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We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

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Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#41

Post by vmception »

zuhayeer wrote: post #21
uyt wrote: post #15

How do you account for stock/option appreciation? Which number is displayed on the site? There might be a huge difference between a person reporting their total compensation from their offer letter (according to the fair market value at the time) vs what it is after a few years of appreciation.

We think of data points on our platform as snapshots of salaries in time. Currently, we ask for the last reported year of compensation which would include stock appreciation. You can distinguish this on our compensation page by filtering the "Years at Company" field: https://levels.fyi/comp.html?showFilters When the Years at Company field is 0 it is a new offer.

by mixing offers with tax returns, you are creating way too much noise.

if you want to educate people and also raise awareness, you get a lot of pushback from people that do not believe anyone is making these amounts, people will literally debate the point because they are barely making $90k, and then your site comes along and the only source I can give shows people making $500k but really their compensation package would have said $320k annually. These are unnecessary hairs to split with an audience that understands none of it. They wouldn't believe the $320k or the reported $500k.

I think your site should either choose one standard, or add further metadata to what compensation people are getting/reporting. A scatterplot or graph that showed offer vs annual compensation would help. Reaching back out to people that uploaded offers to upload their tax document would help.

Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#42

Post by zuhayeer »

dilat wrote: post #23
zuhayeer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup the higher you go in level, the larger your stock compensation is to tie you to company growth and align incentives. A company that's the exception to this is Netflix: https://www.levels.fyi/company/Netflix/salaries/Software-Eng... They have one level and pay all cash with an option to convert some of it to equity.

How does Netflix compete for post-senior talent with only one level? (i.e. “staff” and beyond)

Their compensation philosophy is to pay at personal top of market for most roles. That said, compensation packages can differ significantly on a case by case basis depending on candidate experience. What they may not capture in title / level, they capture in variance of salary.

Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#44

Post by kyawzazaw »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #39
cyrux004 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, this what I understand. Before the remote workplace, they were just too comfy in their location to think about locating to the limited tech cities where these salaries are being paid

I mean, I'll be honest, I make around 50k in a non tech job in a low cost of living area.i really don't want for anything. Maybe I just don't like really expensive toys, but anything I want, I buy. I go on nice vacations in country, plenty of wilderness around me. I don't have to look at receipts or bills before paying them and I never think about my bank account. I'm really totally unsure what making 500k instead wo…

Financial Independence is a big thing. (Not just retire)

Do you have kids? Have you thought about generational wealth? These are the things that are in people's minds. If you want to understand more visit subreddits like /r/FIRE or /r/bogelheads or /r/personalfinance?

Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#45

Post by kyawzazaw »

whymauri wrote: post #27
zests wrote: post #25

It feels like there are two classes of engineers in the US. One class of engineers makes 60k-120k and the other makes 150k-500k. Is this just a really well kept secret? I don't really see many engineers trying to migrate from the first class to the second class. I'd expect most software engineers would jump through hoops at the prospect of doubling their salary.

From the people I've talked to, they enjoy the WLB and location of their job enough to not hop.

I think people wrong associate high pay with bad WLB at top paying tech companies

Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#46

Post by borroka »

dilat wrote: post #23
zuhayeer wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup the higher you go in level, the larger your stock compensation is to tie you to company growth and align incentives. A company that's the exception to this is Netflix: https://www.levels.fyi/company/Netflix/salaries/Software-Eng... They have one level and pay all cash with an option to convert some of it to equity.

How does Netflix compete for post-senior talent with only one level? (i.e. “staff” and beyond)

One level, but different compensation. For SWE IC, it can range between 300k and 700 (plus in some cases). The same for higher levels, there is a big variance in comp. You can use up to full salary to get options (not shares) at 40% (used to be, I don't know now).

Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#47

Post by reidjs »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #39
cyrux004 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, this what I understand. Before the remote workplace, they were just too comfy in their location to think about locating to the limited tech cities where these salaries are being paid

I mean, I'll be honest, I make around 50k in a non tech job in a low cost of living area.i really don't want for anything. Maybe I just don't like really expensive toys, but anything I want, I buy. I go on nice vacations in country, plenty of wilderness around me. I don't have to look at receipts or bills before paying them and I never think about my bank account. I'm really totally unsure what making 500k instead wo…

Once you get to higher levels of income it sounds cliche but certain doors open up. You start rubbing shoulders with “influential people.” Now that money is no longer on your mind, you realize the value of your time over everything else. It’s a different perspective on everyday situations. I don’t think money is a prerequisite to have this mindset, like you said, you don’t want for anything more. but once you get a taste of the luxury it’s hard to go back

Mo money mo problems.

Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#48

Post by devoutsalsa »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #39
cyrux004 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, this what I understand. Before the remote workplace, they were just too comfy in their location to think about locating to the limited tech cities where these salaries are being paid

I mean, I'll be honest, I make around 50k in a non tech job in a low cost of living area.i really don't want for anything. Maybe I just don't like really expensive toys, but anything I want, I buy. I go on nice vacations in country, plenty of wilderness around me. I don't have to look at receipts or bills before paying them and I never think about my bank account. I'm really totally unsure what making 500k instead wo…

> besides retiring super early

The less obvious one is save a shit ton of money so you never have to worry about big healthcare expenses, whether it be illness or injury. It's amazing how quickly life can go from pretty good to pretty not good when you're unable to work for a while, especially when your health insurance is tied to your employment. One bad bike accident took me from a six figure income at the beginning of my career to struggling for over a decade, including a stretch of homelessness.

Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#49

Post by arwhatever »

kyawzazaw wrote: post #45
whymauri wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the people I've talked to, they enjoy the WLB and location of their job enough to not hop.

I think people wrong associate high pay with bad WLB at top paying tech companies

I’ve wondered about this myself - might you have any more information or be able to point me/us to any particularly good data sources?

Re: We're Levels.fyi, the most accurate resource for tech salaries, ask us anything

#50

Post by Zaheer »

mercutio2 wrote: post #24

My observation, as a hiring manager, is that levels.fyi data for my company is consistently representative of the highest compensated 10% of my team, but presents itself as reflecting something closer to median compensation for a given role. Is this deliberate?

As others have pointed out, there's a bit of selection bias at play. We don't manipulate any data. Keep in mind most people come to our site / contribute when they have a new offer, are in the job-seeking process, or savvy about their pay. As we grow, I'd hope this effect fizzles out more. New offers tend to be higher than compensation of existing employees and plays into this as well.

-Zaheer (Co-Founder Levels.fyi)

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