Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm personally aware of a very incapable 22 year old, fresh graduate, who has been hired for north of $200k. I'm also aware of a whole bunch of other folks who have been variously hired within months of graduation, so I'd wager there's some selection bias from your corner too.
Base salary? Unless said 22yr old had done some significant research, had an awesome open source project, is an all star Phd, then I'm temped to call bullshit on this one, and your acquaintance is blowing smoke up your ass. $200k base salary puts you into Level senior staff engineer/director software engineer territory. Most college grads AFAIK are slotted at 3-4 slots slower. You're effectively saying the person you…
It's a non-engineering role. Don't want to reveal more, as while I'm frankly spitting nails at the hire, I quite like this person.