the basic math behind personal taxes, 401k's, HSA's, child tax credits, standard deductions vs. large charitable deductions, etc. I think I may have been grossly mischaracterizing a potentially large group of people and would love to hear about how you've handled your taxes since entering the workforce...and what you personally would attribute your misunderstanding of taxes to.

I think that would help me better understand and empathize with people who aren't like me.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#204

Post by s3graham »

oarla wrote: post #185

Tangential to this topic, but are there publicly traded companies that pay only in stocks? I'm curious to know if someone who gets paid only in stocks will come out ahead in terms of taxes they owe than someone getting a comparable base pay.

I remember hearing that it was possible at Netflix a long time ago, but I assume not any more.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#205

Post by redblacktree »

orochimaaru wrote: post #189
unregistereddev wrote: post #176

Anecdote: I'm a Sr. Staff Engineer at a large employer in a LCOL city. Typical middle class houses cost $300k - $500k here, with luxury houses costing roughly $1m and small starter homes costing $200k (just using real estate as a rough proxy for cost of living). My base salary is $150k/yr. My cash bonus maxes out somewhere around $80k/yr, and typically falls in the $50k - 70k range. I also receive equity worth roughl…

[flagged]

That's not how tax brackets work, but it is a common misconception. If you salary goes up, your take-home goes up, full stop.

If you are making $191,950/year (the very top end of the 24% bracket for 2024) you will pay $39,110.50 in federal income tax, (before any deductions) for a net of $152,839.50. (You may notice that this is less than 24%) If you make an additional $1,000/year: $192,950, only the additional $1,000 is taxed at the 32% rate. Which makes your total federal income tax bill $320 more, and improving your net take-home to $153,519.50

Edit to add: I'm disappointed that sibling comments to mine are so degrading. We all had to learn this at some point.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#206

Post by qwerpy »

javier123454321 wrote: post #130
garciasn wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am part of the group that misses unlimited PTO. I was averaging 8-9 weeks of time off under the unlimited model while I am capped at 5 weeks at a company with actual PTO. The only difference is that I get paid out any remaining PTO, should I leave, whereas with unlimited, there was no expectation that it will be paid out on departure.

I also came from a place with unlimited and I loved it. Makes me wonder if the people that regurgitate the notion that it's a trap actually have worked in places with unlimited.

I've heard from friends who worked at an "unlimited" place who said there was a soft threshold at 4 weeks. If you took more than that your boss would very quickly give you a call to discuss it.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#207

Post by diggan »

packetlost wrote: post #174
chollida1 wrote: post #155

Sure, if you work at many hedge fund you'll make similar money, and likely more if you are good at the job and the fund has success. One other nice thing is that instead of restricted stock you get actual money. And generally the money will be locked up for less time than the 4 year vesting that these companies often follow. And on top of that you can usually invest your money fee free in your own fund to help juice…

It's pretty hard to get into these IME. I'm considered a top-performer at the deep tech company I currently work at, and interviewed at a hedge fund awhile back. The process was way less intense than what I would expect a big tech co. interview to be. I made it to the top three candidates, but didn't get it. In hindsight, the role wouldn't have been a good fit, it was "higher up in the stack" than I prefer to be, whi…

I'm not sure it's enough to experience something once and then assume it looks like that across the industry, it's very context-dependent.

While I've done zero attempts to work at any hedge fund, I know plenty of people who both had success when wanting to join one (even though some of them were under-qualified) and people who failed (some who were over-qualified).

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#208

Post by GlenTheMachine »

Civil servants living in the DC or SF metro areas max out at about $195k not including benefits. The benefits include an actual pension, really good health insurance, and 1-1 salary matching into a 401(k)-like retirement fund (the TSP).

Also, you're actually expected to work 40 hours a week and generally not more, and you're expected to take all your vacation.

It takes a while to get to that level, or you need to get hired directly into a GS-15 equivalent position. But it's doable, especially at an agency that does technical work (eg NASA, NOAA, DOE, parts of the DOD, etc.)

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make FAANG salaries without working there?

#210

Post by chasd00 »

If you're good at networking and making relationships and have technical skills you can go pretty far in a consulting firm. You have to treat the job like building a startup though, complete with finding the right people, marketing, skills/market fit etc. There's no real cap on how much money you can make in the consulting world, it all revolves around how much you can make for the firm. If you make the firm a ton of money and you tell them to give you your cut they will (or at least negotiate). It can be stressful though because, on the other hand, if you don't land good projects and keep your utilization up ( % of time you charge to clients ) then you're costing them money and there's not a lot of grace for that, or really anything besides billing hours, in the industry.
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