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Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

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Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#401

Post by balfirevic »

rp1229 wrote: post #344
whiskyant wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a senior engineer at FAANG, work 40hrs/wk, and get paid $400k+/yr. The cost of living is higher, but it's well under the increase in pay for being in the area. My current living situation is actually pretty cheap; I split a 4BR house, live 7 min from work, and pay $1650/mo for my portion of rent/utilities. Most people I know tend to get 2BR apartments and split it with someone, usually paying $2000-2500/mo.

imagine making 400k+ a year and still not having a place of your own.

That person could rent entire 4 BR house to themselves, and be stuck with an equivalent of a measly 340k+ a year. It's obviously out of choice.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#402

Post by rb808 »

shawabawa3 wrote: post #399
rb808 wrote: post #382

Can anyone reconcile the difference between $227k median wage in SV and the fact that even entry level jobs listed pay more than than? Is it just the most SV jobs are not in FANG companies.

> Is it just the most SV jobs are not in FANG companies. Yes. Even in SF the majority of jobs will not be tech based at all let alone FANG

That $227k median must be SV tech jobs, the median wage for whole of USA is $32k

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#403

Post by esoterica »

monoideism wrote: post #377
qqwaabb wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing that’s significantly more expensive in the Bay Area is housing. Even with the housing prices, you will still probably come out ahead. Remember that if you own, you are building up equity in a huge asset. CoL calculators online are not accurate at all. I personally work remotely for a FAANG from the upper Midwest, but if this arrangement ever runs out I’d move to California or Seattle before I took a 30…

> I personally work remotely for a FAANG from the upper Midwest Which FAANGs hire remotely, please? And why do you think online COL calculators are inaccurate? They're relatively close to government reimbursement tables, which are pretty well-researched. Edit: Also, once again, I'm not arguing that I wouldn't come out ahead, only that you have to consider COL. So many new grads I know have moved to CA for a junior po…

Cost of living calculators are calibrated for the median budget, which looks very different from the budget of someone who makes 400k/year. Poor people spend a large fraction of their money on housing, which is much more expensive in HCOL areas and skews the cost of living multiplier. If you were only paying 5% of your income on rent in a LCOL area and your rent quadruples after moving to SF, you only need a 15% pay increase to cover that, not a 300% increase.

Also don’t forget that wealthy people can save most of their money, so an X% increase in overall expenses doesn’t need to translate to an X% increase in income.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#404

Post by mercutio2 »

monoideism wrote: post #375
throwawaymath wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think your analysis is correct. Or at least, it's really incomplete and thereby misleading. I'm going to use hard numbers as someone who lives in one of the highest COL areas, but I want to emphasize I'm doing that for illustrative purposes and not to be condescending. To begin with, the cost of basically anything you buy online from Amazon, Walmart, Apple, Best Buy, etc is the same no matter where you are in…

That's interesting. Thank you for that analysis. Again, I wasn't arguing that they were exactly equivalent. They're just not as different as they appear at first glance. It is true that you have a good chance of increasing your savings rate if you can get a job with a FAANG, which is a big deal. It's also true that it's much easier to change jobs there. That's IMHO the biggest asset and what I used to argue for movin…

It’s certainly true that senior people are unlikely to get hired at a FAANG in a senior role for their first year.

Being a high achieving senior engineer is about delivering on communication and prioritization, more than anything else. It’s very hard to evaluate a prospective hire’s day-to-day willingness to communicate and prioritize, no matter how impressive their resume.

If you do well, you’ll quickly get promoted, though.

And the salary difference is pretty negligible, relative to RSUs, and people who think of themselves as senior can often get pretty senior RSU packages, so this distinction isn’t super relevant for total compensation.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#405

Post by esoterica »

mabbo wrote: post #252
gnrlst wrote: post #190

What I find completely demotivating is working for a FAANG in Europe, and seeing the massive disparity between US colleagues. You can argue cost of living is different, healthcare is public blablabla, but recruiters have told me straight out: we dont adjust for cost of living, we adjust for market rate. Therefore they dont give a rats ass about how much it costs to live in a specific country, they just pay based on t…

There are over 1000 engineers in Amazon's Toronto office. Every one of us knows we could make a huge increase in total comp by moving to the USA. Amazon would even help us make the move, relocation support, everything. I know ~3 people who've done so after 7 years here. We just like it better here, money be damned.

Presumably the ones who wanted to move already have so you’ve never met them.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#406

Post by Bahamut »

monoideism wrote: post #385
throwawaymath wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean like downleveling? Sure, that happens a lot. The top paying companies mostly only consider engineers from similarly high paying companies to be known quantities. So if you are a staff engineer at a smaller tech company or a startup, you'll probably end up being "only" senior at Google or Facebook.

> You mean like downleveling? Sure, that happens a lot Yeah, so that's a major factor here to consider, right? We're talking about moving to a FAANG from a non-FAANG in another region. If most non-FAANG people lose a level, then it really does make the salaries less when you consider cost-of-living.

Downleveling happens, but the $ calculation almost always makes it out very much ahead. At my previous job at a startup, I was making $160k base with stock options as a tech lead/engineering manager, but at my current job at a FAANG, I was offered the same base but with $15k signing bonus and $105k RSUs that are now almost worth double as a high mid-level engineer. For me, accepting the offer was an absolutely a fantastic financial decision. Responsibility-wise, I never felt like I was given less responsibility than at a startup either.

What the downleveling does is align expectations correctly, since most people not at a top tier company likely need some time to ramp up to the expectations of the next level up. What senior/staff/principal mean at companies like Google/FB/Apple is very different from what it means at most companies.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#407

Post by mercutio2 »

eclipxe wrote: post #363
angarg12 wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add to your awesome comment, many of these companies have compensation policies that discourage retaining talent. I'll give an example of a certain FAANG. - Initial offer sets your comp for your first 4 years. - If stock outperforms the expectations (as it has historically done) you get no refreshers. - If your comp is at the top of your band, you get no/nominal raise. - Newly promoted engineers get paid the…

This setup is unique to Amazon and is not at all common everywhere else. Almost all others give refresh grants as long as performance isn’t in the bottom 5-10%.

I don’t think that’s accurate.

Refresh grants for mediocre performance are mostly a Google/Facebook thing.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#408

Post by esoterica »

overcast wrote: post #396
esoterica wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’s not “stuck” renting, he’s choosing to rent because he wants to save money and doesn’t mind having roommates. You can absolutely afford your own apartment on far less than 400k/year in the Bay Area.

So he's still renting then?

So? Not everyone is brainwashed by their banal suburban upbringing into thinking that home ownership is the highest state of enlightenment a human can achieve. I can afford to buy a place outright in cash but I still rent because I like the flexibility and have no interest in betting a large fraction of my net worth on the direction of real estate prices.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#409

Post by alistairSH »

_dark_matter_ wrote: post #346
monoideism wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I make $130k right now. If you're in a reasonable COL area, you're probably closer to FAANG salaries than you think. I make about that in a relatively low COL city in the south. After receiving some recruitment emails, I thought about FAANGs but ran the numbers and decided against it. $400000 is not nearly as awesome as it sounds if you're living in the Bay area or similar tech mecca. Note: it's an immense salary,…

I mean, by the numbers: 400k salary - 129k taxes - 72k housing (~1.2M dollar house) = ~200k left over Just off that alone, the 400k blows the $130k out of the water, no matter where in the country the $130k is living.

Does $1.2M put you within walking distance of any of the FAANG headquarters? I'm looking at Mountain View, and it appears it's more like $3M to live close to Google. There isn't anything listed (Zillow) close to Infinite Loop, Cupertino. What is listed is $1.8M+.

Just curious, as I currently walk to work and that's a massive QOL issue for me. Sitting in traffic even 60 minutes/day would be awful.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#410

Post by opportune »

tlb wrote: post #138
burfog wrote: 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.

Sure, if you have $Xmm you can spend on land or can afford the mortgage on it
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