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Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

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Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#391

Post by fpisfun »

onion2k wrote: post #377
bgentry wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven’t heard about how those two companies pay. It’s definitely a common occurrence at Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, & Salesforce. Bonuses are often structured as a % of your base salary based upon your rank. More senior engineers will get an extra 10-25% each year essentially automatically. This is separate from RSUs, which vary a lot more widely. Their value is especially dependent upon company stock perfo…

More senior engineers will get an extra 10-25% each year essentially automatically. The reason part of your salary is a bonus rather than the base is so that it can be withheld if necessary, eg in a bad year. Believing that bonus is an automatic extra 10% will, one day, leave you 10% short of your expectations.

Yep, my company cut bonuses this year, so no 10% for me, definitely not something to count on.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#392

Post by _d8fd »

geggam wrote: post #212
softawre wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a king? So you live in a mansion? I live in the midwest, wife doesn't work, 10 years experience - we live in a 4k sqft house in the best school district in the state about 25 minutes from the city. How much does that cost in SV?

In the city... 10k + a month in rent alone... 25 minutes out 5-6k a month in rent alone Keep in mind 25 minutes out can easily turn into 1 hour or more.

In SF, I have a 250 square feet studio with no kitchen & I pay $1550/month in a cheaper part of town (the Tenderloin).

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#393

Post by fpisfun »

notyourwork wrote: post #253
htormey wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with that is that they become a talent pipeline for Facebook/Google/Apple/Netflix. I met tons of people who did 2 years at amazon and departed to Facebook for a fat offer that was worth far more than the remaining unvested amazon stock. Trying to nickle and dime people when they come in the door just leads to people departing early. Employee turnover is a massive cost.

I have also met people who shifted opposite direction. The market for salaries in the tech space will self correct over time. If you are a solid engineer you'll get paid enough and it becomes more of a decision about where you want to spend your time. Do you want to move Facebook forward? Is there a new team in Google you want to work for? Is your passion movies so you want to work for Netflix? At some point it is le…

I can never grasp why any developer who didn't need the money would do anything other than work to build their own business. I know if I ever have enough to not worry about it I'll never work as an employee again.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#394

Post by perl4ever »

mceoin wrote: post #382
oppositelock wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only use these statistics as a guideline, and negotiate the hell out of your compensation, even at a startup. You would be shocked at how much leeway companies have in compensation if they need your skill set. I've worked at preeminent silicon valley companies, middle of the road ones, and startups (been doing this way too long I guess). I've managed to sign for almost 50% over their initial offer a couple of times.…

It is now illegal for employers to ask about past salary: [first article I googled] https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/salary-history-la...

I'm not sure how laws like that help if an employer has access to information about past salary so they don't have to ask. There is an Equifax service that keeps track of past jobs to some extent. It isn't necessarily accurate or complete, but it exists - https://www.theworknumber.com/

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#396

Post by fpisfun »

deepsun wrote: post #136
citizens wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you expand on "hours candidate can really-work"?

Sure. By "really-work" I mean thinking of work and doing it, not just being at work. I, personally, rarely can do really-work more than 4 hours a day -- only if task is very interesting and challenging. Then I can do it for 12 hours a day straight, but I stop myself if I work more than 6 hours, because I know I would burn out, happened a few times. 4 hours a day of really-work sounds not a lot, but my performance is…

I can definitely really work for 8 hours a day if it's on my own project and I'm in the flow but no way I can ever get in they mindset to do it for an employer, especially that I have a less than spectacular salary, I'm guessing many people are the same way.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#397

Post by fpisfun »

zjaffee wrote: post #281
steverb wrote: post #9

I find it kind of amusing that someone with 5-7 years is generally considered a senior software engineer in SV. Maybe we need a different designation for engineers with 10-20 years of experience? Something other than "the old man/lady".

For what it's worth, for a lot of the types of software roles out there, many of them only have existed in their current forms for 10 years is incredibly rare, so to even find someone who has been doing mobile programming for 5 years should be enough to call them senior given they have been working in the field for half of the time the modern concepts have been around.

There are still many concepts that transcend the specific language / platform. As I've become more attuned to this I'm sometimes horrified by code that supposedly senior engineers write that egregiously violate separation of concerns, for example. An experienced developer who knows how to properly design and architect software should be able to jump ahead of a less experienced developer who has more years experience developing for a specific platform in my opinion but recruiters don't seem to see it this way

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#398

Post by justonepost »

b4lancesh33t wrote: post #383
softawre wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a king? So you live in a mansion? I live in the midwest, wife doesn't work, 10 years experience - we live in a 4k sqft house in the best school district in the state about 25 minutes from the city. How much does that cost in SV?

4k sqft 25 minutes from mountain view is probably a cool three million at least. Otoh I have saved four and a half million over the last ten years as a simple non-workaholic individual contributor at one of the big cos. So maybe it's ok?

Yeah, RE appreciation probably has paid out way more than salary in the valley. At least to the avg engineer. Stock options have done well too, but that’s more like top 1%

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#399

Post by justonepost »

sulam wrote: post #370
softawre wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a king? So you live in a mansion? I live in the midwest, wife doesn't work, 10 years experience - we live in a 4k sqft house in the best school district in the state about 25 minutes from the city. How much does that cost in SV?

Yep, I'm a king. I don't live in a mansion, but I don't need one. My wife works because she wants to. My kids go to a wonderful school 2 minutes from our house. I commute 25 minutes into SF (worst part of my day, BART is seriously crowded). I make a fairly absurd amount of money (it's embarrassing to say, and I don't need the hassle of having it out there, but let's just say that I hit 6 figures many years ago). We s…

agreed, you can have better toys if you live elsewhere (though probably not near the ocean).

It’d be good also if these salary surveys were after taxes. Be interesting to compare that.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#400

Post by nnd »

bzbarsky wrote: post #351
nnd wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you find a SV company open to remote workers? I haven't heard of any.

Mozilla is an "SV company", sort of, and open to remote workers.

From their careers site:

"Mozilla is a global organization, and this role is available in our offices in the European Union, U.S., Canada, or home-based in the U.S., Canada, and European countries where Mozilla has a legal entity. You must have work authorization in one of these countries."

This is not remote work.

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