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(Not that I think I would have a realistic chance, since I'm sure they're getting the best of the best applicants right now. But still.)
Other companies nickel and diming engineers think they are somehow getting something for free. All the highest performing companies in the world pay insane amounts to their programmers
Paying someone a lot doesn't magically make them a good engineer. You have to actually hire the best people, and there's only so many of them to go around.
Sam Altman said something to the effect of 'OpenAI has the highest talent density of any company'. OpenAI is modest in employee count and extreme in employee talent, with its employees rewarded commensurately.
Isn't it for member of technical staff? It's a high level position.
It's always interesting to think about how someone somewhere is earning as much as you earn in a decade or lifetime in a single year. Also that you are that person for someone else.
I am that person for myself, for my first year in the workforce.
I am also that person for myself when I was studying in college.
I think it is only interesting in the case when you are performing the exact same job, and yet the compensation varies by an order of magnitude or more.
> The tax filings also reveal previously unreported details about one of the most valuable and well-known technology ventures operating today, including the level of investment by Reid Hoffman, free Teslas for early OpenAI engineers and the skyrocketing computing bill that may have prompted it to take a $1 billion investment from Microsoft. https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/17/elon-musk-used-to-say-he-p...
A ~$100K signing bonus sounds kind of small for someone making $900K per year.
What should I know to get a job there?
But it's also important to note that only $300K of that is in cash. The other $600K is in profit participation, which could take years (maybe even a decade!) to be realized. It could also be worth $6M a year when it's realized.
But ultimately it's an investment of your time. Or to think of it another way, you're getting paid $900K a year but you're also investing $600K a year in OpenAI, which may end up being an amazing return or nothing at all, just like any startup investment.
Although with Sam at the helm, my guess is it will probably be worth more than $600K a year.
300k salary + 600k stock
Not stock PPUs which are only worth anything if they turn a profit and according to OpenAI that isn’t happening until AGI. https://www.levels.fyi/blog/openai-compensation.html