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Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

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Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#61

Post by Technophilis »

photoJ wrote: post #57
Technophilis wrote: post #12

Looking at glassdoor.com and my personal experience, salaries are much lower than what people are claiming on HN A major problem with Glassdoor salaries is the absence of a date range. The salaries they show is the average over the period of time starting when they started collecting salaries. So yes the salaries on Glassdoor tend to be lower than the current average. A lot (too many) people on HN are claiming $200k…

Do you know when the paperwork is filed? ie are the listed H1b salaries based on first day of work at the company, or pay after multiple years? I'm trying to figure out if this is the money the company used to get the talent or if its reflective of their own internal raises as well?

The salaries shown on H1BPay are the salaries that the company promises to pay or is currently paying the H-1B applicant.

There are 3 common cases of when the paperwork is filed. First, foreign students who graduated from American universities in certain fields can work for a certain period of time after which they can transition to H-1B. So the salary is pretty much what they are paid when the application was filed which is somewhere between 1 and 27 months. Second, people hired from overseas or within the US who aren't new graduates and don't have a current H-1B visa. Their salary would be what the company offered to get the talent. The third case is when you transfer you H-1B visa where an application is not required so there is no change to the salary in the application.

Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#62

Post by user5994461 »

closeparen wrote: post #56
Technophilis wrote: post #12

Looking at glassdoor.com and my personal experience, salaries are much lower than what people are claiming on HN A major problem with Glassdoor salaries is the absence of a date range. The salaries they show is the average over the period of time starting when they started collecting salaries. So yes the salaries on Glassdoor tend to be lower than the current average. A lot (too many) people on HN are claiming $200k…

Consider also that most engineers are new grads. Glassdoor and friends should display an "average" that's very slightly higher than the new grad base salary, since most practitioners entered the field recently. $200k base salary could well be totally normal for people with more than 10 years of experience, who are barely represented on Glassdoor.

Confirm. Glassdoor is seriously biased by not having older, more experienced worker report their salary.

It's biased tower the numerous, new joiners, and they probably won't upgrade the information when they get promoted.

Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#63

Post by ldn_throwaway »

user5994461 wrote: post #59
aidanhs wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> £43k - and that's about right for a mid-level dev in London - and 45% on anything over £150k which is mid-size CTO territory Clearly this depends significantly on role, but looking at your link indicates that £43k is a bit below-par (as I'd expect) for any of the more in-demand areas. For example, if you can interview well (regardless of skill) then you can probably get a mid-level DevOps job for ~£60k if you shop…

All companies I've been at were hiring grads at >= 40k in London. It's not credible to me to say that £43k is mid level. That's a junior salary for any tech position. Regarding DevOps, it is so bad in demand right now, you'll get 60-70k easy without lifting a finger if you can handle any interview. There is noone to take these jobs anyway, all people who are interested in money have long gone contractors at > 500 £ a…

Where are these £40k junior jobs? I've been in a junior position in London for 2 years earning mid £20k's and have been interviewing at other places for months, but the best offer I can find is £32k.

Everyone I've talked to about it is in a similar ballpark.

Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#64

Post by donovanm »

Selection bias is a thing. Also like others are mentioning glassdoors data is not always accurate. Especially for people with lots of experience. But I don't think 200k base salary is that abnormal in Silicon Valley to be honest. Also everything I've heard about google suggests their stocks have a 4 year vesting period at 1/4 a year. It is not a four year cliff so I think you're way off there. Talking about compensation only in base salary doesn't make sense to me.

Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#65

Post by photoJ »

Technophilis wrote: post #61
photoJ wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know when the paperwork is filed? ie are the listed H1b salaries based on first day of work at the company, or pay after multiple years? I'm trying to figure out if this is the money the company used to get the talent or if its reflective of their own internal raises as well?

The salaries shown on H1BPay are the salaries that the company promises to pay or is currently paying the H-1B applicant. There are 3 common cases of when the paperwork is filed. First, foreign students who graduated from American universities in certain fields can work for a certain period of time after which they can transition to H-1B. So the salary is pretty much what they are paid when the application was filed…

Fantastic. The rate of internal raises over the years at a company is something I've not seen a lot of statistics on. Your responses was exactly the claritrty I was looking for! Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#66

Post by user5994461 »

ldn_throwaway wrote: post #63
user5994461 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All companies I've been at were hiring grads at >= 40k in London. It's not credible to me to say that £43k is mid level. That's a junior salary for any tech position. Regarding DevOps, it is so bad in demand right now, you'll get 60-70k easy without lifting a finger if you can handle any interview. There is noone to take these jobs anyway, all people who are interested in money have long gone contractors at > 500 £ a…

Where are these £40k junior jobs? I've been in a junior position in London for 2 years earning mid £20k's and have been interviewing at other places for months, but the best offer I can find is £32k. Everyone I've talked to about it is in a similar ballpark.

£2Xk in London is outrageous. It's less than the living wage.

I expect ALL companies to pay better than what you have now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13541679

Do they ask how much you're currently paid and you reply 20k ? They will definitely use that information against you. You're so low that you might have to jump to 3X, then leave again in 6 months to go higher.

What's you linkedin? Link to you resume? What's your degree? Can you handle the usual 3 hours whiteboard marathon?

Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#67

Post by et-al »

toephu2 wrote: post #53
et-al wrote: post #14

Selection bias - the title of the other Ask HN was "Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?", after all. Secondly, I think there's a difference between "totally normal" and "not outlandish". Most sentiment falls in the latter unless you're asking people in the Battery Club. Considering most managers are making $170-180k base, a $200k base is not outlandish for someone who has specialized knowledge in hi…

What's the Battery Club? Google said "The Battery was a unique sort of social destination."

Private club with a $2400 annual fee. One would assume that if you're spending that much on a place to drink without the commoners, you're making over $200k or aspiring to be.

Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#68

Post by bbcbasic »

closeparen wrote: post #52
bbcbasic wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

amazing. 4x what I was paid out of university, and still more than I've been paid since If you are in Silicon Valley and at uni, I guess whether you get into Google etc. or not will make a massive difference to your future. It could determine if you have enough money to but a house, have kids in the area in the future, etc. All down to a few interviews.

>. It could determine if you have enough money to but a house You should always read salaries as a fraction of the median home price within a ~30 minute radius of where the salary is being paid. Where $110,000 base salary is offered to new grads (matches my experience at a unicorn, it isn't just Google), it's about 1/12th of a reasonable home. Where $50,000 is offered to mid-career folks, it's often 1/3rd to 1/4th of…

> All salaries are local.

1. Except the economy is global. And people do remote work.

2. The 110k salary person will come out ahead of the 50k salary person in net worth, assuming both manage their money well, despite the cost of living difference. This is due to the value of their house, ability to invest in stock, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Are people lying about their salaries?

#69

Post by literallycancer »

toephu2 wrote: post #53
et-al wrote: post #14

Selection bias - the title of the other Ask HN was "Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?", after all. Secondly, I think there's a difference between "totally normal" and "not outlandish". Most sentiment falls in the latter unless you're asking people in the Battery Club. Considering most managers are making $170-180k base, a $200k base is not outlandish for someone who has specialized knowledge in hi…

What's the Battery Club? Google said "The Battery was a unique sort of social destination."

A fancy place to meet people, apparently.[1] Reminds me of salons.[2]

1 - http://www.businessinsider.com/battery-club-2014-7

2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_(gathering)

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