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Compare career levels across companies

levels.fyi

221–230 of 428 posts

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#221
post #36

Either I was: 1) seriously underpaid at Google, 2) things have changed a lot in the past half year or 3) the stats do not reflect real averages.

I'm not surprised. From personal and friends experiences, Google will lowball you if you don't have any competing offers.

As they should. It isn't a charity. A candidate without competing offers also represents a greater risk, because you don't have that additional signal of "somebody else wants this person too." But compensation ramps up quite quickly if you are good, likable, and not too unlucky.

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two problems with these: 1) If you aren't at one of these companies, it's not a fair comparison. It's really difficult to find a pre-IPO company who is going to compensate you like these, if for no other reason than that options are just not something you can easily stick a dollar value on. 2) It's kind of depressing. It's very easy to find people at similar experience levels as you making FAR more money (p…

> For instance, a Google recruiter once told me to spend a few months becoming a Python expert, and then they'd interview me (in Python); Most SWE hires are generalists at Google, not tied to a specific language. Unless you're being hired for a specialist role, you should absolutely be able to interview in the language of your choice. It's sometimes harder to put together an interview slate for a less popular languag…

> you should absolutely be able to interview in the language of your choice.

Except the choice is between Java, C++ and Python. They are very clear about that, asking what your preference is during the scheduling phase.

I went through the interview process this year, and even tried to ask my interviewers if it was ok to do Kotlin instead of Java. It wasn't.

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#223
Is this an accurate representation of comp? For the equity portion, for example if the value is calculated at 2018 peak stock market levels (RSU are granted in # of shares, not value of shares) then shouldn't all the equity values be discounted by the 10-20% drop in FANG stock values?

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#224
post #7

Here's a slightly related open question: Are Engineers in the US just much richer than in the UK? For perspective, I started my career with an MEng in Electronic and Electrical Engineering as a Hardware Design Engineer at £35k (I out-earned most of my fellow graduates). It seems like these salaries are just comically disjointed from my entire experience of life. Can anyone here speak to the differences? Everything I'…

A 6-figure salary, + bonus, + options / RSUs is quite achievable for an above-average software engineer in London.

It's much easier to do as a contractor / consultant. If you are looking to be hired as a senior engineer, it's hard to get an offer much over 85k, but that number is even easier to get to.

London is not northern CA. Depending on whether you value outdoors or culture, it might be better or worse. I far prefer London, and proximity to the continent. CA is fantastic if you like outdoor stuff though.

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#225
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I know of this team, and I'd love to work with them. The problems they are solving sound really interesting. I guess I am afraid of joining under the understanding I'd join that particular team, but then find I'm shuffled onto some boring Java CRUD app, with no escape. I've nothing against those apps, but I've been there done that, and I'm not interested in it.

Reach out to them? I’m sure they can work something out..

Thanks! I think I will

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#226
post #40
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for Google in London and SF, the was a significant salary difference but also some personal growth. Still it could be at least 2-3x

Right, I get the salary is 2-3x, but does that translate to a much bigger house? Better schools for your kids? Holidays to St Moritz? Or is it more like, 2-3x most of which goes into rent, health insurance and local taxes?

It depends on the level you're talking about. At the lower levels, then the difference might be spent on rent. (Although it's not like London is a cheap place to live.) At the higher levels, this is obviously going to be totally swamped by the absolute differences. If you take home $300k/y and a holiday in St Moritz is a priority, it is certainly affordable. (Although honestly it's not that great of a ski resort, even if it is posh. Come check out Colorado and Utah.)

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#227
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has a few Haskell hackers. I imagine they need a few more to combat not only spam but fake accounts, fake news and fake viral posts. Huge opportunity right there. I don't work at Facebook but follow their tech blog. https://code.fb.com/security/fighting-spam-with-haskell/

Yeah I know of this team, and I'd love to work with them. The problems they are solving sound really interesting. I guess I am afraid of joining under the understanding I'd join that particular team, but then find I'm shuffled onto some boring Java CRUD app, with no escape. I've nothing against those apps, but I've been there done that, and I'm not interested in it.

In general, Facebook allows people to pick their own teams. You go through bootcamp, interview teams and managers, and then pick what you want to work on. Can't hurt to reach out and see, at least!

Also, even the PHP/Hack code is way more delightful than any Java codebase I've touched. :P

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For instance, a Google recruiter once told me to spend a few months becoming a Python expert, and then they'd interview me (in Python); Most SWE hires are generalists at Google, not tied to a specific language. Unless you're being hired for a specialist role, you should absolutely be able to interview in the language of your choice. It's sometimes harder to put together an interview slate for a less popular languag…

> you should absolutely be able to interview in the language of your choice. Except the choice is between Java, C++ and Python. They are very clear about that, asking what your preference is during the scheduling phase. I went through the interview process this year, and even tried to ask my interviewers if it was ok to do Kotlin instead of Java. It wasn't.

Maybe that's your experience, but there are a number of people that didn't have that experience. I mean, you think Google isn't going to let you use a language they invented in an interview? Maybe your interviewer was a jerk, or maybe this was for a very specific role in which only those languages are applicable, but almost all jobs at Google are generalists.

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For instance, a Google recruiter once told me to spend a few months becoming a Python expert, and then they'd interview me (in Python); Most SWE hires are generalists at Google, not tied to a specific language. Unless you're being hired for a specialist role, you should absolutely be able to interview in the language of your choice. It's sometimes harder to put together an interview slate for a less popular languag…

> you should absolutely be able to interview in the language of your choice. Except the choice is between Java, C++ and Python. They are very clear about that, asking what your preference is during the scheduling phase. I went through the interview process this year, and even tried to ask my interviewers if it was ok to do Kotlin instead of Java. It wasn't.

[deleted]

Re: Compare career levels across companies

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two problems with these: 1) If you aren't at one of these companies, it's not a fair comparison. It's really difficult to find a pre-IPO company who is going to compensate you like these, if for no other reason than that options are just not something you can easily stick a dollar value on. 2) It's kind of depressing. It's very easy to find people at similar experience levels as you making FAR more money (p…

So what you're saying is that this tool is bad because it makes you sad ?. Information is empowering use it to make informed choices about your career. If you're taking less money, make sure there is some trade off you're happy with. Also, most Google jobs are language agnostic. You can code in pretty much one of C/C++, Java, Python, Google hires for generalists. Your Ruby experience is not what's holding you back, s…

Says google is code agnostic.

Provides list of the three languages you specifically need to code in.

Perhaps agnostic means something different in my language :p

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