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Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

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Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#331
post #104

It's strange to me that these salary discussions are so narrowly focused on just pay/bonus and don't seem to care about benefits and work/life balance. Here's stuff I track in my own career spreadsheet and compare new jobs against these metrics when considering a new one: * Vacation, sick, and holiday time off * Distance to work and traffic considerations * Relative cost of living * Health insurance cost and coverage…

Except that this whole wave started not with comparisons of different employers, but comparisons within the same employer (namely, Amazon). If you're trying to get more leverage in salary negotiations once you've already picked an employer, this is very useful information.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can NOT include the company name, on a side note Netflix employees seems to be really well paid (300-400k)

Netflix has a slightly unusual compensation structure. Basically everything is frontloaded into the annual salary. No bonuses. No soft benefits. Health care allowance is like $15k a year and is (I think) also folded into salary. This has the added benefit of making it very hard to poach Netflix employees since they'll be taking an almost automatic $100k salary cut to go work somewhere else (even it if comes out even…

That's brilliant.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#333
post #104

It's strange to me that these salary discussions are so narrowly focused on just pay/bonus and don't seem to care about benefits and work/life balance. Here's stuff I track in my own career spreadsheet and compare new jobs against these metrics when considering a new one: * Vacation, sick, and holiday time off * Distance to work and traffic considerations * Relative cost of living * Health insurance cost and coverage…

That's a very good point. I once applied for a job that had an interesting pay: a little over 100K. But that doesn't tell you anything, right? It's the benefits: 1. 8 days PTO - yeah...seriously, so basically no time off 2. distance to work was about 20-30 minutes -- not bad 3. LOW relative cost of living -- that 100K STRETCHES FAR, unlike in the bay area 4. no health insurance, no coverage 5. no retirement benefits…

I'll never understand the pitiful amount of time off US employees get - here in the UK I get 30 days holiday time a year, and unless I were to utterly take the piss being sick isn't taken out of that, its just accepted as one of those things that happens.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#334
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is high, but it depends on experience and who they work for. More common for people with 5-7yr experience is in the 90-110k range, but it's not abnormal to find skilled folks at places like SAS, Cisco, Citrix, Redhat, MS, Lenovo, BASF, IBM, NetApp, and many more earning above mean salaries. Source: live in RDU, was an engineering director until last summer, hired lots of people here over the years and know a bunch…

I need to look harder in RDU then, because I love North Carolina and would love the pay raise.

If you prefer working in financial services, you can also check all the banks in Charlotte. Also, MetLife & Fidelity are constantly hiring like mad in Cary/Morrisville.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#335
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very good point. I once applied for a job that had an interesting pay: a little over 100K. But that doesn't tell you anything, right? It's the benefits: 1. 8 days PTO - yeah...seriously, so basically no time off 2. distance to work was about 20-30 minutes -- not bad 3. LOW relative cost of living -- that 100K STRETCHES FAR, unlike in the bay area 4. no health insurance, no coverage 5. no retirement benefits…

Yeah as a state employee my pay looks low compared to what some of my peers make. When you factor in benefits and 14% in pension contributions not to mention good culture and work-life balance I come out the same (if not ahead IMHO).

I don't know, I'd be getting nervous about state backed pension schemes (assuming that's what you're in).

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#336
post #104

It's strange to me that these salary discussions are so narrowly focused on just pay/bonus and don't seem to care about benefits and work/life balance. Here's stuff I track in my own career spreadsheet and compare new jobs against these metrics when considering a new one: * Vacation, sick, and holiday time off * Distance to work and traffic considerations * Relative cost of living * Health insurance cost and coverage…

Maybe we can improve the spreadsheet by adding columns for each category that you mentioned (on what is doable) so we can have a more objective view of the benefits.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>$100k salary with guaranteed yearly increases that outpace inflation (this year was a 2.5% increase while inflation is at around 1.6%) I find it hard to believe that people advocate for such fundamentally unsustainable arrangements. Guaranteed raises outpacing inflation that aren't tied to performance at all? Nobody should be surprised when the costs to support a workforce that trends towards mediocrity (why try whe…

You seem unaware that "market forces" do exactly the same thing, with the difference that it's investors and not workers who demand eternal and infinite inflation-beating returns across the entire economy. I've long suspected that one of the prime dysfunctions of US corporate culture is the projection of greed, puerility, incompetence, and worthlessness by management onto "lower" workers. In reality the whole point o…

its not zero sum, world gdp has been increasing over time for thousands of years, investing can create value out of free things like thoughts, similarly education can create value by training people to think better than they otherwise could

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very good point. I once applied for a job that had an interesting pay: a little over 100K. But that doesn't tell you anything, right? It's the benefits: 1. 8 days PTO - yeah...seriously, so basically no time off 2. distance to work was about 20-30 minutes -- not bad 3. LOW relative cost of living -- that 100K STRETCHES FAR, unlike in the bay area 4. no health insurance, no coverage 5. no retirement benefits…

I'll never understand the pitiful amount of time off US employees get - here in the UK I get 30 days holiday time a year, and unless I were to utterly take the piss being sick isn't taken out of that, its just accepted as one of those things that happens.

The issue is more people don't even use up the vacation days. People in the states are workaholics. It's competitive, there's the fear of losing their jobs if they are out of the office for too long.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chicago is so incredibly cheap compared to NYC or SF. You can actually afford to own something in the most desirable parts of Chicago and can still have the benefit of not having to own a car in many cases. I thought about relocating to Chicago (it's a great, underrated city) and was shocked how cheap the rent was in places like Lincoln Park. I could just buy a place. I can't say that about NYC or SF where rents are…

I don't know about downtown, since I'm a suburbanite, but I've found in the Chicago area, it's generally cheaper to buy than rent. My first place was a condo, because renting was pretty much throwing money away. And if you can suffer the commute, in the suburbs, you get a condo AND a parking spot for $800 a month. o_o

I agree. When I was doing an apartment search I started to realize renting wasn't worth it in Chicago if you have the funds to buy. My goal was to find a 6 month lease so I could figure out where I wanted to buy. I'm a city guy so the 'burbs aren't for me. I've heard that condo's are being built rather rapidly in the city so the demand curve has stayed steady resulting in stable and affordable prices. I wish I could say the same about NYC. Even as more and more places are being built there are more and more people moving here keeping demand unbelievably high.

But alas, the move was not to be (for now anyways).

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