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

Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

docs.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 384 posts

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#111

Post by Glyptodon »

joshmanders wrote: post #69

This makes me wonder how many people are okay with being underpaid. Like my title is officially VP of Engineering. But because of the circumstances of my position and what I was hired to do, I am probably making less than what someone in my position gets in sign on bonuses. $30,000/yr This is because I am not only the first employee but the only employee (if you don't count CEO) and only technical person. I was hired…

I know the feeling. I make $46k/year as (mostly) a Ruby on Rails/Javascript dev, but without moving to another city (likely in another state), there are no reasonable alternative job prospects. Not really okay with it, but I don't want to move to NY/SF/LA as lifestyle there is so much more miserable. (Current work: 7 to 15 minute commute, decent time off, can be hiking in the great outdoors within 30 minutes, and still bike downtown in 10/15 minutes. Mortgage runs less than rent in the Bay Area by large amounts...)

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#112

Post by morley »

jotux wrote: post #104

It's strange to me that these salary discussions are so narrowly focused on just pay/bonus and don't seem to care about benefits and work/life balance. Here's stuff I track in my own career spreadsheet and compare new jobs against these metrics when considering a new one: * Vacation, sick, and holiday time off * Distance to work and traffic considerations * Relative cost of living * Health insurance cost and coverage…

GlassDoor compiles that information. That site seems better for more complex analysis. I think the point of this spreadsheet is for simple analysis.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#113

Post by whitegrape »

joshmanders wrote: post #69

This makes me wonder how many people are okay with being underpaid. Like my title is officially VP of Engineering. But because of the circumstances of my position and what I was hired to do, I am probably making less than what someone in my position gets in sign on bonuses. $30,000/yr This is because I am not only the first employee but the only employee (if you don't count CEO) and only technical person. I was hired…

I had a similar setup (though not a fancy title) for around $40k/yr if I worked full time for the whole year (I only did part time during spring/fall semesters). There was a gentleman's understanding that if the company got acquired for big bucks, I'd be taken care of, but we never formalized a stock option agreement. Eventually we shut down, but I was on my last couple semesters of college and had enough saved up that I wouldn't need to be concerned about funds until around 4 months after graduation. Got a BigCo job after graduating, making over 3 times the former amount while doing less interesting (and less intense) work. I could go back to a "low" salary job ("low" considering almost everyone I knew from high school is making $40k or less) especially if the work was nicer since my expenses have only gone up a bit, but now I'd rather build up a decades-sized nest egg first (and in less than a decade of time) even at the cost of my soul.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#115

Post by stuff4ben »

akhilcacharya wrote: post #46
samstave wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What/where is RDU?

Raleigh/Durham NC - we're probably the biggest tech hub behind Austin.

Hardly. Atlanta, NYC, Chicago, Seattle, etc are all much bigger than RTP. It's nice here, but it ain't that good.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#116

Post by logicallee »

jcoffland wrote: post #79
logicallee wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good comment. What are your thoughts on including: - "jump ship literally tomorrow salary requirement" (base, equity, signing bonus) regardless of whether you're looking, and an anonymized means of contact. It literally can't hurt. I don't think it even gives off any signal. I mean if you saw "$130K/undisclosed options/Bay Area/ Jump ship literally tomorrow: $180K + $15k signing bonus" it's next to no information. Th…

Looking to jump ship?

Haha, your profile here is intriguing, you can shoot me an email introducing yourself and I'll certainly reply, if nothing else to congratulate you on getting to work on such cool applications.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#117

Post by nickysielicki »

jotux wrote: post #104

It's strange to me that these salary discussions are so narrowly focused on just pay/bonus and don't seem to care about benefits and work/life balance. Here's stuff I track in my own career spreadsheet and compare new jobs against these metrics when considering a new one: * Vacation, sick, and holiday time off * Distance to work and traffic considerations * Relative cost of living * Health insurance cost and coverage…

That's why this sort of thing needs to be localized-- not just to a company, but to a specific office even.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#119

Post by joshmanders »

cbeach wrote: post #110
joshmanders wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty positive I'm in full control of this company. I've taken reigns and made all the decisions. CEO has pitched in his requests, but ultimately has put me in full control, that being said I'm sure while my title says VP of Engineering (for his parent company by the way) I will become the CTO and co-founder of this company when it launches.

Get equity or get out - make the promises binding.

First off, I made the decision to go for equity last time place I worked. That does not always equate to being a founder. I was the only non-founder with equity and when I was fired (for being burnt out but that's another story) I lost in the end.

On top of that, being the only technical person and have full control over everything, including domains, hosting, code, etc. It's not really like I can be forced out.

Re: Why not just a simple spreadsheet of salaries?

#120

Post by alkonaut »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #71
alkonaut wrote: post #20

Entering locations is notoriously difficult. Country + City is probably the best you could do, where country could be re-used for US States.

Eh, I think in cases of ambiguity you might be better off just sticking the state into the name of the city. Like "USA - New York City" vs "USA - Springfield (IL)".

Yes that works too - at least if you have a preset list of locations it's perfect. Country: USA City: Springfield (IL)

If you don't have a db of cities to choose from you likely end up with cleaner data by sticking state to country since you could make a db for that with just some 100-200 entries.

Country/State: US/Illinois, City: Springfield

The original point is still there though, having a single location field breaks down quickly.

Post reply on HN