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Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

spectrum.ieee.org

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Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#81

Post by zuhayeer »

mmmBacon wrote: post #33
zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

Honestly your site blows away the competition. AFAIK you have the best data. Great work and bravo on making compensation more transparent.

Appreciate it!

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#82

Post by CrazyDave »

opportune wrote: post #65
lhorie wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, the difference between the two tiers comes down to public companies that pay equity with real stock vs those who are not public and cannot offer comp in the form of liquid equity.

Several of those companies are not public. They are indeed offering paper money, but if you trust valuations during fundraising rounds (and given how late stage Stripe, Robinhood are) it's a pretty safe bet.

Aren't more volatile valuations also better for the value seeking employees? Let's say in 1 year there's a 50% chance of the valuation going up 3x, and a 50% chance of it going down to 0.

You rest and vest if it goes up, or find another company if it fails. The ante would be 1 year's RSU and job searching for a payoff of 3 years worth of RSUs.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#83

Post by ghaff »

majormajor wrote: post #72
ghaff wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, absolutely relevant as a backward looking measure to offer a potential new employer a baseline--to the degree you want to share it. Certainly, when I last got a new job, I handwaved a bit around "counting bonuses etc." when giving a salary. (Was a private company so no stock.) On the other hand, the fact that your comp could drop by $100K next year because your company's stock was flat or a bit down is probably…

> On the other hand, the fact that your comp could drop by $100K next year because your company's stock was flat or a bit down is probably at least somewhat relevant. Sure, but that applies to cash-comp too, for companies paying big cash bonuses instead of equity. If the overall economic environment turns downward, your share grants if paid in equity are gonna be worth less than in the last 5 years, and if paid in ca…

Right. I was specifically responding to the parent around stock-based comp.But, yeah, if your comp is 75% variable there's a real possibility it could be cut in half if things go south. Of course, you could also be laid off but that's a somewhat higher bar.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#84

Post by bradlys »

fwiwm2c wrote: post #70

These numbers are ridiculously low. Here is what a typical FAANG setup pays you in the bay area (Source: I have worked in a couple of them): IC5 Eng (~5 yrs exp): $350k/yr all in (cash+stock+bonus) IC6 Eng (~9 yrs exp): $550k/yr all in IC7 Eng (~12 yrs exp and you are exceptional): $800k/yr As you go from IC5 to IC7, your stock and bonus goes up (as expected). A typical IC7 will earn around $250k in cash, ~25% bonus…

The competition for these roles is extremely intense. Even doing well isn't sufficient in pandemic times. The baseline of prepping every night + weekend for 3+ months still isn't enough to guarantee you'll get in. Get unlucky and join an org like Ads at FB and you're gonna be miserable AF. Add in the general huge amount of luck that is involved with what interviewer you get, the hiring environment going on, and it's possible you'll spend years in purgatory waiting to get into FAANG.

I think if you're really into spending your free time doing competitive programming, reading about system design, and making sure to have some interesting tech on your resume then it's not a big deal. Personally, I'm not any of that - so, getting into FAANG has been a real PITA. I still try but it's sooo painful now. The difficulty has just skyrocketed for someone who doesn't do those things in their free time.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#85

Post by walrus01 »

sharkweek wrote: post #52

I cannot believe how high tech salaries are right now in my city (Seattle) versus even three years ago the last time I had a "real" job. What would have been a low 100s salary three years ago is easily pushing over 200k now. This is all well and good except for when one of those folks tries to go to buy a house here and is outbid by 15 people all offering cash with 200k in escalation clauses...

> I cannot believe how high tech salaries are right now in my city (Seattle)

they had better be, to keep up with cost of living, have you priced real estate in seattle recently?

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#86

Post by smabie »

dangwu wrote: post #38
mmmBacon wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly your site blows away the competition. AFAIK you have the best data. Great work and bravo on making compensation more transparent.

Agreed. I'm always shocked when I go to Glassdoor and see how wrong the compensation is.

Glassdoor systematically underestimates total compensation for pretty much every position I've looked at. Not exactly sure why that is.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#87

Post by lhorie »

fwiwm2c wrote: post #70

These numbers are ridiculously low. Here is what a typical FAANG setup pays you in the bay area (Source: I have worked in a couple of them): IC5 Eng (~5 yrs exp): $350k/yr all in (cash+stock+bonus) IC6 Eng (~9 yrs exp): $550k/yr all in IC7 Eng (~12 yrs exp and you are exceptional): $800k/yr As you go from IC5 to IC7, your stock and bonus goes up (as expected). A typical IC7 will earn around $250k in cash, ~25% bonus…

No, they are expensive. Consider average software eng pay for Duolingo (Pittsburgh) is ~180k/yr total comp, but houses there go for like $120k. IC7 is like top 5-10%. Also, CA income taxes are high.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#89

Post by smabie »

zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

Have you considered adding finance/investment/trading salaries? It's super great for tech (one high paying field) and I think it would be really great for finance (another high paying field).

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#90

Post by dekhn »

legerdemain wrote: post #51
riantogo wrote: post #49

For those outside Silicon Valley why might think, "you could live like a king with that kind of money", here is a potential home you are looking at ($2M, 1200 sqft, 7 rated schools): https://www.redfin.com/CA/Palo-Alto/3785-Park-Blvd-94306/hom...

Somewhat visible in some of the outdoor photos: a railroad right-of-way is located directly behind this house , with at least two trains per hour from early morning until midnight.

I could easily afford a home in the bay area if I was more tolerant to noise. I live 1.5 miles away from the train and I can hear it quite clearly (the horns, as well as the track noise), but it's distant.
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