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How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

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Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#51

Post by zeroonetwothree »

dmode wrote: post #39
matchagaucho wrote: post #28

To put this in bay area perspective, that $300K per year gets broken down as: 42% Tax bracket. Net $180K per year $6K per month in rent/mortgage. Net $108K $3K per month in living expenses. $72K $1K student loans (maybe). Net $60K $1K in insurance (health / renters / home). Net $48K $1K disposable income. Net $36K $8K vacation. Net $28K ( or about $2.3K per month for savings) Not bad. But you can see how bay area cos…

This math is remotely not accurate. 42% tax rate ? Tax rates are progressive. I made a whole lot more last year and my effective Federal + State was 28%. Remember, there are a ton of deductions available. $6k in rent ?? Who pays that ? I have a large house and my mortgage payment is close to 4.5k. And I am building massive equity on my home as well as paying down an expensive asset. Home insurance is $1k for the whol…

Just tried in TurboTax. $300k income in CA has effective tax rate of 35%.

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#52

Post by trhway »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #2

200k+ for 2 years experience in the valley? That is crazy. This guy is overpaid. How realistic is this? I work in the valley I have roughly a decade of experience and I am definitely under 200k. Am I getting shafted?

The key is concurrent offers - until you're Dale Carnegie himself any other negotiating strategy doesn't even come close to the concurrent offers - those companies when pitted 2-3 against each other aren't unheard of to take the modest starting senior engineer offer of 500K all the way to 800K+. This guy pitted the 6 - I dont believe he ended up with just the meager 300K :)

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#53

Post by TuringNYC »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #2

200k+ for 2 years experience in the valley? That is crazy. This guy is overpaid. How realistic is this? I work in the valley I have roughly a decade of experience and I am definitely under 200k. Am I getting shafted?

In NY/SF I remember 1999, it was just like this. In NY I remember 2006, it was just like this.

Things spike up or down, but that doesn't mean it wont revert to the mean. Enjoy it while it lasts. Dont get cocky and come to expect it. Definitely dont make long-term commitments assuming it will go on forever.

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#54

Post by matchagaucho »

dmode wrote: post #39
matchagaucho wrote: post #28

To put this in bay area perspective, that $300K per year gets broken down as: 42% Tax bracket. Net $180K per year $6K per month in rent/mortgage. Net $108K $3K per month in living expenses. $72K $1K student loans (maybe). Net $60K $1K in insurance (health / renters / home). Net $48K $1K disposable income. Net $36K $8K vacation. Net $28K ( or about $2.3K per month for savings) Not bad. But you can see how bay area cos…

This math is remotely not accurate. 42% tax rate ? Tax rates are progressive. I made a whole lot more last year and my effective Federal + State was 28%. Remember, there are a ton of deductions available. $6k in rent ?? Who pays that ? I have a large house and my mortgage payment is close to 4.5k. And I am building massive equity on my home as well as paying down an expensive asset. Home insurance is $1k for the whol…

Enter $300K into https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes

Take home pay for CA is $185K

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#56

Post by dmoy »

thebradbain wrote: post #50
matchagaucho wrote: post #28

To put this in bay area perspective, that $300K per year gets broken down as: 42% Tax bracket. Net $180K per year $6K per month in rent/mortgage. Net $108K $3K per month in living expenses. $72K $1K student loans (maybe). Net $60K $1K in insurance (health / renters / home). Net $48K $1K disposable income. Net $36K $8K vacation. Net $28K ( or about $2.3K per month for savings) Not bad. But you can see how bay area cos…

Maybe that total would put someone in the 42% tax bracket (if you include city/state taxes, and even then I’m not sure), but that doesn’t mean someone would only keep 58% of their income, due to how a marginal tax system works, and that’s also not counting any itemized deductions and exemptions. Any decent accountant should be able to save at least $10-20k more of that fast and loose tax total. Also— if you’re paying…

Agreed. For a married couple at $300k in the bay area, less than $90k goes to taxes, and that's assuming just standard deduction. Realistically, if you're paying $6k/month for housing not including insurance, you're probably itemizing another $5-$10k above the standard deduction. And at $300k, you're hopefully maxing out a $19k 401k contribution pretax. Probably you'd be spending <$80k/year in tax.

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#57

Post by vkou »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #6
crimsonalucard wrote: post #2

200k+ for 2 years experience in the valley? That is crazy. This guy is overpaid. How realistic is this? I work in the valley I have roughly a decade of experience and I am definitely under 200k. Am I getting shafted?

Anybody willing to pay me 200k+? I'm a python expert. I know golang. I can do fullstack work but my preference is for the backend. I'm basically a polyglot, willing to do anything from scala, haskell, python, lisp, you name it. I have good fundamentals, and extensive experience diving into and navigating large/old codebases.

1. Spend a few weeks practicing the whiteboard interview format. Seriously practicing it. Get a friend to grill you for an hour over the weekend. Next weekend, get a different friend to do the same. Repeat until you can solve whiteboard bullshit problems in your sleep.

2. Interview at FANG.

3. If you get a junior-level offer, you're looking at 160-180k total comp. If you get an engineer-level offer, you're looking at 190-240k. If you get a senior-level offer, you're looking at 240-300k. These numbers will increase if you perform well for 12 months.

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#58

Post by TuringNYC »

minimaxir wrote: post #14
crimsonalucard wrote: post #2

200k+ for 2 years experience in the valley? That is crazy. This guy is overpaid. How realistic is this? I work in the valley I have roughly a decade of experience and I am definitely under 200k. Am I getting shafted?

Note that the numbers given in the article are total compensation (including stock), not just salary.

Good point. Is this the committed total comp, or total comp stuck in vesting period during which stock luckily appreciated?

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#59

Post by dmode »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #51
dmode wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This math is remotely not accurate. 42% tax rate ? Tax rates are progressive. I made a whole lot more last year and my effective Federal + State was 28%. Remember, there are a ton of deductions available. $6k in rent ?? Who pays that ? I have a large house and my mortgage payment is close to 4.5k. And I am building massive equity on my home as well as paying down an expensive asset. Home insurance is $1k for the whol…

Just tried in TurboTax. $300k income in CA has effective tax rate of 35%.

I filed my taxes with TurboTax last year. Did you account for state tax deduction, mortgage deduction, property tax deduction, standard deduction, child tax credits, 401k deductions, charity deductions, and a myriad of other options ? There is no way for anyone to say what an accurate effective rate would be. Mine was 28% last year

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#60

Post by [deleted] »

matchagaucho wrote: post #28

To put this in bay area perspective, that $300K per year gets broken down as: 42% Tax bracket. Net $180K per year $6K per month in rent/mortgage. Net $108K $3K per month in living expenses. $72K $1K student loans (maybe). Net $60K $1K in insurance (health / renters / home). Net $48K $1K disposable income. Net $36K $8K vacation. Net $28K ( or about $2.3K per month for savings) Not bad. But you can see how bay area cos…

[deleted]
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