Live data from Hacker News

Tech compensation in 2021

jacobian.org

171–180 of 631 posts

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#171
post #95

Say you have $400K of public company stock that vests over 4 years. How much is this worth? (ignoring time value of money for now). $400K? But if the stock tanks then you likely have the option to get another job, so you are less affected by the downside than the upside. How should that factor into your calculation?

It depends how frequently it vests and what percentage vests every period. Amazon is notorious for vesting more of the grant towards the latter part of the vesting period with yearly vesting, while companies like Google are actually frontloading the grant and vesting monthly.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#172
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are these numbers so massively different across the world? Do European companies generate that much less revenue? Or are labor unions in Europe just that much less effective at bargaining? Or is productivity that much lower in Europe? (I'm not sold on any of these)

It's all of that. European tech companies are smaller than US tech companies, have lower gross revenue per employee, make less profit per employee. Taxes are higher in Europe, which disincentivizes risk taking and ambitious individuals. Labor productivity is also lower in Europe. Finally, Europe still has a culture where software engineers, cloud architects/products/managers/etc. are viewed as code monkeys and the pe…

[deleted]

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#173
post #39

Co-Founder of Levels.fyi here. As Jacob points out, the market is extremely hot right now. It feels like salaries are inching up slightly each month. We're working on improving how numbers are updated and working on weighing recent salaries more heavily. Would really encourage everyone to submit their compensation on the site. We also have some relevant discussions with recruiters from FANG type companies on our team…

Based on the data, do you foresee a correction or dotcom-esque bubble situation?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#174

20 years experience, two books under my belt, and lead architect (with a CTO title) on several good sized projects and most I have ever gotten in $175k... every time I see an article like this, I think I am doing something "very wrong" I live about 40 miles outside of Boston. Edit: Looking at levels.fyi for Boston that actually puts me above the median[1]. Why the heck is Boston so low compared to other markets? Edit…

>every time I see an article like this, I think I am doing something "very wrong"

there's a comment like this in every single thread like this. and the recommendation is always the same: grind LC for however long you need in order to be comfortable solving hard problems cleanly in 35-45 minutes and then collect your pay bump. the fact that the

1. data

2. complaint

3. recommendation

crop up with 100% perfect regularity means that it's the solution that simply isn't palatable to all of the people that express the complaint. to which i say: what exactly are you expecting to give among these three things?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#175

These compensation amounts reflect what I am seeing in the market. Whenever I see these amounts, like many others, I am somewhat amazed, but then I stop, look at my own history and reflect on the environment that supports paying a Staff engineer $300k a year. Here is my story, which may or may not shed some light on working in high tech in Silicon Valley. I was part of a couple of successful startups in Portland, OR…

Brilliant read, thank you for sharing. Looking back, would you have stayed in Portland?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#176
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but unfortunately most startups can't afford to compete with monopolies. As the OP mentions I'd recommend anyone considering startups to value equity at $0 unless it's a late stage company with a lot of traction and top VCs backing them.

Would you define late stage as Series B? Where do you draw that line?

Yes, ones that are obviously a year or two from an IPO or a major acquisition.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#177

In other news, if you aren't in the valley or working for one of the big tech companies, you're probably making 100-150K as a mid/senior developer. There's a pretty sizable leap.

Yeah no kidding. I was shocked at the numbers in this article. A 15-year engineer in aerospace gets you ~120k.

At my first job in financial software, one of my coworkers was an MIT-grad aeronautical engineer with ~5 years experience in aerospace, ~6 months software. He took a pay cut (though not much of one - I think he went from about $90K -> $75K) to get into finance, because aeronautical engineering doesn't really pay you enough money to have a decent life in the Boston area. Within 2 years he'd jumped ship to a hedge fund and was making about double his aerospace salary.

And people wonder why we don't make things in the U.S. anymore...

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly! The failure rate of startups hasn't moved out of the 90% range ... ever. https://www.failory.com/blog/startup-failure-rate

And if you do happen to be part of the 10% that make it odds are you won’t get paid out as much as if you had just gone and worked for a FAANG.

Yeah, and once it starts to boom, the dilution of shares is crazy because the investors start to pile into their pool (which is also your pool if you're an employee). Founders shares are really the only good ones, because that pool doesn't dilute the more money they raise. I'm not sure if this is always true but when I started contracting for startups I hear a lot about this.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#179

20 years experience, two books under my belt, and lead architect (with a CTO title) on several good sized projects and most I have ever gotten in $175k... every time I see an article like this, I think I am doing something "very wrong" I live about 40 miles outside of Boston. Edit: Looking at levels.fyi for Boston that actually puts me above the median[1]. Why the heck is Boston so low compared to other markets? Edit…

How many CTOs that wrote two books are there around Boston?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#180
post #124
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I know a lot of FAANG people getting 500-600K packages. Makes it hard to even think about startups.

I see these mind boggling sums in the Valley, $300.000, $600.000, can you please translate: how much does that net you per month, after taxes, reasonable healthcare and rent, ideally no further than 1 hour commute and free of black mold?

I'm in Seattle so the situation is a bit better than the valley. But here's a breakdown:

L6 at Amazon, single, no kids:

~$400K TC $33,333 per month gross

About $100K in federal tax, no state income tax in WA. $8333 per month

Healthcare: $34 a month for an HSA plan. $3,650 over the course of the year goes into the HSA, including the employer portion. That ends up being about $205 out of my pocket. This is a bit complicated if you're not American and familiar with the different account types but it's basically money you're saving that's not taxed, but you can only use it for healthcare expenses.

$3000 max out of pocket per year for medical expenses. For all intents and purposes you can assume that's the most I'll ever pay. Out of network stuff makes it more complicated, but my network has essentially everyone. $250 a month, but you can use the HSA funds from above, so net $0.

Rent: In the Seattle area a newish one bedroom that's about 50-60 m^2 will run you say, $2200 a month. You can go cheaper or more expensive, but that will get you something that's plenty nice. Commute is extremely dependent on exact location, but if you're in the city, the majority of it has a commute time of less than an hour.

$33,333 -$8333 -$34 -$205 -$2200 = $22,561 income remaining.

I think you'd be able to survive :)

Obviously doesn't account for internet, a phone, a car, utilities or anything else, but that's maybe another $2K a month on the high end.

Post reply on HN