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The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

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Re: The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

#121

Post by justaguyhere »

gnulinux wrote: post #88
reggieband wrote: post #73

I swear, every time I read an article on HN about salary it gives me anxiety. I'm perpetually worried that I'm not earning as much as I should be earning. I don't think it is healthy but I can't look away.

I have the same problem. I'm actually intentionally underpaid because this way (1) I have less anxiety about getting fired (2) I have less problems with imposter syndrome (3) I worry less about being underpaid since I know I'm underpaid. I know most people will think this is extremely irrational, but I'm paid about 3 times more than I can spend (I live very cheap and am happy this way) so I already save 2/3 of my tak…

I know I am getting underpaid, but I am okay with it. For me, it is the ratio of money and stress that matters. Lets say I get 20% hike but it comes with 50% more stress. I'd say no thanks and be happy with what I got. Better work is welcome, but more stress isn't.

Re: The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

#122

Post by maxxxxx »

tombert wrote: post #74
maxxxxx wrote: post #12

This not Silicon Valley but in my company product managers start in a higher bracket than engineers. They also seem to have a steadier career progression. They seem to get promoted more regularly.

This. A couple years ago I was promised a promotion that I didn't get because of "budgetary reasons". I find it funny that despite that, literally every PM that I met managed to get promoted.

My theory is that engineers are too honest, take new initiatives too literally or simply not politically savvy. Everybody complains about title inflation but the engineering department is the only department that actually does something about it. We have the same with travel expenses. My department does often not even do necessary travel while everybody else goes to "offsite" meetings and "kickoffs" and a ton of other stuff all the time.

Re: The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

#124

Post by jordache »

someguydave wrote: post #118
g9yuayon wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Supply and demand? My assumption is the less challenging a technical project becomes, the more supply of engineering talents can work on the project. There should be more generalists after all. And dynamics of supply and demand will determine if engineers will be able to "hold out for ownership".

What, precisely, limits the supply of people who have "product talents to figure out what is valuable to produce"? Why are are people with such skills apparently more rare than people with technical skills?

I think as a mathematical comparison. Given a successful product, there are likely way more engineers than product people.

Re: The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

#125

Post by riazrizvi »

g9yuayon wrote: post #103

This hardly comes as a surprise. How many companies, especially startups, really need to tackle tough technical challenges? On the other hand, how many companies desperately need product talents to figure out what is valuable to produce? In addition, engineers have commoditized many technical solutions that used to be challenging in the past 15 years. Scaling used to be a tough challenge, not any more for many compan…

Waves hand, "We can always throw some more engineers at that part of the problem, what's really hard is figuring out what to do", said the project manager, and the product manager, and the QA manager, and the manager-manager. Meanwhile, talking heads in also ran companies in Silicon Valley continued to sell off stock in the mantra, "Innovation is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration".

Re: The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

#127

Post by CDRdude »

gammarator wrote: post #51

I felt ill just looking at the office plan in the lead picture (your keyboard slots in between two monitors facing the other way...). Are there places in SV with open offices that dense?

The image has more information in the metadata:

>Contestants in the 2006 Google Global Code Jam stare at their computer screens at Google's New York office Friday, Oct. 27, 2006. One hundred of the best computer coders from around the world compete for prize money and bragging rights. The finalists from 20 countries are flown to New York by Google for the competition. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Re: The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

#128

Post by rhexs »

reggieband wrote: post #73

I swear, every time I read an article on HN about salary it gives me anxiety. I'm perpetually worried that I'm not earning as much as I should be earning. I don't think it is healthy but I can't look away.

I get this same feeling reading the bogleheads.org investment forum. It's mostly comprised of the 1%, and while the investing advice really is wonderful, a lot of the questions asked are to the tune of "Is 3-10 million dollars enough to retire?" and "can I afford a 1 million dollar house making 510K a year?"

The life advice they offer has a different set of (mostly comical) issues. Mostly revolves around various permutations of "I worked 30-40 years at a company and got a pension paying out 10-20x what I contributed. If millennials would just work harder, they too could do that!"

Re: The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

#129

Post by nbeleski »

gnulinux wrote: post #88
reggieband wrote: post #73

I swear, every time I read an article on HN about salary it gives me anxiety. I'm perpetually worried that I'm not earning as much as I should be earning. I don't think it is healthy but I can't look away.

I have the same problem. I'm actually intentionally underpaid because this way (1) I have less anxiety about getting fired (2) I have less problems with imposter syndrome (3) I worry less about being underpaid since I know I'm underpaid. I know most people will think this is extremely irrational, but I'm paid about 3 times more than I can spend (I live very cheap and am happy this way) so I already save 2/3 of my tak…

> working in a nice company that lets me solve hard software problems is the most important thing

A thousand times this. Working for a small company it is expected that they won't be able to pay a highly competitive salary, but I have quite a few benefits.

However the most important part by far is being able to work solving software problems. Sometimes when doing explorative work I actually get to implement and (hopefully) reproduce recent scientific papers results. The highly technical work plus the low-pressure enviroment has been great for my mental health.

I even get to leave early the days I have classes, with no reduced pay.

Re: The highest paid workers in Silicon Valley are product managers (2016)

#130

Post by tom_b »

fipple wrote: post #91

They say data scientist salaries are the highest but I’ve also found the most noise in data science applicants. I have found a lot of candidates who can do something absolutely amazing with Tensorflow. I have found zero, and thus hired none, who can answer my real question: “I collect every conceivable bit of data on my customers and their actions. I lose 6% every month, using this data tell me why and what might fix…

That sounds quite depressing. Would you be willing to share your problem description as given to candidates here? I will say that I have several friends who work in various industries addressing your real question and none of them would be particularly identified as a "data scientist."
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