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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.

#211

Post by MrKristopher »

ewb wrote: post #105
bradlys wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Prepping for 3+ months is definitely not the baseline. I'd really need some convincing that you're getting any real incremental benefit past a week of interview prep. There's not that much ground to really cover and at some point you're just solving different versions of the same problems over and over again.

A majority of the time is spent on the "LeetCode grind." You can evaluate your own progress while you solve practice problems by checking time and checking how many solutions are correct on the first submit. Most likely 1 week would barely be enough to establish your baseline performance per category (DP, trie, etc.).

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

#212

Post by boulos »

zuhayeer wrote: post #203
tonfa wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(really like the site) sidenote, it's a bit hard to access aggregated data, I always have to click bunch of things if I want to see e.g. distribution of salaries for role in switzerland. (all the default views seem to show just a list of entries, I think you first have to pivot to company, then to location before you can see any aggregated data)

Totally, we’re just starting to accommodate for better international support. We want to auto detect and change our home page (companies and currency) based on where you are. Look out for updates!

Can I suggest making it easy to include conversion to another currency? I recently was arguing about salaries at large tech companies with employees in Bangalore and Hyderabad. It would have been convenient (for my task) to not only have the local rupee rate but the “equivalent USD” (in this case at exchange rates, not PPP).

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

#213

Post by mancerayder »

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…

I'd need to study math just to get a managerial job that doesn't use any of these math and academic skills. I'd need to answer questions like, how many marbles would it take to reach the moon. I'd be surrounded by aspie workaholics who rank low in creativity, high in analytical skills and are fully deficient in sense of humor. Literal-minded math nerds fronted by a smattering of HR people who portray the company as enlightened and woke. And all that, I can live in a high-tax, car-oriented, earthquake and drought and mudslide and forest fire-prone state that decriminalized shoplifting and prevents rezoning to solve its housing issues.

Oh my God, where do I sign up?

I'll eat my downvotes and live in my crumbling NYC neighborhood with a semblance of mental and cultural diversity. A lower salary but a good one, and I don't have to work for advertising monopolies run by marketing people.

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

#214

Post by raydev »

betaby wrote: post #204
patrick_halina wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey there’s also Canada! We don’t have San Francisco salaries but Toronto tech blows away the EU. With a job offer, you can get a visa in a few weeks.

No. Let say 120k CAD, that's 80k eur. Getting 80k euro in Germany is as hard (or as easy if you wish) as 120k in Canada.

A raw currency conversion isn't meaningful. It doesn't account for cost of living.

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

#215

Post by refurb »

dcolkitt wrote: post #55
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...

It's incredible to me that most of the surplus wealth generated by all of humanity's innovation in the 21st century has basically accumulated to property owners in the Bay Area and Seattle. This is only a slight exaggeration.

“Most of the surplus wealth” seems like a massive exaggeration. I don’t see too many FAANG employees spending “most” of their wealth on real estate.

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

#216

Post by redis_mlc »

betaby wrote: post #162
dilyevsky wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize it’s the price of a lot? That house is a teardown

I'm under impression everything is a teardown yet people live in those. Same in Vancouver and Toronto.

> everything is a teardown

In the Bay Area, "cockroach-infested teardown." FTFY.

(The Bay Area is a warm climate, so cockroaches are legion.)

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

#217

Post by zuhayeer »

dmode wrote: post #124
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/

Quick question: does this account for recent massive stock price inflation ? My comp at one of these places matched what you have here early to mid last year, but since then has gone up quite a bit due to the stock market

Yes, it may – our aggregates account for the latest information at a specific level which can include data points for individuals who have been at a company and experienced stock growth. However, when you drill down into the individual data points (https://levels.fyi/comp.html?showFilters), you can take a look at, and filter by the "Years at Company" field to distinguish how long the employee has been in their current role.

We do believe that the stock growth in the market in general influences the monetary amounts of new stock grants. The bull run in essence contributes to larger stock grants through a cascading effect, as people who are looking to switch to another company expect higher and more competitive packages to make the leap.

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

#218

Post by betaby »

raydev wrote: post #214
betaby wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Let say 120k CAD, that's 80k eur. Getting 80k euro in Germany is as hard (or as easy if you wish) as 120k in Canada.

A raw currency conversion isn't meaningful. It doesn't account for cost of living.

Sure, and say Munich ~ Toronto in that regard https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

So why move to Canada?

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

#219

Post by ggm »

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/

I declined a role in the USA with severe performance anxiety over asking for 2-3x my current salary. I learned from your report I should have declined for asking 6-8x my current salary, with stock options.

I still would have had performance anxiety, but it would have been bigger, and bigger, is better, right?

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

#220

Post by laurencerowe »

stack_underflow wrote: post #103
tomatotomato37 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Equity is great when the stock market is booming, but when it decides to drop off a cliff every decade or so for whatever reason I'd prefer if my actual salary didn't go with it

Sure, but there are also strategies to buffer yourself from that. Barring the first year where you have to wait/make it up to the 12-month mark to get the full 25% of your equity paid out, 99% of companies (i.e. almost everyone except for Amazon IME) will vest 1/4 of your annual 25% stock comp quarterly - I've even seen 1/12th-monthly in an offer. If you're willing to take the short-term cap gains hit you can sell yo…

By my understanding RSUs vest monthly at Google and Facebook with no cliff, making them a slightly more volatile cash equivalent. Many diversify immediately by auto-selling the bulk of their stock grants and buying tracker funds.
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