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My offer numbers from big companies

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Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#211

Post by hawski »

woolvalley wrote: post #172
shubhamjain wrote: post #29

It seems standard way to get a great compensation is to sit down and exercise all the run-of-the-mill algorithmic questions because that will matter the most in the end. Further optimisation could be made by being less fearful about negotiating the offer. Asking for 10% more would never hurt [1]. I am not a fierce critic of BigCo. interviewing practises but it seems a little disappointing that coding side-projects, c…

It's because the vast majority of candidates, including a lot of very good ones, will do none of those things.

Work will have much more in common with said open source efforts than with all those algorithmic challenges though.

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#212

Post by aroundtown »

wwalser wrote: post #94

In every single thread where someone publicly discloses rates like this the comments are flooded with people who use all kinds of FUD to explain why what they've just read must be untrue. It's strange. > Are these numbers real? Yes. I'm not the author, but they don't appear at all unusual to me. SF's developer market is nearly as screwed up as it's housing market (except not really, the housing market is truly someth…

I've got a really shoddy work history. What do I need to do to make myself attractive to these places?

ie... I graduated 10 years ago, I've got 2 or 3 years programming experience in there mired with periods of unemployment, moving/relocating a few times, health issues (resolved) and dealing with the fallout of a bad accident (I walked away, but had to transport wife for about a year while her foot healed)

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#213

Post by aroundtown »

corruptbytes wrote: post #209
aroundtown wrote: post #62

Well this makes me feel terrible... Your sign on was probably for more than I've made in my professional career. My first job after graduating 10 years ago was for 45k per year. I have had an awful lot of bad luck since graduating and have yet to be paid more than that since. Every job I've had paid progressively less, always took them cause I needed the job. My last programming job paid $14 an hour. Can anyone offer…

$14 is really low for programming in TX. Interns in (Houston/Dallas/Austin) get paid more than that. I think you just to look what's actually there, especially in the heath and energy business.

I know $14 is low, but I was trying to get my foot in the door. I will not live in Houston again. I'd be willing to live in Austin or Dallas, but I need an offer to be able to move.

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#214

Post by King-Aaron »

wwalser wrote: post #194
King-Aaron wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may look into this, I'm in need of a change of scenery

I'm in Sydney in Feb. If that's a location that works for you I could chat or get coffee.

I'm actually Perth-based, but I do end up in the Eastern States from time to time, I'll see how I go :)

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#215

Post by NiklasMort »

krolley wrote: post #201
NiklasMort wrote: post #120

I just left a company that got aquired by a big US security company, I was offered a 140k bonus (50/50 cash/stock, under the condition of staying min. 2 y) if I stay (because they knew I was probably leaving). The Bonus was several times more than my annual salary (Eastern Europe). Despite all the day dreaming about the numbers I declined and left. Why? Because after 2 years there I was already burned out, had no tim…

Couldn't you have negotiated that in your offer e.g. I'll take the 140k bonus but my phone is off from 6pm to 8am, only covering night shift on certain days etc. If they say no that's OK, but if they say yes, great.

There were other issues which the new company didn't agree on. But I wanted to leave anyway. In the end I followed this: "You can always earn more money but you can never make more time"

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#216

Post by King-Aaron »

dmnd wrote: post #79
King-Aaron wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may look into this, I'm in need of a change of scenery

I'll be in Melbourne renewing my E3 visa in late Dec/early Jan. And maybe doing some recruiting for my almost-unicorn company too. Message me if you'd like to get coffee or something. My email's in my profile.

I'm actually Perth-based, but I do end up in the Eastern States from time to time, I'll see how I go :)

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#217

Post by closeparen »

lquist wrote: post #25
simonbarker87 wrote: post #4

I live in the UK, to me these numbers are insane. How are these salaries at that work experience possible? Is the pay increase from then on slow? Are these salaries sustainable for the industry long term? I know experienced professionals who would be considered successful in the UK who finish their careers nowhere near this level of salary (not programmers but certainly engineers). I’m astounded.

Couple thoughts: 1) This engineer is getting offers from FB, Goog, etc. They are definitely in the top 1% of engineers in terms of interviewing ability if not in terms of engineering ability. 2) No salary increases do not slow down. A friend of mine has 4 years of experience, is a top 1-5% engineer/interviewer and had multiple offers at 350-500k. 3) Sustainable? No. This is a supply/demand issue and supply is increas…

Making more CS majors doesn't decrease the salary someone needs to live in the Bay Area/Seattle/New York. As long as FAANG insists on engineers living in cities with housing crises and minimal supply growth, I just don't see the floor coming down much.

Entry-level engineers already live far away with roommates. What are they going to do if salaries fall? SROs? Bunks? Doesn't seem like people who are generally capable of knowledge work would take that deal.

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#218

Post by richardknop »

shubhamjain wrote: post #29

It seems standard way to get a great compensation is to sit down and exercise all the run-of-the-mill algorithmic questions because that will matter the most in the end. Further optimisation could be made by being less fearful about negotiating the offer. Asking for 10% more would never hurt [1]. I am not a fierce critic of BigCo. interviewing practises but it seems a little disappointing that coding side-projects, c…

This is true. I have around 6 years of experience and when interviewing recently I tried two approaches:

1) Not preparing myself by reading on data structures and algorithms. Just relying on my solid experience to carry me.

2) Spending couple of hours evening before interview to quickly go through data structures (array, linked list, hashmap, stack, queue, binary trees), algorithms (searching binary search trees, merge sort etc) and writing quick implementations of couple of most common algorithms you get asked about during interviews (just to have fresh "muscle" memory to be able to quickly write an implementation on the whiteboard with confidence).

Approach 1) did not really work well for me. After I switched to 2) the interviews got much better for me and offers started coming.

So I'd suggest even if you are very experienced and have a decade of experience, don't rely on that being enough. Spend a day before interview refreshing your memory on computer science fundamentals, try to memorize Big O cheat sheet. And you will be much more likely to get offer.

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#219

Post by richardknop »

adventured wrote: post #185
richardknop wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you get these posts on HN quite often with similar numbers. I'd assume all of them are not lying or using fake data to brag. If only some of them are telling the truth then the numbers are real which is why I tend to believe them.

The only thing about the post that seems off, is the experience level that's generating that income. It could happen though, it's not implausible. The income figures stand-alone are not abnormal for someone with several more years of experience. We're looking at maybe 3.7% type U3 unemployment in 2018. The Fed's GDP Nowcast figure is projecting nearly 4% growth for the fourth quarter. Throw on corp tax cuts and possi…

Which is good for us (software engineers). I have noticed the same thing in Europe. Even though it's nowhere near Silicon Valley, I have noticed salaries in London rising faster than they used before. So there's definitely shortage of talent and market (supply / demand) seems to be reacting to this and driving salaries up.

Re: My offer numbers from big companies

#220

Post by richardknop »

hkmurakami wrote: post #108
kevindeasis wrote: post #52

403 Error. TLDR the author had 2 years experience 1) Google - 140k base, 107.5k RSUs, 50k sign on, 15% bonus 2) Facebook - 160k base, 75k RSUs, 70k sign on, 10% bonus 3) Lyft - 170k base, 180k RSUs, 20k sign on 4) Dropbox - 162k base, 114k RSUs, 10k sign on 5) Airbnb - 152k base, 75k RSUs, 13.5k sign on 6) Palantir - 150k base, 51k stock options, 25k sign on, 25k bonus

I cringe every time I see Palantir still on options when their 409a valuation must be very close to their preferred price at this point.

From what I have read about the potential Palantir IPO in 2019, they might be valued less than current 20 billion valuation if they IPO, potentially much less. It will depend on how well they do in 2018, that will be key year if they are going for 2019 IPO.
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