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

Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

blog.step.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 229 posts

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#151

Post by njs12345 »

dogma1138 wrote: post #79
jahnu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of what one thinks of the tax it's clear one can't compare salaries after taxation. Fact is I don't spend anything on healthcare. In the US I would need insurance. I don't save for my kids university education because it will be free. In the US I would have to. Comparing pre tax income is more useful, by and large.

Insurance in the us is also cheaper in paying 2300 a year for private insurance (AXA) so I won't have to deal with the NHS on every silly issue.

As a counterpoint to this post, I have free private insurance with work and never bother using it because the NHS works so well for day to day things.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#152

Post by NetStrikeForce »

eulji wrote: post #81
hollander wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I have a 200k income, I don't really care about getting welfare, and I can probably pay healthcare myself. But I don't have that kind of income, and then healthcare, pension and social benefits really count. We may pay more tax, but I'm glad we have the backup system that keeps you going when you're sick or unemployed.

I am from the ostbloc som my taxes are are being spent on bribing, corruption etc. We might not be paying that huge taxes but it's still a lot. I am less compassionate than the other folks in Europe and would really prefer a more capitalistic system at least in my country. But we Europeans are....ehhhh.

Corruption is a problem by itself - it doesn't make the social democracies wrong.

And expect corruption in the private system, too. There's no other explanation for $500 aspirins :-)

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#153

Post by felixhandte »

beamatronic wrote: post #142
rajathagasthya wrote: post #136

Holy cow! Facebook's median signing bonus for Level 1 (new grad) engineers is $75K! Why is that higher than for experienced engineers? How can the other companies compete with that?

Is that stock or cash?

Cash.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#154

Post by FmrAMZN_TA »

beamatronic wrote: post #140
FmrAMZN_TA wrote: post #133

I won't go on about the work quality at Amazon, there are plenty of other places to read about that. It _is_ important to note that the average retention at Amazon (even for excellent people) is ~50% for 1 year, and ~20% or lower for the 2nd year. Therefore, these comparisons should really take that into account. Amazon MAY look higher than Microsoft (for example) but because you only see 20% of your total vest the f…

Just to clarify - do you mean the expected year-over-year retention is 50% meaning that if 100 people are hired in a year, then 365 days later, only about 50 of them will still be there? How much of that is because they are leaving or being let go?

When I was there, managers were guided to PIP (performance improvement plan) to make these numbers. Whether that meant grinding people into the ground, natural attrition, or making up excuses to out people - I saw all of them happen.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#155

Post by FmrAMZN_TA »

aluskuiuc wrote: post #144
FmrAMZN_TA wrote: post #133

I won't go on about the work quality at Amazon, there are plenty of other places to read about that. It _is_ important to note that the average retention at Amazon (even for excellent people) is ~50% for 1 year, and ~20% or lower for the 2nd year. Therefore, these comparisons should really take that into account. Amazon MAY look higher than Microsoft (for example) but because you only see 20% of your total vest the f…

At least when I started there the first two years had cash bonuses to make up the target-comp difference before the larger stock vests came in, so it was fairly even.

Absolutely, if you stayed, the numbers definitely add up to what you see here. However, because the attrition was so high, you were not likely to stick around to get a bonus to make up for it.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#156

Post by aluminussoma »

stepny wrote: post #10
overcast wrote: post #3

Is it a case of only people making the most money are more apt to report their earnings?

We actually suspect that people who are paid less or are underpaid are more likely to report their salaries. For example, it seems like Glassdoor data skews low.

Glassdoor has no way to distinguish newer salaries from older salaries - all are used to give one average number. Their average salary has so much old data that it doesn't keep up with the rate at which it's increasing these days.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#158

Post by khare_ashwini »

smeyer wrote: post #145
khare_ashwini wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The data you see on such sites is only the base salary component as they parse through LCA disclosure data. As highlighted above, much of the compensation comes from bonuses / stocks etc. I did some analysis on the above data as well: http://ashwinikhare.in/tech-firms-guest-visa/

Yeah, sorry if I came across as implying it to be an equivalent data set. I just meant that if someone is wondering how the distribution of salaries compares to everyone with a specific title at a specific company, they might want to compare the base salaries being collated here with the base salaries for H1Bs with the same title.

That would be a fair comparison, but a challenging given the data available by OFLC. Most of the companies just mention the "Software Engineer" title, and don't mention the level when applying for LCA, whose data is disclosed. Some companies do, but don't everyone. FWIW, I'm pretty sure it should be around the same number.

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#159

Post by felixhandte »

rajathagasthya wrote: post #136

Holy cow! Facebook's median signing bonus for Level 1 (new grad) engineers is $75K! Why is that higher than for experienced engineers? How can the other companies compete with that?

The expectation, I've heard from recruiters, is that as a new grad you have a higher need for cash immediately (to buy furniture for your first apartment, e.g.). As an industry hire, you are probably already established and don't have a particular need for a lump sum right out of the gate (especially since relocation is provided for separately).

Re: Open Source Project – View 689 Salaries Posted on Hacker News, Share Yours

#160

Post by drewg123 »

beamatronic wrote: post #143
drewg123 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luck, basically. Working at Google was both a gateway to more opportunities, and a gateway to a much higher salary. I had been working remotely for a long time for a small company, and making what I considered to be good money, considering that I lived in a fly-over state. When I was hired at Google, it more than doubled my salary after a while, when stock grants began to vest. I now work for Netflix, and I am making…

Are you able to have a life outside work? How many hours do you work in a typicaly day/week ?

Yes. I probably work about 45-60 hours in any given week. I have a family that I see for breakfast and dinner every day, and spend all day with most weekends.

All-in-all, I work less, and have a far better work-life balance than I did a few years ago, when working for the small company. In that company, I had sole responsibility for an entire product area, and often worked over 80 hours per week.

As an afterthought, I actually worked far less at Google. Probably about 45 hours a week. It was like a vacation. Being a cog in a machine and not on-call 24/7 was refreshing and enormously freeing after years of constant pressure.

Post reply on HN