Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

danluu.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

401–410 of 418 posts

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#401

Post by infinite8s »

manigandham wrote: post #396
thedufer wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you live? These numbers are fairly local to SF/NYC/Seattle, with other large cities trailing a bit and smaller cities farther behind. That said, in those cities they are far from absurd. I started out similar to you (coding since elementary school) and now live in NYC ~3.5 years out of college. Off the top of my head, I could name half a dozen developers making seven figures, and at least 100 making over $20…

At least 6 developers making over $1M? Doing what?

They likely work on trading desks at hedge funds.

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#402

Post by infinite8s »

throwaway_lazy wrote: post #400

Why not add consulting (i.e. helping startups out as someone "external") into the mix? I make ~$110k/yr after taxes (!) and insurance and I work 10 hours per week, tops. I literally watch Netflix more than I work on an average workday. I know it's not great money (don't have a Tesla), but it's quite cozy. Thoughts?

What sort of consulting?

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#403

Post by infinite8s »

oblio wrote: post #127
thomaslangston wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you're not legally able to do so unless you're an accredited investor?

Hmmmm... I'm guessing this law exists to prohibit speculation by people who would use their children's tuition for it? I remember reading something about the Great Depression and it involved ordinary people investing in stocks and losing everything.

Not their children's tuition, their next month's rent or grocery bill.

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#404

Post by quanticle »

limelight wrote: post #56

I was nodding along throughout this and pretty much agreeing that overall a big company makes sense for most people. Then I got to the final footnote. That kind of Kafka-esque bullshit is what keeps me working in startups. I could not stand working in a culture where policies which are widely seen as unhelpful and ridiculous are still routinely inflicted upon employees. Yes, startup "bullshit" also exists, but the di…

    Then I got to the final footnote. That kind of Kafka-esque bullshit is what 
    keeps me working in startups.
While I agree that big companies can have weird Kafka-esque bureaucracy, they're still generally a lot better at record-keeping than startups. I've never had a big company ask me if I could go without pay for a couple of weeks while they waited to "sort out my payroll paperwork". I did eventually get the back pay, but it was pretty tense for a couple of weeks, as I waited and wondered if I'd made a terrible mistake in quitting my work for a large corporation to go work for this startup.

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#405

Post by serge2k »

whamalama wrote: post #399
QuercusMax wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because Amazon has enough problem with retention as it is, they don't want to encourage even more people to leave.

Pretty much. The ratcheting hiring bar[1] and the punishing promo process[2] mean that SDE II has to be treated as a career role as a practical matter for the tech orgs to continue to function. As hard as it is to retain good engineers, it'd be even harder to retain good managers if they were expected to manage all their SDE II's up or out. [1] - Every new hire is expected to be better than 50% of the current employe…

> punishing promo process

you mean the ridiculous and pretty broken process?

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#406

Post by mailshanx »

devonkim wrote: post #366
jtbigwoo wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Work in a non-software company. A company whose business doesn't take its software seriously invariably treats its software and IT resources as cost centers meant to get maximum cost savings for as little money as possible via opex reduction and will, ironically, likely fail to make bigger expenditures required to keep costs (and really, wasting time) lower. To expand on this, there are some companies that seem li…

The more correct rule is that you should try to find companies that have closely aligned business and technology objectives (which I haven't found outside of finance and the usual SV companies in the F500), but I have my doubts even that is the case because I'm working for a large organization that meets this criteria and I'd never think of advising a young, ambitious recent graduate to even reply to a recruiter for…

I have an offer to do data science work for a large, public insurer. I will work inside an "innovation lab", and was promised lots of freedom and authority during the interview process. They say they want the "innovation labs" to run like startups, trying out new products and ideas at a fast clip.

Do you have any thoughts about what the general environment will be like, and is there any chance the place will be mired in bureaucracy? I'm relatively early in my career as well, and have never worked for a Big Co before.

I'd love to get in touch with you, but you don't have contact info in your profile. I'll be grateful if you can drop me a line - mailshanx at yahoo dot co dot in

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#407

Post by dreaminvm »

d4rkph1b3r wrote: post #306
dreaminvm wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly, everyone not working in the Bay Area can ignore these figures because they are bloated due to cost of living (3K for 1BR/1BA apartment) and competition for talent (from startups and peers). Secondly, people are ignoring the fact that RSUs at the 3 companies mentioned (and a few others AMZN/MSFT) have grown substantially in the past 5 years (about 125-150% on average) and is the biggest factor in these "surre…

Err, this is not accurate from my experience. I work at a large company (not one of the 'big 4 tech though) ,remote, in a medium cost of living locale and my salary is what your total comp is. I would get a huge jump if I went to one of the big 4 in the bay area.

Forgot to note that I am fresh out of college.

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#409

Post by nojvek »

gniv wrote: post #275

There is valid criticism to be made, but the negativity in this thread is out of proportion. As somebody who worked at Google for 5+ years, I'd like to emphasize a point: If you sustain good work [1] for a few years, you will be rewarded well beyond expectations [2]. Your compensation will depend on your performance, and not on your starting salary. I think this is unique to Google and maybe a few other tech giants.…

I'm at Microsoft for 3 years working in Redmond. SDE II. I'm getting paid 120k. I don't know where you're getting your numbers but 250k is very absurd. Rent is getting pretty crazy here, as the only bread winner I am kind of breaking even.

Re: Big Company vs. Startup Work and Compensation

#410

Post by balls187 »

Bahamut wrote: post #355
grahamannett wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but wouldn't this: https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-San-Francisco-Salari... be more indicative than asking a person first hand what they make? I don't think saying 'personally confront friends/workers at said companies about salaries' is anymore reliable than anonymously submitted.

Look at total compensation - average total compensation says ~$238k for senior, which certainly seems to confirm numbers...and they may be higher currently since I'd guess that those numbers probably span across a number of years. Google SF is a smaller office also.

That's total compensation.

The claims I'm interested in regard Base salary.

Post reply on HN