Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S. • Hacker News Board

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#191

Post by zuhayeer » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:19 AM UTC

notJim wrote: post #140

zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

Is there a way to filter for remote friendliness on Levels.fyi? Especially since COVID it's gotten hard to keep track of who hires remote and who doesn't.

Yes, there is! Check out this search: https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html?track=Software%20Engineer&s...

You’ll notice when you expand each row by clicking on it, there are some additional details such as if the data point is for remote.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#192

Post by bawolff » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:22 AM UTC

hackerfromthefu wrote: post #161

closeparen wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The guy who cleans our house in Germany without any education (an African refugee) makes more money than that Another way of framing this is that Germany is successfully combating inequality, right? Professional-managerial class incomes and lifestyles aligning and sometimes inverting with working-class incomes is sort of the point.

But that's ridiculous - many many years of continual study and professional development are required to be a developer - with lots of it happening of the job in the developer's education and personal time. About a week of on the job training is required to go from an entry level cleaner to an experienced cleaner.

Maybe. All i know is i would much rather be a computer programmer than a cleaner, even if being a cleaner paid more.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#193

Post by zuhayeer » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:22 AM UTC

dbetteridge wrote: post #141

zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

Funny thing I noticed on https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html?track=Software%20Engineer&s... You're abbreviating 'NSW' as just 'NS', is that intentional?

Yeah, sharp eye! So right now, the provider we use for location, Geobytes, abbreviates state code to 2 letters internationally and so the 3 letter code gets chopped to 2. Gets a bit confusing for some areas, so we’re trying to figure out we can have another mapping with it spelled out.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#194

Post by dfadsadsf » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:24 AM UTC

legerdemain wrote: post #172

dualthro wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really sure the point that you're trying to make here. You seem to be implying that anyone living anywhere in Ukraine (such as Kyiv) is under constant threat of getting bombed by Russia, while jjjei3 is saying that Ukraine is relatively safe. If you're so sure its so dangerous there, maybe you can pull up statistics about number/rate of shooting deaths there compared to the US?

I think what you're doing is called "sea-lioning" online. I mentioned numerous ways in which living in Ukraine misses basic first-world standards. Then you come along and say, no-no-no, you need to demonstrate this other statistic that I find more interesting.

100 people were murdered in Chicago in July (just one month) last year so does it mean US as a whole is dangerous? No, my suburban town had zero murders for last 4 years, there was one homicide in 2016 (domestic dispute) and then no murders for 10 years before that. On the other hand it’s unclear which one is safer - South Chicago or Kabul.

Donbass in Ukraine is dangerous and a no go war zone. Downtown Kiev/Lviv are peaceful and have an excellent quality of life with amazing restaurants and nightlife.

You can’t average big countries.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#195

Post by jurassic » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:26 AM UTC

pugworthy wrote: post #6

I wonder how common it was for companies to not give out any raises due to economic changes from the pandemic. It depends I suppose on what the business is and what the impact is. Our Fortune 50 company late last year announced no raises based on the annual review cycle because of "things", but did give out bonuses. Of course then we had record earnings announcements recently, so it's not clear what the "things" were…

Bonuses at the tech company where I work were only funded at 57% even though the financial press has been in love with the stock lately. The contrast with the recent stock performance made the shit bonus feel like a real slap in the face.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#196

Post by zuhayeer » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:26 AM UTC

bradlys wrote: post #182

zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

Can you add more nuance for private companies? It is hard to determine what people got at private companies because no one is using a consistent formula. It'd be good if everyone just gave number of shares they received (unless it's some other format like how Stripe does it) for private firms.

Yeah, this is something we’re actively working on for early stage companies. Number of shares is actually not very valuable information. What’s more important is your percentage of ownership given how many outstanding shares there are at the company. We’re taking a first attempt at collecting this information here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdErbieBKoeEVhrOWZn...

We think startup compensation will be a huge and important next step for us. Hope to have more updates soon!

*Note that once a company switches to RSU we collect that as a cash value at that point (so for example Stripe would have a cash value for their stock grant)

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#197

Post by Zaheer » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:26 AM UTC

smabie wrote: post #89

zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

Have you considered adding finance/investment/trading salaries? It's super great for tech (one high paying field) and I think it would be really great for finance (another high paying field).

Yes, we're working on collecting more data still: https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html?track=Investment%20Banker

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#198

Post by patrick_halina » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:26 AM UTC

thesimon wrote: post #147

908B64B197 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU engineers need to vote with their feet and simply go to SV for things to change.

H1-B are not that easy to get, but it might get better after the required minimum salaries were raised. Heard mixed things about intra-company transfers from Europe to the US. Otherwise it's rather difficult to get to SV.

Hey there’s also Canada! We don’t have San Francisco salaries but Toronto tech blows away the EU. With a job offer, you can get a visa in a few weeks.

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#199

Post by wallflower » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:29 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #181

dcolkitt wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, it's very hard to get rich without some sort of equity. Maybe it's not equity in public companies, but almost all wealthy people get to that point by owning something. Whether that's stock options in a startup or a general partnership in a hedge fund or a medical practice or a piece of property that gets developed. All equity comes with risk. Doubly so for the type of equity that generates a lot of weal…

Linus Torvalds makes a lot less than Tom Brady. He basically makes as much as the executive director at the Linux Foundation, something over $600K, but nothing extraordinary by SV standards. And there's no equity associated with the LF.

I once saw him walking the floor at Comdex (not the main Las Vegas one but in Chicago). Watchig him walking around, shaking hands, and catching up with his old friends at Red Hat and the like, I couldn't help but feel an intangible sense that the guy was happy. Someone who had created something significant out of nothing (This was before Linux really took off in the 90s). I was starstruck.

> His fortunes changed in 1999. Red Hat and VA Linux, both leading purveyors of Linux-based software packages tailored for large enterprises, had granted him stock options with no strings attached, thank-yous from entrepreneurs who hoped to grow rich off his creation. When Red Hat went public that year, Torvalds was suddenly worth $1 million. On the day VA Linux (now VA Software) went public, Torvalds was worth roughly $20 million, though by the time he could sell his shares, they were valued at only a fraction of that.

> Torvalds hesitated before buying himself his first expensive bauble, a two-seater BMW convertible. "I was a bit nervous about people's reaction," he confesses. "Are they going to think I've gone over to the dark side?" In the end he decided that the shape and price of the hunk of metal he drove to and from work each day was his own business. Despite counsel to the contrary, Torvalds wisely sold all of his stock and spent almost all of the windfall on his home and his cars, trusting that he'd always be able to earn a good salary as an engineer.

https://web.archive.org/web/20031127045640/https://www.wired...

Re: Silicon Valley stays on top as tech salaries climb across U.S.

#200

Post by zuhayeer » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 2:30 AM UTC

smabie wrote: post #89

zuhayeer wrote: post #30

One of the founders of Levels.fyi here – wish we were cited on here too! But we also did a pay report for 2020 with a breakdown of companies and locations which was covered in another IEEE post: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-... In our report, we account for total compensation including equity. Feel free to check it out: https://levels.fyi/2020/

Have you considered adding finance/investment/trading salaries? It's super great for tech (one high paying field) and I think it would be really great for finance (another high paying field).

Definitely! We’re working on finance, the variability there in compensation is pretty high especially at these HFT firms with heavy bonus structures, and so we’re hoping to develop a way to accommodate for the soon (although you can still enter your information today)