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Talking About Money

kalzumeus.com

401–410 of 412 posts

Re: Talking About Money

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The effects you describe are probably specific to the individual. Having worked for several companies from tiny startups to gigantic megaliths, I can tell you that I never felt any of those things regardless of my equity package. I may be cynical, you may be naive, or both. Companies succeed by being in the right place at the right time, being lucky, having good connections, and having leaders who make the right deci…

On the last point, it's about fairness in the other direction. If an organization like Youtube/PickYourUnicorn sells for a billion plus dollars with only a small handful of employees, all of which are talented and have put in long hours, would it be fair for only the VCs and founders to see the upside? In a sense I view equity as a shared call option.

I do think it's fair. Is it fair that I'm not going to return any of my pay if things go poorly? The investors took the risk of paying me a market salary (no discounts, sorry) to make something there was no assurance anyone would want. They deserve the rewards or the losses as the case may be. That their profits in bubbles like this will be silly relative to the value they've created does not justify greed on my part.

If you still think there's a problem here, pay market wages and let anyone who chooses come along on their own dime on any subsequent funding round at fair value. No vesting/expiring options, no stock grants, no look-back, no discount, no limits, just the opportunity to be an investor -- in the moment -- on the same terms as everyone else. Just make sure (non-)participation is 100% confidential. I think very few of your employees genuinely want to be capitalists, but those who do should have to put cash on the barrelhead like everyone else.

Re: Talking About Money

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> But a typical CEO worth his salt will crush something silly like that in no-time, if you really want to hire good people this is the type of person you want to fire That is actually not true. This kind of employee low balling is condoned behavior. I applied for a position at Automattic and had Matt Mullenweg (CEO) pull this on me. Everything seemed to have gone perfectly well - everyone involved in the process see…

Been thinking about this more and the only possible context I could imagine, related to the original post, could be around salary. We base compensation on market data, value to the company, and what other people in a similar role make, we also ask what people made in the past and where they hope to be in the future. This does not determine their salary, it's market data for us, and the future part also makes sure tha…

What about asking for someone's prior compensation after you've hired them?

Re: Talking About Money

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By providing 101k of value? Do people know enough about what you do and how you do it to give this answer at interview stage?

yeah. when i hire sales guys, or product guys, they just tell me how much money they generated (or their products or teams generated) at previous companies. it doesn't always have to be a $ figure. sometimes it's, "my work at previous company X was used by Huge Company A, Huge Company B, Internal Division C, etc. here are my references." these are just nuts-and-bolts dollars-and-cents conversations people have when h…

Seems reasonable! Thanks for the response

Re: Talking About Money

#404
post #287

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Why do people play the lottery?

Because they're bad at math?

I know that this is a popular jab at state-funded gambling, but the reality is - at least for the people I've encountered - that they don't expect to win. They are paying a dollar to dream about "what if?".

Probably not the smartest use of money, but they see it as paying for entertainment - not a retirement plan. I thought that was an interesting insight.

Re: Talking About Money

#405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they're bad at math?

I know that this is a popular jab at state-funded gambling, but the reality is - at least for the people I've encountered - that they don't expect to win. They are paying a dollar to dream about "what if?". Probably not the smartest use of money, but they see it as paying for entertainment - not a retirement plan. I thought that was an interesting insight.

I agree. I've just seen people who can't afford it spend a lot more than the entertainment value.

At my most selfish, I'd say, "At least this is one tax not paid by me." The downside is it does seem to use gamification to put the burden on those who can bear it the least.

Re: Talking About Money

#406

I wrote a small application a while back to allow a team to figure out what their average salary was without exposing individual salaries. Seems relevant. https://are-we-being-underpaid.herokuapp.com/ It generates unique URLS for each participant and stores almost nothing on the server. Only a party that was actively monitoring web traffic has enough information to divine someone's salary. No tracking of emails, sala…

This is a great idea. I wish I had known about it years ago!

Re: Talking About Money

#407
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully agree with that sentiment. I have a lot of non-tech folks ask me about money (when they ask me what I do and if it pays well) and I always try to avoid giving numbers and go with a more generic 'I can't complain, things are ok/good'. I earn a lot (and I mean a lot) compared to non-tech folks where I live: 20x difference in some cases. I had a friend recently in a conversation mentioning that buying X (one of…

I feel the same way as a 2012 college graduate. Most of my college friends are still unemployed or working in marginal work (temps, office admins, phone support). On top of that, most are buried in student loans (private college) whereas I had parents able to pick up the tab. More than one has turned to webcam porn to make money while I'm charging $$$ as a software contractor. I post photos on Facebook from Tokyo or…

Sorry for the late reply.

I don't think you should stop posting photos from your trips just because you are 'afraid' you will be pissing off your friends. They can always unfollow you (or whatever FB allows you to do, I'm not big on social networks) if they find it 'offensive'. I just think it is a balancing act between sharing parts of your life, and sharing absolute numbers or boasting.

Anyone that knows me for more than 5 minutes, knows I'm doing well (I live in a nice place, in a very expensive area for example and I don't hide this), but at the same time, I avoid letting (outside of very close friends) people know how well exactly. I never talk about money or salaries or what not. That doesn't mean I won't invite them over for dinner/a swim in the pool just in case I 'piss them off'.

Re: Talking About Money

#408
post #104

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I think it's reasonable to believe that the employer should have a good answer to the question "why is s/he making more than me, what does s/he do better?"

Yes, but let's not be naive enough to assume that people would be satisfied even with a good answer.

Well, a good answer would be "because s/he is familiar with codebases A, B and C and has skills X, Y, Z", and I would expect the employer to follow-up with a raise if the employee in question also learns all of the above.

Re: Talking About Money

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a pretty strong signal that they want people who won't negotiate and aren't assertive. In some businesses, it's just counterproductive to hire an assertive employee: the business processes are in place, the command structure is well-established, and they just need bodies to fill places in the org chart. If it's one of those companies and you're one of those people, getting hired there will likely be painful for…

Hmmm, but this was the recruiter, not the company. The recruiter itself would want me to be assertive and negotiate as their compensation is calculated based on my starting salary. And this company was a very small and fast growing firm that would require a lot of hustle and assertiveness. My entire in person interview process was based on a case study that took 12 hours where I spent a large part of that arguing wit…

Many recruiter compensation is not a % and they pocket the difference.

Atleast that is the case in Australia. When we contract we bill the recruiter whop bills the client.

Re: Talking About Money

#410
post #256

As someone who works for the government and makes almost more than 50% less than those in the private sector doing the same thing (according to national studies for my profession at my level) this is depressing. I don't know, in the back of my mind I want to launch my own startup and get out of where I am now. My equal co-worker just left a month ago and is making 5x what she was making (in a senior capacity to mysel…

Don't you get a very nice risk-free pension (defined-benefit)? Most of private industry has switched to 401K (defined-contribution).
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