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Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

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Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#221

Post by whiskyant »

throwaway34343 wrote: post #26

I was a manager at one of these companies and my L5s were making half of what this thing says. Don't trust everything you read on the internet.

Manager since when? Maybe 6+ years ago it could've been half.

I'm L5 and I earn 400k+ (I joined last year), the compensation on levels.fyi also lines up accurately to my company's compensation data group (in which individuals anonymously report their salary).

These compensations are also accurate to those reported on Blind (anonymous work discussion app) by hundreds of individuals.

I have many co-workers and friends, and know the soft max paybands of each level. The comp reported on levels.fyi is very accurate.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#222

Post by thatsenough »

thundergolfer wrote: post #203
thatsenough wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The top firms have gotten themselves into an insane bidding war. That may be true, but there's more to it than that. The first wave of successful IPOs (Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, etc.) caused a spike in housing prices as employees purchased houses. On top of that, companies have added tens of thousands of new jobs, without proportional growth in the housing supply. So housing prices are now absurd, and thes…

> can buy smallish houses on the peninsula at $1.5-$2.5M a piece and have a middle-class quality of life. That's the same situation as in Sydney, but Aussie engineers aren't getting near the level of pay of Bay Area engineers. It's not the housing prices, it's more the labour market competition.

Yes, labor market competition is the primary factor. But is there a place in Australia where engineers can work for higher salaries and the same or a lower cost of living?

In the US, the discrepancy between Bay Area and non-Bay Area salaries is not as great as they seem at first glance, once the real cost of living is factored in.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#223

Post by whiskyant »

techie128 wrote: post #207

levels.fyi doesn't accurately represent the overall picture. Not everyone gets paid so well at each of their levels. Every company, especially FANGs, maintain a bell curve. levels.fyi cannot capture that curve accurately. They tend to skew high in most cases. So like everything else in life, take it with a pinch of salt [unless you're hypertensive ;)].

I would say they're pretty accurate, maybe a ~5% skew toward higher compensation because of self-reporting bias.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#224

Post by whiskyant »

glitchc wrote: post #27

I believe what is needed is a salary and stock breakdown, just like levels.fyi. You can’t pay the rent or buy food with stock.

Public RSUs are easy enough to turn into cash. The cash/stock breakdowns are on the site.

Typical L5 who earns 400k might be 225k cash/175k stock.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#225

Post by TrackerFF »

boulos wrote: post #210
TrackerFF wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The housing prices you see SF are unheard of in Europe, outside maybe only London. And even then, we're talking about the most gentrified areas of London. FWIW, I make a "meager" half of those starting salaries, but I'm able to save around $80k / year. Why? Because I pay next to nothing in housing. Purchased my home for $15k. Dropped another $15k in renovations, and that's gonna last a good time. I'm on the track to…

Can you say more about your home? Perhaps rough size and country? 15k is really cheap even if you bought it a while ago. I assume you’re in Europe somewhere from your comment, but even Bulgaria which is fairly cheap isn’t that cheap. For example, housing outside the center of town in Sofia is about 1000 euros per square meter [1] (for sq ft folks, multiply sq meters by 10 roughly). Varna is a bit cheaper at 700 which…

Northern Norway, but there's a ton of variance in prices here. You can easily move tens to hundreds of thousands in one city, so to find the cheapest you really need to look hard. I found a relatively old and run-down place, but which was easy to fix.

With that said, I have a very nice salary - relatively speaking - but as mentioned, it's around half of what jr. Engineers make in SW.

I'm lucky because my background from both Business and Engineering has been a good mix for landing my current gov. job - and the pay is good because the area / location is not very attractive, and it makes harder to get talent here. (I grew up here, so that's no problem).

Work involves a lot of travel, and I travel otherwise during my vacations, so things rarely get boring.

I've worked all over the world, but after I turned 30, I really haven't had the big-city needs, so living somewhere rural doesn't bother me anymore.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#226

Post by whiskyant »

nrp wrote: post #32

It’s worth nothing that most of these numbers are inflated from share price increases boosting the value of RSUs vesting over 4 years. New offers at the higher levels from those companies are unlikely to be that high unless you are coming in at the top of the pay band for the level.

Nope. These seem pretty spot on for new hire compensation. Most people don't incorporate stock inflation when reporting their total compensation.

I'm an L5 that joined one of those companies last year, and earn 440k/yr. If I counted stock inflation, it would be 500k/yr.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#228

Post by petters »

th-miracle-257 wrote: post #144
HenryKissinger wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Canada entry level SWEs are getting paid 60k-70k CAD (45k-55k USD). It's worse in Europe. These numbers are absolutely mind boggling. Even with a higher cost of living and California income taxes, you still have at least 100k of free money to invest. It's no wonder so many people apply for jobs at FAANGs. A job at a FAANG is practically a ticket to early retirement.

It is worse in Europe, but try getting a FANG job in Europe and they still pay extremely well. My base pay is 150K pounds and not in London! Definitely I have a very niche skill in demand and I had to work really hard and be luck at the same time, to land at this role, but I will any day pick Europe with all the other benefits that a European country gives me.

Yes, working for Google or Apple in Sweden pays very, very well compared to other companies.

This is not widely known by engineers. I wish more people would talk about salaries here.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#229

Post by rimliu »

Pandabob wrote: post #189
gamesbrainiac wrote: post #100

Looks like us over here in Europe are getting shafted. Even if you adjust for living expenses, European engineers are grossly underpaid.

I might be wrong here, but I think the biggest reason for this is that Europe hasn't really produced a tech company in the past ~25 years, with revenues (and profits) amounting to anything close to those of the FAANGs. OTOH, there is the separate issue of FAANGs not compensating their European workers as well as they do the ones working in the US.

The only consolation is that Europe produced WWW and a number of programming languages creators :)

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#230

Post by whiskyant »

milesskorpen wrote: post #115
eclipxe wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, these are roughly inline with new hire offers

At all of the five listed levels?

I'm an L5 that joined a FAANG last year, and earn 440k/yr. If I counted stock inflation, it would be 500k/yr. Most people don't count stock inflation into their total compensation.
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