Live data from Hacker News

Programmers' salaries at Google $250k (and up)

jacquesmattheij.com

111–120 of 280 posts

Re: Programmers' salaries at Google $250k (and up)

#111
post #9

Tl;dr: someone's ex-employee is now working at Google, says he gets $250k salary and he's under 30. Why is this even on HN, let alone #1?

> Why is this even on HN, let alone #1?

Maybe it is because a large number of HN'ers are currently gainfully employed in the valley and that figures like these can come in extremely handy when interviewing with any company there especially if that company is google.

Datapoints like these are few and far between, sure people lie routinely about their salary but by now I think this thread has given more than enough corroboration to take the original statements by my friend as truthful.

It also nicely showcases that places like glassdoor.com show base salary only but that the total compensation can be much higher, which should factor into any decisions you make with respect to working for big company 'x' (or G in this case) versus running your own thing.

Re: Programmers' salaries at Google $250k (and up)

#112
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite the contrary, you don't know Google's non-compete work-contract provisions and, if any, how would they held up in court, so your statement is quite speculative. Besides, the last thing you'd want to do is to work after-hours and find out your employer is owning the IP of your project (that's besides pager-duty and other after-hour things your employer might make mandatory anyway). Regarding taking twice as long…

I will preface this by saying I have never worked at google and have not seen their employment contract so perhaps they've found a way around it but from what I understand, California has well established laws in place protecting moonlighting. As long as you aren't coding up a search engine or something that directly competes with the company, you should be ok.

Read "The lady from Zynga", a post by Spolsky for a very in depth answer of this very thing.

http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422/if-im-working-...

Re: Programmers' salaries at Google $250k (and up)

#114
post #48

I have no clue why people are obsessing over 250K. If you care about money as a programmer, you are better off working at a hedge fund. My programmer friends at hedge funds (all between 22 and 26) are averaging 500K salary with 100K bonuses (note: as a programmer, base is much higher but bonus is lower). So if google isn't paying those types of numbers to people, then money cannot be the only factor at play.

This is certainly true (I've worked both sides of the fence in terms of types of firm).

To add a generalization, my rule of thumb is the variable part of compensation varies most for the domain experts. So in technology for the sake of technology style companies like Google, total comp shoots up based on stock/bonuses. In reality, Google is an advertising company so presumably the ad sales folks bringing in whales aren't hurting either. Naturally numbers get skewed by overpaying to keep certain people (i.e. overshoot on retention packages), and given large scale, there are always some overpaid due to lucky timing/placing. Such is life! In hedge funds, the traders get the big bonuses, but the programmers get a solid salary so lower bonuses don't hurt quite so much. Luck also plays a part for those folks var comp. For those in hft, I'm aware of a few places where given the right mix of skills, someone who likes to think of themselves as a programmer can get the trader style bonuses.

Re: Programmers' salaries at Google $250k (and up)

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding to the data pool: I'm also an under-30 engineer making ~250k in the Bay Area (at a publicly-traded gaming company, not at Google). My company has six pay grades for pure engineers; I'm at the second highest. My 2011 comp breaks down as follows: * 166k base * 45k bonus * 35k stock grants (RSUs) Note this does not include 401k matching, stock purchase plan, healthcare, or any other quantifiable perks. When I too…

> I interview well Any tips or techniques outside of the standard behavioral based interviewing techniques (like STAR)? Also, I suspect you may be underselling yourself here, you very well may have excellent communication skills (like presenting complex ideas clearly to senior management) or even just social acumen.

Brushing up on your standard CS algorithms and concurrency school problems, a favorite of SV interviews. And being skilled in whatever area you are being interviewed for.

Re: Programmers' salaries at Google $250k (and up)

#116
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You answered your own question. From your quote: "blending sounds from two or more distinct words" (note emphasis) The word "brunch" is widely regarded to be a portmanteau, and does not consist of whole words.

"brunch" is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch, and refers to a meal that occurs in the late morning in lieu of separate breakfast and lunch meals. This satisfies the 3 conditions: - constituents must be words "brunch" is a combination of "breakfast" and "lunch" - blending sounds from the words the beginning sounds like "breakfast" and the end sounds like "lunch" - combining meanings of the words described above.

The words in question for "cartelicious" are "cartel" and "delicious". I believe you can do the rest.

Re: Programmers' salaries at Google $250k (and up)

#118
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You answered your own question. From your quote: "blending sounds from two or more distinct words" (note emphasis) The word "brunch" is widely regarded to be a portmanteau, and does not consist of whole words.

"brunch" is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch, and refers to a meal that occurs in the late morning in lieu of separate breakfast and lunch meals. This satisfies the 3 conditions: - constituents must be words "brunch" is a combination of "breakfast" and "lunch" - blending sounds from the words the beginning sounds like "breakfast" and the end sounds like "lunch" - combining meanings of the words described above.

And cartelicious:

-Constituents must be words

"cartelicious" is a combination of "cartel" and "delicious"

-Blending sounds from the words

the beginning sounds like "cartel" and the end sounds like "delicious"

-Combining meanings of the words

It's delicious cartel action, for repugnant values of delicious. I don't think this one is a strict requirement, in any case. This is getting a bit too pedantic.

Re: Programmers' salaries at Google $250k (and up)

#119
post #66

As a point of data, I work at Google and am at a similar point in my career. My base salary a year ago was $136k, but there was a companywide 10% raise last winter, and now my base is $150k. You get a cash bonus each year that's around 15% of your base, but if you're a superstar it can be double that, or if you're a total disappointment, it can be nothing. But if I perform as expected, that's another $22k. Finally, I…

Do you know if the 10% raise is automatically applied to the base salary of new hires as well? I'm looking for a new job, and strangely, Google's base is about 10% lower than the base from my other offers (Apple, Facebook, Zynga, LinkedIn), rather than 10% higher. Also, to add my own datapoint: I'm four years out from undergrad at an elite school, and Google offered me $120k base and 500 stock units over four years.…

Tell your Google recruiter about your competing offers, especially if you're considering choosing another job on this basis.
Post reply on HN