Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level • Hacker News Board

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#301

Post by auiya » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

throwaway713 wrote: post #236

Now imagine having one of these incomes but having a spouse who is hellbent on moving back to the southeastern U.S. in a year. It’s driving me nuts; I can’t find any company in the south that pays anywhere near my current compensation, and a rough calculation indicates that leaving FANG will bump my retirement age from 38 to 65 (never mind the amazing health insurance I’ll be giving up too). It’s like throwing a winn…

As someone who worked for a remote FAANG office IN the southeast US, I feel your pain. Rates in this part of the country aren't anywhere near what they are in the bay area sadly. I took a job with fedgov for twice what I was making at FAANG.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#302

Post by zeckalpha » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:51 PM UTC

textfoo wrote: post #295

cletus wrote: post #171

As a FAANG engineer going on 9 years now, let me address the usual rebuttals: - There is a selection bias. Nope, this is pretty much accurate. - These aren't real. Yes, yes they are. - Self-reporters are lying. Maybe some do but these numbers are pretty accurate. If anything, I question Lyft and Airbnb as such outliers. I wonder if this factored in Lyft's post-IPO stock performance and makes unrealistic valuations of…

> Some FAANGs have caps on 401k matches. Some don't. Federal contributing limits at 19.5, no?

Matches and after-tax contributions go to a different bucket.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#303

Post by tootie » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:52 PM UTC

huehehue wrote: post #53

What I'm taking away from this is that many (most) companies are grossly underpaying their engineers. I've been through the SF/NYC Senior SWE interviewing gauntlet twice in the past three years, and received 10+ offers at half this rate. Levels claims to be checking offer letters, which is great IMO. It's really hard for people to know they're being undervalued when the employers are low-balling and the self-reporter…

I've been in this industry in NYC for about 20 years of progressive levels of responsibility where I'm now directing multiple project teams and doing company strategy and am somehow earning as much as a college grad in SF.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#304

Post by auiya » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:52 PM UTC

jerkstate wrote: post #297

throwaway713 wrote: post #236

Now imagine having one of these incomes but having a spouse who is hellbent on moving back to the southeastern U.S. in a year. It’s driving me nuts; I can’t find any company in the south that pays anywhere near my current compensation, and a rough calculation indicates that leaving FANG will bump my retirement age from 38 to 65 (never mind the amazing health insurance I’ll be giving up too). It’s like throwing a winn…

See if you can negotiate a remote work position. I work for one of the companies in this report in a fairly senior position and even though they don't advertise it, they do allow some folks to go remote after a lengthy HR process. If not your current company, figure out which companies will allow it and get a different job, then work there for a year or two to establish a great reputation and then ask for a transfer.…

> See if you can negotiate a remote work position

If you're lucky and they DO offer a remote position, it will be for 1/4th of your current salary. Bet on it.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#305

Post by vonseel » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:54 PM UTC

chinesempire wrote: post #268

philjohn wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth mentioning that retiring early is an important goal in and of itself. You can either spend the bulk of your healthy years working towards a far off goal in your 60's, or you can work hard in your 20s and 30s and then spend your only time on this earth doing things that interest you, with your spouse.

> or you can work hard in your 20s and 30s and then spend your only time on this earth doing things that interest you, with your spouse What if your spouse wanna spend her 20s and 30s with you, in a place that has a normal cost of living, doing a job that doesn't require you to be on 60hours a week? What if she doesn't wanna wait for you to retire or she doesn't want to retire early (or can't)? What if you spend your…

> What if your spouse wanna spend her 20s and 30s with you, in a place that has a normal cost of living, doing a job that doesn't require you to be on 60hours a week?

I'm not sure 'bout the exact number of hours, but the top comment in this thread already said "In fact you'll typically find significantly better work-life balance at a FAANG than a startup.".

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#306

Post by crispyporkbites » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:55 PM UTC

gnrlst wrote: post #190

What I find completely demotivating is working for a FAANG in Europe, and seeing the massive disparity between US colleagues. You can argue cost of living is different, healthcare is public blablabla, but recruiters have told me straight out: we dont adjust for cost of living, we adjust for market rate. Therefore they dont give a rats ass about how much it costs to live in a specific country, they just pay based on t…

What are FAANG in Europe salaries like?

Is there also a perception of core product/business work taking place in SV and therefore European teams aren't as important?

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#307

Post by vonseel » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 1:58 PM UTC

jypepin wrote: post #218

choppaface wrote: post #95

Another point of reference: here are some offers recently aggregated on Blind. In 2019, I got an offer almost identical to one of those listed below, and a friend got an offer a little higher than listed below. So I believe the reports are legit. While the raw salary data on levels.fyi is useful, other context about the candidate & team is pretty important. For example, my friend has no college degree but matched to…

I've recently interviewed and got 5 offers. Those numbers check out.

All SF/CA numbers I suppose? Any idea how these differ in Austin?

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#308

Post by tootie » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 2:00 PM UTC

destitude wrote: post #60

tempire wrote: post #5

If this is for real, _everyone_ I know is getting completely screwed. I have a hard time believing any of these numbers. If I earned any of these amounts for 2-3 years, I could live off the interest for the rest of my life.

Many companies hope that engineers don't know their value or that they simply aren't willing to relocate near one of the tech hubs. A trick of startups is to woo you with stock options which almost never amount to any value. You also have to watch out for REMOTE work where many companies seem to place an excessive $ on the "privilege" of working from home.

These companies are also ludicrously selective. I think to think I'm a pretty good engineer and I have built up a lot of management experience to boot and I can barely get the time of day from any of them. I only ever got to the interview round twice and I felt like I did really well and just never heard back.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#309

Post by tootie » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

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.

Just to be clear, most engineers in the US aren't getting close to this either. This is only for top companies. Even good engineers at "normal" companies in the US are getting less than half this much.

Re: Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level

#310

Post by noelsusman » Mon, Jan 06, 2020, 2:05 PM UTC

vonseel wrote: post #305

chinesempire wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or you can work hard in your 20s and 30s and then spend your only time on this earth doing things that interest you, with your spouse What if your spouse wanna spend her 20s and 30s with you, in a place that has a normal cost of living, doing a job that doesn't require you to be on 60hours a week? What if she doesn't wanna wait for you to retire or she doesn't want to retire early (or can't)? What if you spend your…

> What if your spouse wanna spend her 20s and 30s with you, in a place that has a normal cost of living, doing a job that doesn't require you to be on 60hours a week? I'm not sure 'bout the exact number of hours, but the top comment in this thread already said "In fact you'll typically find significantly better work-life balance at a FAANG than a startup." .

"Better than a startup" is a very low bar.