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Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

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Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't a fintech programmer already make ~$450k (all in)

Zero chance that is typical

It's typical for fintech programmers at top-tier firms. Not typical across SWE jobs in general in NYC, of course.

The thing about fintech though is they get worked really hard. It's very much a "You eat what you kill" mentality. On an hourly basis you might be better off "only" making $300K at a FAANG and working normal 40 hour work-weeks.

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#62
post #4

This coupled with the Amazon news is starting to get distressing. With the amount of companies that copycat them it’s like the rich are getting richer and the economic benefits are still going to be concentrated only in the most affluent cities. The rest of the country desperately needs real industry and good paying jobs - and will go to huge lengths to try to get them but it appears nobody can come up with a busines…

95% of Googlers in NYC will be lifetime renters just like they are in the Bay Area. Hardly the gilded class

Way more than 5% of my coworkers at Google NYC own their own place.

You're also off on the stats for the Bay Area as well.

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#63

Counterpoint: these jobs are increasingly meh and will not be impactful on the local economy. Lifetime comp (salary + retirement benefits) for Amazonians in Crystal City will probably be less than for comparable Federal workers. Google is like any other white collar business now - a small cadre of well paid execs surrounded by an army of people just doing ok. 80% of Googlers in NYC will probably have lower lifetime e…

You're way off on your compensation figures and comparisons.

New Federal workers don't even get a pension, and the max pay band in the highest CoL areas is $164,200/year. Note that it would typically take decades of experience to reach that, as tenure factors in a lot on which pay band you're in.

You're also vastly overestimating how much police and firefighters make. You're looking at the outlier figures and acting as if it's the norm.

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#64
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given Google's penchant for lowballing people without FANG experience or competing offers, probably not.

Do you have any references for this? It definitely seems plausible and matches my (very limited) experience with a few friends that have joined Google, but I was wondering if you have any links. I guess you would have to accept joining with a lower salary, and then try to switch to another FANG company to get a fair salary?

Well, there's me. I passed their interview gauntlet, but their initial offer was well under what I currently make, and their second barely matched it. They also badly down-leveled me (which is partially my fault for not insisting on an L5 interview loop).

From my direct experience, and talking to other people who have negotiated with Google, the only ways to get a good offer out of them is to either come from a FAANG or get a competing offer from one.

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#65

If it's going to make NYC a major engineering hub, on a similar scale as Mountain View, then it's a huge deal. If it's going to be mainly non-technical roles, then meh.

If NYC becomes a monoculture like SV than it truly is a big deal.

NYC is the largest city in the nation and is the main hub of many industries including finance, fashion, network TV, publishing, and advertising. The population of the overall NYC metropolitan area is 24 million.

The only way to change it into as much of a monoculture as Silicon Valley would be to add tens of millions of tech workers, without adding any attendant employees to service industries. Not gonna happen.

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#66
post #4

This coupled with the Amazon news is starting to get distressing. With the amount of companies that copycat them it’s like the rich are getting richer and the economic benefits are still going to be concentrated only in the most affluent cities. The rest of the country desperately needs real industry and good paying jobs - and will go to huge lengths to try to get them but it appears nobody can come up with a busines…

95% of Googlers in NYC will be lifetime renters just like they are in the Bay Area. Hardly the gilded class

95% of Googlers in NYC who insist on living in Manhattan. Hell, not even then.

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#67

Counterpoint: these jobs are increasingly meh and will not be impactful on the local economy. Lifetime comp (salary + retirement benefits) for Amazonians in Crystal City will probably be less than for comparable Federal workers. Google is like any other white collar business now - a small cadre of well paid execs surrounded by an army of people just doing ok. 80% of Googlers in NYC will probably have lower lifetime e…

How sustainable are those retirement benefits/pensions given the finances of many states and municipalities? There is already news about pension cuts, etc in several places and it will likely get worse in the future.

Basically you depend on the local government to make good financial decisions (the fact that your pension is so high might be a counter-signal to that).

If you work in top tech companies and save enough, possibly with the option to relocate to cheaper areas when retired, you can have more ensured returns from investing judiciously in bonds/stocks.

Should you trust your own responsibility to manage finances or the local government you work for?

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 80% of Googlers in NYC will probably have lower lifetime earnings than firefighters or cops once you factor in pensions No way. How much do you think Google entry level fresh graduate engineers earn in total compensation?

You will probably be retired for thirty years. Public employees are getting paid for those years, techies aren't. I have a relative who is retired CHP. $200k a year total retirement benefits. Show me a rank and file Googler who has that lined up. Typical techie trajectory will be maximum salary around age forty and then increasing irrelevance As I tell everyone in tech now - imagine 64. It's coming.

Very, very few retired CHP are getting $200k/year. The average CHP pension is The average Googler should be making 300-400k+/yr after 5 years. If that Googler is willing to live on a CHP salary for 30 years, it should be trivial to have saved well over $2.6million. They should, in fact, be able to save well over double that over 30yrs giving you the equivalent of that $200k a year in benefits.

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#69

If it's going to make NYC a major engineering hub, on a similar scale as Mountain View, then it's a huge deal. If it's going to be mainly non-technical roles, then meh.

If NYC becomes a monoculture like SV than it truly is a big deal.

NYC is one of the most diverse cities in the world. There are 800 languages alone spoken in Queens. NYC will never become a monoculture because it can never price out immigrants, otherwise the city would die, unless they want to replace cheap labor with robots. Who else is going to make all the avocado toasts, bus, drive taxis, deliver seamless, and serve drinks in the city that never sleeps?

https://amp.businessinsider.com/queens-languages-map-2017-2

Re: Google Plans Large New York City Expansion

#70
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any references for this? It definitely seems plausible and matches my (very limited) experience with a few friends that have joined Google, but I was wondering if you have any links. I guess you would have to accept joining with a lower salary, and then try to switch to another FANG company to get a fair salary?

Well, there's me. I passed their interview gauntlet, but their initial offer was well under what I currently make, and their second barely matched it. They also badly down-leveled me (which is partially my fault for not insisting on an L5 interview loop). From my direct experience, and talking to other people who have negotiated with Google, the only ways to get a good offer out of them is to either come from a FAANG…

in SV, got an L5 offer couple years back, barely matching my relatively low for SV total with the base lower. They pretty much refused to negotiate. The same experience as couple acquaintances - one even took such an offer and not surprisingly ran away a year later. On the other hand - some other acquaintances make $400K-$500K as L5/L6 there.
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