Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

$900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

levels.fyi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 351 posts

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#311

Post by kortilla »

scarface_74 wrote: post #291
kortilla wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only at a deep “we buy ugly houses” type of discount and only if the company allows it and if there is a market for it. This is incorrect. There is often significant unmet demand for private successful companies. Employees can often sell at close to what investors end up paying for it.

A startup that isn’t making a profit is by definition “not successful”.

This is also incorrect. Uber private shares sold for more than their IPO price when private while they weren’t making a profit.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#312

Post by wizofaus »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #111
lotsofpulp wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not find that interesting. If the goal is wealth redistribution, then either a marginal income/wealth (property)/sales tax accomplishes that. We do not have marginal sales tax rates because it is not feasible. Marginal income tax is feasible, and so it does exist in most places. Marginal property/wealth tax is somewhere in the middle, given the difficulties in valuing thinly traded assets, and the tremendous eff…

Does anywhere in the world have a marginal property tax? LA introduced a mansion sales tax. Anywhere else? My main issue with a marginal property tax is that the areas with high property values already have enough taxes generally for the things property tax covers. Not sure at least in the US how feasible it would be to have a marginal property tax and the revenue go to the state and the Fed (or even the county's gen…

There's tiered levels of what's called "stamp duty" in Australia (at least some states anyway), which is a tax charged on all property purchases paid by the buyer. And some council rates (effectively a type of property tax) are differential, based on the type & value of your property.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#313

Post by glimshe »

moralestapia wrote: post #213
QIYGT wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That person could probably be making 500k+ at a FANG with less variance in the stock component.

I read this here and there and don't doubt it, but then again I've never seen/met anyone IRL (outside of C-level) making this much money as an employee. Are they just extremely rare cases or am I just not aware of the valley and their customs?

You are not aware. I have many personal friends, Engineers, making 600K+. These are old friends who have no reason to lie. I know a senior engineer who manages a small team who had a lucky take-home of over a million in a good year.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#314

Post by glimshe »

throwaway7561 wrote: post #306
deanmoriarty wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I firmly believe you are off by an order of magnitude at least. First, the comment you linked is 7 years old. Most FAANG companies increased their headcount many fold ever since. Second, there is such a thing as title inflation, over time more and more people get promoted to their terminal level, which at my FAANG is very often L6, each tiny team has always at least one or two of them. There are many, many more than…

I'm an L5 at Google and don't even remotely make $500k. About half that, depending on how GOOG stock does. Yes, that huge number is probably not unheard of , but "not unheard of" doesn't mean it's common. So either 1. I'm absolutely terrible at negotiation or 2. Online comp statistics suffer from bias where people excited about their salaries tend to report it and the majority don't. I know levels.fyi tries to correc…

My L5 Googler friend makes between 350K-450K (Seattle area) depending on the stock price. Work on your negotiation skills!

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#315

Post by lumost »

throwaway7561 wrote: post #309
deanmoriarty wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something is off here… are you based in the Bay Area? I literally have PDF copies of offers I received in 2018 from both Facebook and Google for L5 roles in the $400k range, and things just went significantly crazier since then. And I am the most average engineer you can imagine, with most of my peers in a similar situation. I cannot comprehend how your TC can just be $250k at Google after 5 years of refreshers. That…

Yea, Bay Area. I believe you. Obviously there must be a very wide range for L5. I suspect all you see when people post online are the really great ones, because after all who wouldn't want to talk about their great comp?! So, when all you see are the very highest-earners sharing their comp, you might start to think that they're normal or "usual". I've got 20yrs experience in the industry too, but mostly in no-name co…

In my experience, the discounted factor is that you don’t get promoted to the top of the next level band but people are hired into top of next level band quite frequently. This bias favors moving companies regularly.

however, in practice, few are able to land such positions when interviewed externally - I’d believe the pass rate for L6 is less than 1 in 10. Even after accounting for screening steps.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#316

Post by seanmcdirmid »

glimshe wrote: post #314
throwaway7561 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an L5 at Google and don't even remotely make $500k. About half that, depending on how GOOG stock does. Yes, that huge number is probably not unheard of , but "not unheard of" doesn't mean it's common. So either 1. I'm absolutely terrible at negotiation or 2. Online comp statistics suffer from bias where people excited about their salaries tend to report it and the majority don't. I know levels.fyi tries to correc…

My L5 Googler friend makes between 350K-450K (Seattle area) depending on the stock price. Work on your negotiation skills!

Are you sure they aren’t pulling your leg? I’m an L5 in Seattle and I don’t see that much (still well paid, just not that well paid).

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#317

Post by seanmcdirmid »

zoltar wrote: post #214
QIYGT wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you define "good life" as having a big house with a big yard.

Last time I ate in SF, I walked past a guy smoking crack on the sidewalk. But, yeah... big house with a big yard is nice.

Are you sure it wasn’t fentanyl? The smoke smells like burnt peanut butter, common smell on public transit here in Seattle.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#318

Post by seanmcdirmid »

scarface_74 wrote: post #265
tyingq wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get what you're saying, but the median income for SFO is way below what tech people get paid. "barely livable" is perhaps a bridge too far for the $300k+ crowd. :)

Maybe. But I had a big house in the “good school system” in the Atlanta burbs built in 2016 for $335K. Even today that would cost around $550K. It would take more than $300K to duplicate our lifestyle in the Bay Area. I’ll take my former $150K in the burbs of Atlanta over $300k in the burbs any day. And before the usual responses implying I’m disdaining what I can’t have, I current work for BigTech remotely.

You spend on a lot of things beyond housing, and most things outside of housing are about the same price between regions, so even if your housing costs is half as cheap, you are still falling behind on half as much salary. This is especially true for retirement savings, since you don’t have retire in a HCOL where you earned that money, and that expensive house can be sold, perhaps with some kind of profit to offset the extra interest paid, later.

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#319

Post by dheera »

yieldcrv wrote: post #251
kristjansson wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you writing off against W2 salary?

A) Donating illiquid assets to your own non-profit helps a lot. I typically have acquired or bought or created something in prior years that can offset this year's income. That one is up to a 20% tax deduction on this year's income without spending any of this year's money. and it rolls forward 5 years if its value is greater than those percentages of your income. so it adds up if you keep incorporating that into you…

> Donating illiquid assets to your own non-profit helps a lot.

What sort of non-profit is this? Can you just register a 501(c)(3) with the sole purpose of giving yourself charity and then use it to pay for food and housing for yourself? Trying to honestly learn here as I have a massive W-2 tax bill.

> requires you to pay it back across an interval over 5 years. So in future years you're doing that

This sounds like you're just deferring tax to the next 5 years? Don't you have to use after-tax money to repay the 401k loan?

> Your various side project pursuits just have to make revenue in 5 years to prove that its not a hobby

My understanding of the IRS rule is you have to profit in 3 out of 5 consecutive years if you want to claim tax losses in the other 2 years. Not revenue. (IRC 183).

Re: $900k Median Package for Engineers at OpenAI

#320

Post by fragmede »

paulcole wrote: post #103
Solvency wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I find more interesting is this: A sole proprietor landscaper making $45-50K a year in California is paying $675 a year in annual registration fees just to keep his newish pickup truck on the road. Why newish? Because the people he's servicing trust a guy with a nicer work vehicle than a beaten down 30 year old Tacoma. A $900k developer with the same pickup is also paying $675 a year. Extrapolate this seemingly…

Yeah crazy. A gallon of milk costs the same if you’re a landscaper or a tech bro. Really makes ya think.

Does it? how do you even price a gallon milk of organic raw unpasteurized fresh from the grass-fed cow that the billionaire has on the estate comapred to a gallon of milk a poor person would buy from something as pedestrian as a supermarket?
Post reply on HN