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The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

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Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#101
post #82
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you are incorrect. That 224k is base at google not including equity. Staff engineers at google get a bonus and the majority of their comp is in equity, just like coin. Source, I have a lot of friends who are former/current staff engineers at a variety of Bay Area companies. I also was a staff engineer at coin. Also if you want to earn something like this in cash go work at Netflix when they start hiring again. The…

It's not incorrect, salary does not include equity. Total comp would be a combination of salary, equity, and bonuses. The OP refers to salary, not total comp. I'm using their information to reply in their thread. Happy to re-asses conversation at total comp (a different conversation) if they are referring to total comp instead of salary.

Coinbase isn't paying $380k base either..are you just quibbling over the meaning of salary?

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#102
post #25

There’s nothing being funded right now. If you didn’t raise before earlier this year (and really late last year) and your runway is Reminds me more of 2016 than 2k though.

I switched jobs this month and found it to be the hottest job market I’d ever encountered. That can change quickly but it hasn’t (hadn’t) happened as of a few weeks ago.

I would say things have changed noticeably just in the last 2 weeks (in terms of recruiter engagement, news about funding rounds, news about hiring freezes). If you started interviewing in early April it's a lot different than now.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#103
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they gave that number out before they assessed candidate level. But maybe that was recruiting BS as the pay for the max plausible level.

380 isn't even close to the max possible level. If this was an Engineering role, that a mid level salary. Your past experience can be a proxy for the role and level you're targeted for and thus, the comp target.

Mid-level salary where? That is an insane salary _anywhere_, no wonder the market is beginning to correct for those inflated "mid level" numbers.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#104
post #46
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a month ago was a totally different time than today. I know of a few companies that froze most hiring (including in cases where an offer was about to go out) temporarily with the last couple weeks. Of course I haven’t sampled every company. Just a very sudden defensive position springing up more and more.

Meta very publicly announced a hiring slowdown, Netflix is introducing levels and slowing down hiring, Coinbase is slowing down hiring, etc.. Even with the above names slowing down hiring, I would guess big tech uses this opportunity to stockpile even more engineers to come out of this stronger. I don't see the competition for engineers that can pass those interviews slowing down. Startups? Yes, the cohort that raise…

Coinbase has frozen hiring, and even if Netflix is still actively hiring they just laid ~2% of their workforce earlier this week.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#105
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What advice would you give to people who've not been in the tech industry during a recession yet?

Save money and have enough to live on for awhile. If you don't have savings then immediately cut your cost of living down. If you do lose your job then don't just accept anything (remember, you have savings + unemployment + severance to live on for awhile) and use this time to sharpen skills and learn new things. Make yourself more valuable. I can't see the future but I don't think it's going to be a bloodbath like t…

> "I can't see the future but I don't think it's going to be a bloodbath like the .com crash."

The world has gone ever more dependent on tech since then. Tech is used everywhere now, pervasively.

They're not re-introducing cash in cash-free economies. People aren't going back to carrying physical documents around and stashing them in high cabinets. Shopping online has only gotten more popular. Hanging out online, too. Agriculture, warfare, industry, you name it... it's not all "Uber, but for %s" out there. Somebody has to keep the lights on, right?

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#106
post #56
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at coinbase. We have standardized salary bands, this is just the salary at your level (comp plus equity, not sure if bonus is included). They are letting you know this up front to not waste your time. One other thing that’s worth noting is that each year they give you a new equity grant. That grant I believe is priced based on the stock price over a period of 30 days in the first quarter. Handy for limiting yo…

The issue they are raising is specifically that, $380k standardized salary band, what role is this? That number seems unsustainable.

This is the average salary of someone Senior - Staff in the Bay area. Coinbase indexes on the Bay for salaries, as many other companies do.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#107

I think this is just the correction that was inevitable as hiring had become a cargo cult. Everyone was hiring so everyone felt compelled to hire, creating a feedback loop of insane wages and offers. Now its time to pay the bills and many organizations realize the engineers they hired cannot possibly provide the value necessary to keep their job. I know one individual who got hired as a Sales Engineer for a platform…

I think you're misunderstanding the theory. Hiring without fixed length contract is just interviewing. It's somewhat expensive interviewing, but given the legend of the 10x developer, it is worth risking paying people more than what they are worth to try to identify them.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I can create money for myself from my belief.

you can certainly destroy money by stopping consumming as a group, which will make enterprises downscale or even go bankrupt, resulting in net losses and autoamplifying effects. Why do I even have to explain that..

I want to consume but I don’t have enough money in my bank account.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#109

My biggest question behind all of this is how interconnected is the tech bubble, and how self-perpetuating will a downturn be? The venture-backed startups that I’ve worked at have themselves utilized tools built by other venture-backed startups. It seems like there’s an entire cottage industry of SaaS tools designed to make it easier to scale up small companies. What will the effect of a startup downturn be on compan…

I definitely think there's an advertising bubble and it's popping. Lots of startups' "business model" is "growth and engagement" - pump up user and "engagement" numbers and VCs will throw money at you, and maybe you even get a bigger sucker that outright buys you out. Spend all that money on advertising & marketing to keep these "engagement" numbers going up, all while having no actual product users pay for. This in…

> I definitely think there's an advertising bubble and it's popping.

This is something I’ve been thinking about a decent amount over the past few years. Advertising is the cash cow that underpins a good chunk of tech firms’ value. But the purpose of advertising, ultimately, is to drive sales of real goods and services.

Are those tech firms really driving actual consumption to a degree that justifies their value? I suppose it’s possible, but the massive growth in tech firm valuation doesn’t seem to be paralleled by massive growth in the “real” economy.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There’s a whole generation of tech employees that have never seen a down market. Indeed. I lived through both the 2008 financial crisis and the 2000 dot com implosion (also graduated high school and went off to college right during the 1991 recession). People who entered the job market after 2015 and know nothing except recruiters constantly hitting them up with mid six figure+ job offers are in for a rude awakening…

What advice would you give to people who've not been in the tech industry during a recession yet?

1) Make sure your spending is well below your income. Pay down any debt that you have and try to avoid taking on more.

2) Set aside some cash as an emergency fund: 3-6 months worth of spending is a good idea.

3) Set up automatic monthly investments in an index fund (ideally in a tax-advantaged account such as an IRA or 401k if you're in the US)

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