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Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

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Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#162

Looks like us over here in Europe are getting shafted. Even if you adjust for living expenses, European engineers are grossly underpaid.

I don't really understand why people would feel they are shafted. The reason people get paid that much is because of supply and demand, but it has little to do with what you deserve to get. Does a software engineer really need 5-10x salary compared to their peers in other industries?

Given that the salaries are so driven by market demand, it makes total sense that there's large differences in other markets. It doesn't mean you're getting shafted. Low minimum wages is what we should be getting angry about.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not a small number of positions its just a small number of companies At the moment these few companies are expanding as fast as possible and have an infinite number of positions that pay these amounts until they dont

Relative to all software development, I mean. There are tons and tons of places employing anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands of developers each, in the US, not paying anything like this. And almost no smaller shops are, of course. All the positions at all the companies like this, even though most of them are large, I'd still be surprised if it's more than a single-digit percentage of all software positions i…

Yeah but it starts to add up when you see how much the tech giants employ

These comp ranges from the growing companies on that list arent different from the tech giants

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#164
It would be really nice to see more companies that aren't the top 5. What do 6-20 look like?

I'd like to know when companies start getting to average pay levels. Is it only the top 5 companies that pay this? Or do the top 50 companies all pay really high? Is that data even available, or is it just that this represents some of the most attractive offer letters at top of bands for some of the most well funded startups and presenting the available data this way makes for a more attractive blog post?

I feel like reading too much into this top five list is causing a lot of people a lot of consternation.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#165
post #131

I still don't understand how they're defining total compensation. Federal taxable wages, like what shows up on your W-2? Or the amount you're promised including RSUs, regardless of vesting schedule?

Salary (W2 before tax) + bonus + promised RSUs.

It's not an unreasonable way to calculate it, and given the way the economy has been going in the past 10 years, it's lowballing the real taxable compensation.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#166
post #32

It’s worth nothing that most of these numbers are inflated from share price increases boosting the value of RSUs vesting over 4 years. New offers at the higher levels from those companies are unlikely to be that high unless you are coming in at the top of the pay band for the level.

The way I understand it, it's the number of RSU that are offered each year, at the time of them being offered.

If so, then the movement of the stock price is irrelevant.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#167
post #138
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm willing to relocate for better pay so that I can afford nice things. I want to have a place where I have room for a chicken coop (30 chickens) and a 1-acre fish pond. I'm willing to commute by car for a maximum of 15 minutes. A slightly longer commute might be OK if I can afford to commute by horse and the employer doesn't mind. Which tech hub should I move to?

You can find this in many places around the Bay Area outside SF. I have 5 acres and keep chickens in Woodside, and it's 15-20 minutes drive to several big tech companies in Palo Alto and Redwood City. Some people keep horses here.

Nice, but I don't see how it generally works. The highest levels of pay in the article was $950,000. Wikipedia says that in Woodside "The median household income in the town is $212,917, and the median family income is $246,042."

Double those pay numbers to determine the price of a house that a person can afford... and it is not looking good. I looked around on www.trulia.com a bit. An empty lot of questionable geological status goes for $1,500,000. A small empty lot far from the tech companies goes for $500,000. Most of the actual homes go for millions.

So I guess yeah, it could work for the experienced person earning $950,000 per year at Facebook. That would allow building $500,000 of house on the $1,500,000 empty lot, assuming you can solve the geological issues and get the permits redone.

That is the top pay listed though. It's the top level at the top company.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#168
post #35

It's important to compare apples to apples. Lists like these are incredibly misleading, as they include non-cash bonuses. First off, these bonuses (say, RSUs) take a while to vest (incurring opportunity cost), can go down (there's risk), and so on. For example, being an early junior engineer at the next unicorn can make you orders of magnitude richer than working for FB or GOOG as a distinguished engineer (basically…

Why should you exclude RSUs?

Risky or not, you'd be exceedingly dumb to not take RSUs into consideration when accepting a job offer somewhere. Chances are that they'll be a major part of your total compensation come tax filing time.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#169
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a number of people at Oracle, senior engineers mostly. They are not the online forum aficionados. They do their work, get paid go home to their family, plan vacations just like most other folks out of the tech industry. Very industrious and well deservedly compensated, if I do say so myself. Not just Oracle folks either, there are plenty of companies that are not buzzing or on everybody's lips but treat their…

I went to NC State, which SAS recruits heavily from (for obvious reasons). The people that work at SAS are not the top tier, at all. They have a surprisingly large number of test engineers too. From what I gather the 35 hour a week thing is a myth, and benefits are mediocre compared to top tech companies.

Yeah, the public perception (mostly created by the company) of SAS is very different from reality. The work is mostly boring, the pay is just ok and the lifestyle balance - while better than the Bay Area - is definitely not 35 hours a week on average. Historically the COL in the RDU area has been a major selling point but even that is changing as property prices continue to rise across the Triangle.
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