Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tech compensation in 2021

jacobian.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 631 posts

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#241

Post by btheshoe »

nickjj wrote: post #233
Hermitian909 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in the bay area at a large company. Generally, people at big companies work less than at small companies. Most software engineers I know making more than 400k work ~30 hours a week. Things get different at the super senior levels making several million, usually a lot more meetings, hard to speak to their specific hours. But on the other hand, they get to retire after two years if they want so...

> Things get different at the super senior levels making several million Right, everything changes at that point of income. Putting in ~70 hours a week for a few years to make 3-5 million seems like a no brainer. But grinding 60-70 hours a week for 300k-400k, I don't know. That's a much harder sell. You'll probably burn out before you could retire. I don't know what taxes would look like in CA but it would probably b…

The rent for a studio blows through most of 35k

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#242

Post by Waterluvian »

rsuelzer wrote: post #239
Waterluvian wrote: post #226

The beauty of remote work: I make, let’s say somewhere between 100-200k. But because of where I live, this is enough to fill two college funds, pay off a mortgage, let my wife follow her dream of being a full-time mom, and retire by 50. Absolutely need more remote work in this world. There’s so many wonderful places to live that aren’t ridiculously priced.

I've been remote for 5 years. I have been happy to take a 50% reduction in what I could be making. In the past, I would wake up in the morning and find myself willing to pay more money than I would make that day in order to not have to go into work. The economics of that didn't work out. I also work for a mission driven organization that is on a tight budget. I make enough money, but more importantly, I have not had…

I hear you on that.

When I switched to remote I thought “I’d take about a 25% pay cut to be full remote.”

Having done it for almost four years I’d probably take a 50% pay cut to stay remote.

It’s just completely life altering. Especially given I have two young kids I want to be deeply involved with raising.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#243

Post by foota »

eminence32 wrote: post #199
throwaway2016a wrote: post #90

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…

It seems like a lot of HN readers are continually playing the "maximize salary" game and use like articles like this one to figure out how well they're doing. If you want to play that game, then good luck, have fun. I understand the desire. But it's not for everyone. Are you able to live comfortably on $175k per year? Do you enjoy what you do and the people that you work with? If so, I don't think there should be any…

Honestly, I make 300k TC and joined one company out of college and stayed there for the last 4 years. I live in Seattle.

I just want to show that not everyone making > 200k switches companies every 2 years trying to minmax.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#245

Post by daydream »

diskzero wrote: post #202
moneywoes wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

A very good question, thanks for asking! I think about that a lot. This answer is going to get a little bit deep (for me) so please forgive me. My career later took me to Los Angeles in 2009 and then to Seattle in 2018. Both my wife and I gave a lot to our careers. My wife also worked at Apple, but had a huge change of heart and went back to school to get a masters in social work. She was also an Army Reservist and w…

So sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing your story.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#246

Post by m_ke »

diskzero wrote: post #170

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…

Thanks for sharing.

We should also keep in mind how privileged we are to be in the right place (US) at the right time.

A lot of my high school friends (in Queens NY) are turning 30 and still living with their parents, unable to move out because they have to help with rent and bouncing from one dead end job to another.

I visit my friends at Google, who spend half their time doing yoga, and come across contracted security and cafeteria workers who remind me of my old classmates.

My significant other, who spent 3 years getting a graduate degree to work in healthcare is now deep in debt and trapped in a job that has her waking up at 4 am for 12 hour shifts that usually end up tuning into 14 hours, under constant stress taking care of patients on the verge of dying.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#247

Post by nkohari »

yholio wrote: post #124
m_ke wrote: 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?

For the right company, you could also make a similar salary working remotely from an area with a lower cost of living.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#248

Post by paxys »

m_ke wrote: post #92
gonehome wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed - Silicon Valley exists in part because of 500k-5M$ payouts to employees happening all of the time from private options. Not trying to value that is a mistake.

That's the myth that keeps the whole thing going. For every successful exit that makes employees rich there's a 100 failures and acquihires. You should judge these deals based on expected value.

> You should judge these deals based on expected value.

Which is what all the comments you are replying to are saying. However the expected value isn't automatically $0 as the article suggests. You can apply a fair bit of your own judgement.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#249

Post by eegg7 »

aynyc wrote: post #238
eegg7 wrote: post #191

These articles always undershoot the top end comp. I’m staff+ with ~15 years exp at a FANG like big tech company. I currently make low seven figures. I don’t think I’m unique among my peer group. When you add in refreshers and stock appreciation it gets even higher. Currently remote.

Do you have a lot of old RSU? I think that’s worth more now?

I have some which has benefitted me. My TC would be same ballpark without it though.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#250

Post by loeg »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #209
loeg wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook announced they would allow all employees to work remotely a few months ago. Pay is location-adjusted.

> Pay is location-adjusted This is why I'm not responding. I have a feeling their Canadian offers won't look anything like the article suggests.

The rough estimates I’ve seen are: $100k USD in MPK becomes about 85k CAD. But also I think they just don’t fill as senior roles in Canada so the upper limit is lower. If you want to make more money, I think it’s worth a shot -- if the offer is bad, you don’t have to take it.
Post reply on HN