Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#481

Post by fnbr » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:25 PM UTC

allturtles wrote: post #440

cactus2093 wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your example is not actually that crazy at FAANG level companies. I know a lot of people in their early 30's that are L6 or even L7 at big tech companies, maybe they've changed jobs every 2 years on average in their career which is well under 9 times, and those level of roles have a total comp of 500k-750k/yr. With a 4-year stock grant and some luck on the stock performance in that time, that can turn into well over…

I've also seen people get to L7 or equivalent by age 30, and they have done it by being phenomenal engineers who quickly produce great results of impressive scope. I'm skeptical that a median engineer can get to L7 by just job-hopping a few times getting promoted each time. If nothing else, organizations just don't need more than a small percent of their people doing L7 level work.

Yeah. Job-hopping tends to top out around L5/L6, in my experience.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#482

Post by bogomipz » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:26 PM UTC

lumost wrote: post #201

indecisive_user wrote: post #5

>the average tech worker’s salary [will] reach $104,566 in the U.S. — a 6.9% increase since 2020, the report found. But inflation is over 11% since 2020. This isn't an increase. The average tech worker is making less than they were 2 years ago according to the Dice salary report. Why do tech workers feel underpaid? Many companies posted record growth and profits over the pandemic, but still give out paltry 3-5% raise…

you know, I'd be very curious what kinds of radical interview approaches teams have considered to break out of the LC mold. A little LC is useful in an interview situation, if an engineer can't do a simple 20-30 line coding problem or reason over the constraints/design space - then there is a good chance that they will need help with core coding in the day to day (which may not be a deal breaker in every employer). A…

>"Build a service/program to a spec via take home."

The problem with this is that the company has no skin in the game. Sadly flakey companies and recruiters are prevalent enough that it's not at all uncommon for a company to ask you to complete their "take home" assignment and then never get back to you. I've had it happen enough that I would simply refuse this now. I think if a company wants you to spend 3-4 hours on their take home project they should pay you for that time.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#483

Post by calculatte » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:26 PM UTC

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #268

technovader wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and then goes out to buy groceries for family that cost 50% more than a year ago. and then has to fill up on gas but decides to just walk

if cheap gas is the reason you're driving instead of walking, gas is too cheap

if expensive gas is the reason you're walking instead of driving, gas is too expensive

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#484

Post by atwebb » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:27 PM UTC

twblalock wrote: post #466

atwebb wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I so out of touch that this sounds insane? Mortgages are leverage and that's a whole lot of it.

Mortgages are not just leverage. They also lock in your cost of housing. For example, people who rent in major cities have seen their rents increase by 30% or more over the past few years. Housing prices have also gone up by that much. On the other hand, someone who bought a home a few years ago has not seen their monthly payment change -- and it will not change for 30 years if they got a fixed-rate mortgage! In the…

It still sounds insane to me, I've made an assumption anyone with a $1M home (or above) is either carrying much less via down payment or is in the $4-500k / yr range.

Most responses on an assumption that, inflation adjusted, housing prices only rise. For many areas this is not true, the bay might not be one of them, it is probably even more localized for the areas that are more protected from downturns.

From your example, a house would be around $5.5k/month before maintenance / capital costs on take home of ?12-14k?. Seems rough, especially if one of those salaries is lost or degrades.

It is all perspective though, we're used to lots of space and size. My normal is other people's insane.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#485

Post by dathinab » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:27 PM UTC

jason0597 wrote: post #175

gambiting wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but things like health insurance can easily cost $1000+ a month if you want full coverage and/or have some bad health conditions(and you still need to have a big pot of savings in case you need to use it, because your out of pocket excess might be 10k or more). In most european countries the monthly cost is nowhere near that, it scales with your salary(down to zero if you don't earn anything) and still covers y…

> but things like health insurance can easily cost $1000+ a month if you want full coverage Yeah but if you multiple that by 12, you get something like $12k, or $15k for argument's sake. That $15k does not explain the disparity between a €55k/yr salary and a $150k/yr salary, so clearly there is another force that is at play here.

The force of FAANG.

Wait it's now MAANA?, MAAAN? and given Disney basically replacing the business of Netflix is it MAAAD now?

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#486

Post by happymellon » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:29 PM UTC

zeku wrote: post #422

happymellon wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the UK is taxed lower than California? And we have more public services? What do they spend it on?

Mainly military budget if you google it. A common American complaint is "subsidizing" European defense off of our tax dollars. America is also a big spread out place so maintaining it is more expensive than small Euro countries. On my first point, I think we get a rather strategic advantage from being the "Western" police. However I'm just explaining a common critique you'll hear.

California pays for NATO?

Other states might end up having similar tax rates, i was just curious what made Californias so high. If that is mostly federal income tax then never mind!

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#487

Post by dathinab » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:31 PM UTC

dqpb wrote: post #335

tjansen wrote: post #10

It also makes us Europeans feel underpaid :) I have 20 years of experience and don't even make six figures. $350000 base pay sounds like a different world.

Why are European software engineers so underpaid?

E.g. in Germany the side costs are much higher then in the US. E.g. the cost of paying 80k€ salary is much more then 80k€ for the company.

But in the end the main reason is SV/FAANG.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#488

Post by jcadam » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:32 PM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #461

jcadam wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

15 years in. Stuck at 200K, and I doubt that's going to go up much because the layoffs have started and we're heading back into "lucky to have a job" territory.

>"Stuck at 200K, and I doubt that's going to go up much because the layoffs have started and we're heading back into "lucky to have a job" territory." Where have there have the layoffs started? What evidence do you have that we are "heading back into 'lucky to have a job' territory"?

Were you around in 2008?

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#489

Post by jcadam » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:34 PM UTC

mrep wrote: post #463

acchow wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By “in the south making six figure salaries” do you mean $300k on 4 YOE?

My target is $250k, I'm getting $350k due to stock growth and I am remote with 6 YOE.

$200K with 15 YOE - I think that's pretty typical. I know people with even more experience who make less. Recruiters I talk to balk when I ask for $250K.

Re: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid

#490

Post by jacurtis » Wed, May 11, 2022, 7:36 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #430

thoughtpalette wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due to anecdotal reasons, going to have to disagree. Last switch was a 39% increase at 11 years in industry. The market is hot. Most of my friends/colleagues have seen a similar increase the last year. Obviously market, location, expertise will vary, etc. YMMV.

It's more accurate to say that job-hopping has diminishing returns. Get a single +39% increase is one thing. Getting a +39% increase every single time you change jobs isn't going to happen. If that was possible, you could change jobs every year for a decade and be earning 27X what you started with. If you started at $100K, that would put you at $2.7 million year after 10 iterations. That's why whenever someone insist…

Yes, job hopping is incredibly lucrative and beneficial early in your career. You can work at companies for 12-18 months, jump to another company and get a 40-50% increase between your first 1-3 jobs. That is far faster than sticking around at a single company for even 5 years.

This decreases over your mid-career. You can still get good job bumps of 15% - 25% in your mid years by job hopping.

But later in your career you will get rewarded by loyalty and sticking around. Those massive salaries that everyone brags about generally (not always, but usually) come from internal promotion or from poaching. Those careers require you to be part of specialized teams with high-value business-specific knowledge. Those job roles are not given to engineers who job-hop. Simply put, in your late career, if you are only staying at companies for 12-18 months, then you are not getting deep enough into your specialty to be worth the insane salaries. So long term loyalty becomes much greater rewarded.

This is another reason why I recommend people stay away from FAANG early in your career and move to those jobs later. Early on, you should job hop through smaller companies where you aren't as enticed to stick around and you can more easily get promotions. Then settle down later in your career at the large companies who want and reward loyalty with insane compensation packages.