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

How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

blog.usejournal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 138 posts

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#111

Post by [deleted] »

BeetleB wrote: post #94
jplahn wrote: post #21

I recently finished reading the book Never Split the Difference and I would highly recommend it. It's a slightly different take on the traditional negotiation tropes we've all heard. I've managed to employ many of the techniques in my day to day as a PM with success, but his discussions on salary negotiation resonated with me. I'm sure you can find some notes on the book to derive 50% of the value, but the author's s…

I've read that book and others. NSTD is both extremely good and extremely bad. TLDR: It's a great book if you can ignore his attitude. And ignore every negative thing he says about Ivy MBA programs and their books. He is simply wrong about them. The good: The methods advocated in the book are somewhat "simple" to remember. This is because he focuses on what will work 70-80% of the time, whereas other books tend to al…

[deleted]

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#112

Post by taurath »

stuxnet79 wrote: post #76
jplahn wrote: post #21

I recently finished reading the book Never Split the Difference and I would highly recommend it. It's a slightly different take on the traditional negotiation tropes we've all heard. I've managed to employ many of the techniques in my day to day as a PM with success, but his discussions on salary negotiation resonated with me. I'm sure you can find some notes on the book to derive 50% of the value, but the author's s…

I recently finished Never Split The Difference too. It was a good read and provides a different perspective on the whole negotiation process. I couldn't help but think however, that the various techniques outlined in the book were nothing more than parlor tricks. Seems like the more these techniques are known, the less useful they become. Am I wrong? Now that I know how it 'works' I can pick out Ackerman bargaining t…

Its more about the emotional effort and control than the techniques themselves, else everyone could easily be a master salesperson.

Just because you can pick out the tactics doesn't mean you can't be worn down, or still end up trusting a person. Some folks emotionally mirror so much that they just don't end up having control in the situation.

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#113

Post by nomel »

kmonsen wrote: post #95

One thing to keep in mind is that (in theory, but also from what I have seen in practice) better starting salary at Google will fairly quickly be negated by smaller raises in the future. Same level / performance will be equal after a few years, so the really important thing to work on is (perceived) performance.

> Same level / performance will be equal after a few year

For the person who didn't start higher, the difference between those curves is lost income.

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#114

Post by foundart »

Zaheer wrote: post #65
crimsonalucard wrote: post #2

200k+ for 2 years experience in the valley? That is crazy. This guy is overpaid. How realistic is this? I work in the valley I have roughly a decade of experience and I am definitely under 200k. Am I getting shafted?

Very realistic. Check out all the submissions on: https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html disclosure: I'm co-founder of levels.fyi

Cool website, but I had some difficulty with the pagination control. I sorted by company name and wanted to skip to the middle of the alphabet, but once I skipped to page 5, the control would only provide a button for the next page.

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#115

Post by nomel »

dmode wrote: post #80
matchagaucho wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enter $300K into https://smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes Take home pay for CA is $185K

I entered "married" in the same calculator and it gives me a 29.75% effective rate and 210k take home. If your math above is for a single person, I haven't met anyone who is paying more than $2500 in rent. $6k for a single person is way out of range.

> I haven't met anyone who is paying more than $2500 in rent.

Out of everyone know, I'm the only one paying under $2500. How many bedrooms and what's the square footage of these places? Are they shared?

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#116

Post by [deleted] »

sigfubar wrote: post #86
cschep wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

220k base + 220k in options a year isn't underpaid. All depends on the options.

Options, in the vast majority of cases, are worthless. We can trade anecdata all day, but each individual's personal stance towards options is shaped by their own experience and the experiences of those who they've worked with. I've never met anyone who made any money off options. With that disclaimer/explainer out of the way, I can say with confidence that I don't factor options into my comp. When an employer gives…

[deleted]

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#117

Post by alkibiades »

kmonsen wrote: post #95

One thing to keep in mind is that (in theory, but also from what I have seen in practice) better starting salary at Google will fairly quickly be negated by smaller raises in the future. Same level / performance will be equal after a few years, so the really important thing to work on is (perceived) performance.

yes but someone with a 50k equity grant will never make it up versus someone with a 200k one. (yes i’ve seen both)

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#118

Post by burfog »

esoterica wrote: post #108
ChristianGeek wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because a tiny apartment in the Bay Area is going to cost you as much as a McMansion in rural Kansas.

And if it costs you as much but you get paid way more, then you have way more money to spend on other shit. The math is not that complicated.

Yes, you can save money if you are willing to live in a dystopia, crammed in like sardines. The quality-of-life comparison is not that complicated.

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#119

Post by kmonsen »

alkibiades wrote: post #117
kmonsen wrote: post #95

One thing to keep in mind is that (in theory, but also from what I have seen in practice) better starting salary at Google will fairly quickly be negated by smaller raises in the future. Same level / performance will be equal after a few years, so the really important thing to work on is (perceived) performance.

yes but someone with a 50k equity grant will never make it up versus someone with a 200k one. (yes i’ve seen both)

Refreshes will quickly be much more important

Re: How I negotiated a software-engineering job offer in Silicon Valley

#120

Post by kmonsen »

nomel wrote: post #113
kmonsen wrote: post #95

One thing to keep in mind is that (in theory, but also from what I have seen in practice) better starting salary at Google will fairly quickly be negated by smaller raises in the future. Same level / performance will be equal after a few years, so the really important thing to work on is (perceived) performance.

> Same level / performance will be equal after a few year For the person who didn't start higher, the difference between those curves is lost income.

It is true, but starting higher and not progressing as quickly can also lead to feeling of broken promises.
Post reply on HN