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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

#111
post #67
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. This is well paid but not out of the ordinary for someone working at a top tier tech company in NYC/SF Bay Area. Think Facebook, Apple, etc. see https://www.levels.fyi/ for levels and comparison. Some of those companies are doing hiring freezes right now but many are not. Salary bands are adjusted within the USA by zones where NYC/SF/Seattle are zone 1, zone 2 is 90% of base, zone 3 is 85%. With equity component…

This is extremely out of the ordinary- Levels.fyi lists a salary of $224,000 for a Staff level SWE at Google

I wonder if this is sort of imposter syndrome, where an engineer thinks a year of my time is just not worth $380k to $495k. We all know plenty of examples where good employees are worth this and much more to growing or very profitable companies.

Ask for what you can get and realize that you are worth more than you realize in the right situation. And never begrudge a peer who earns a lot.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#112
post #80
post #72

People are calling this a correction... I don't understand the first thing about economics. Over the last quarter, the Nasdaq is down 25%. That's a correction? Seems pretty serious

People have called Tech bubbles since 2012, There have been at least 2-3 similar sell-offs over the last decade that simply lead to higher tech valuations within a year or two. Hence the term "correction" is used, this also helps assuage nervous retail investors that another '01 or '08 crash isn't around the corner. The difference between then and now is that interest rates are blasting through the roof along with in…

> The difference between then and now is that interest rates are blasting through the roof along with inflation.

The effective federal interest rate is 0.33% today. It was 2.4% before COVID...

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#113
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I has a phone screen at Coinbase and they just threw out 380k as the salary without me saying anything as far as expectations. This reminds me of the dot com bubble. In 2000 people who had no software background and were making 50k would get offers for 80k, just for showing up at an interview and saying they know Java or HTML

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…

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Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#114

Someone needs to explain to me why our tech companies are so tied to interest rates. Are VCs borrowing with home mortgage equity??

here are the basics

https://www.investopedia.com/investing/how-interest-rates-af...

I think the dynamic for private (VC) money and public markets are different

VC money will dry up as endowments look to shift more money into safer asset class when interest rate is high

public markets company valuation models change with interest rates changing. when rate is close to 0 investors are willing to buy asset with a very long term view for expected future profit (say 10 years). when rates go up that time frame shortens since opportunity cost of buying that stock today is now much higher.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#115

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 has a phone screen at Coinbase and they just threw out 380k as the salary without me saying anything as far as expectations. This reminds me of the dot com bubble. In 2000 people who had no software background and were making 50k would get offers for 80k, just for showing up at an interview and saying they know Java or HTML

Just for comparison, I work at a Non-FANG (SWE >10 years) in a expensive COL area and I make less than half that.

I say, you take that offer.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#116

Someone needs to explain to me why our tech companies are so tied to interest rates. Are VCs borrowing with home mortgage equity??

Most of these tech companies build business models around giving away money, with a plan of eventually making a profit. They are affected by interest rates because the higher interest rates you have today, the more attractive it is to have money today instead of tomorrow. Interest rates available today are the discount rate for those future cash flows (profit).

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wtf you are totally 100% missing my point, the current recession is a self-fulfilling prophety that is auto-amplified in mediatic echo chambers and by sell feedback mechanism on stock values.

I think it's clear from the pandemic that stock values do not correlate with the economy.

They do correlate with the economy, they just don't correlate solely with the economy.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#118
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.

not really, freelance platform I worked on briefly announced $55m series A yesterday, it's slowed down, but there are still money for the right companies I guess

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#119

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?

No post body was provided.

Re: The tech sector teardown is more catharsis than crisis

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Mid level in SF, Seattle, and the bay, at any tier 1 paying company. You also have places like Amazon and MS up here in the Seattle area who target more like the 70th percentile for pay, where as an L6 senior SWE new offers are still topping 500k/yr.

The market is hot, and might be in a bubble, but these are comp numbers that you could have seen even five or six years ago at the FB, Snap, Lyft, even Googles of the world.

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