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Tech compensation in 2021

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Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#311

Post by f3d46600-b66e »

johnqpub wrote: post #180
yholio wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I'm in Seattle so the situation is a bit better than the valley. But here's a breakdown: L6 at Amazon, single, no kids: ~$400K TC $33,333 per month gross About $100K in federal tax, no state income tax in WA. $8333 per month Healthcare: $34 a month for an HSA plan. $3,650 over the course of the year goes into the HSA, including the employer portion. That ends up being about $205 out of my pocket. This is a bit compli…

If you want to purchase a home, you probably need to replace 2k with 4k-5k/month for a mortgage on a home (30 year loan) + ~1k/month in property taxes.

Add two kids, each 2k/mo/child in daycare.

That's 7k/month extra.

Still leaves you a nice chunk though.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#312

Post by opportune »

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?

It depends on how you want to live.

For one healthcare is usually not an issue because you have a good health plan with an out of pocket maximum. Your employer pays the premiums. Out of pocket you’re looking at about $10k/yr on the higher end, barring big medical problems or issues with your insurer (sadly, always a possibility). Let’s call that $1k/month.

Rent also depends a lot on how many bedrooms you need and how fancy you want to go. Let’s say it’s $2.5k/month (including utilities).

At $300k/yr in California you’re taking home about $180k/yr. So that’s about $15k/month after tax and $11.5k/month after rent and healthcare (you really aren’t likely to spend that much on healthcare. More on rent if you have kids). Not including of course things like 401k which can both lower your taxable income and get extra money from your employer

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#313

Post by tshaddox »

sharpy wrote: post #198
johnqpub wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Seattle so the situation is a bit better than the valley. But here's a breakdown: L6 at Amazon, single, no kids: ~$400K TC $33,333 per month gross About $100K in federal tax, no state income tax in WA. $8333 per month Healthcare: $34 a month for an HSA plan. $3,650 over the course of the year goes into the HSA, including the employer portion. That ends up being about $205 out of my pocket. This is a bit compli…

Another data point. My salary is just above $200k. After 6% contribution to retirement (max my employer will match), and $25k a year set aside for employee stock purchase program (max I can set aside - our ESPP is really good), I get just under $10k a month in direct deposit. My rent is $3k a month. My discretionary spending is also around $3k a month. So I save $4k a month (in cash). I also get around $350k in stock…

Out of curiosity, assuming the retirement you mention is a 401k, why don’t you elect to contribute the yearly maximum?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#314

Post by the_only_law »

rootusrootus wrote: post #31

In other news, if you aren't in the valley or working for one of the big tech companies, you're probably making 100-150K as a mid/senior developer. There's a pretty sizable leap.

Yeah I just wrapped up a job search m after hearing how hot the market was. 5YOE, in a relatively large state with a shockingly weak martlet. The highest number I heard was around 140k. I did have some Amazon recruiter reach out, which potentially would have been higher, but I cannot relocated atm, and they would not offer a high enough relocation bonus.

Just a few observations from my job search.

1) I was targeting remote roles, but almost every recruiter that reached out was local, at least to the state I was in. This probably greatly affected the numbers available to me. Again, Amazon was the exception.

2) Basically all of the jobs I applied to directly either screened me out or never got any response. This makes sense, as I very much find myself stuck in the “enterprise” world, and even worse the legacy section of it, and the only companies that are interested in me are those. I attempted to put some non-work projects on my resume, but people are uninterested in those even in interviews.

I ended up settling once more (I really didn’t want to settle again, but it would take too long to even figure out my way out of this issue) for $121k with even that being a significant increase over my current comp (non-tech too 100 F500 company local to the area)

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#315

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #184
tubby12345 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>every time I see an article like this, I think I am doing something "very wrong" there's a comment like this in every single thread like this. and the recommendation is always the same: grind LC for however long you need in order to be comfortable solving hard problems cleanly in 35-45 minutes and then collect your pay bump. the fact that the 1. data 2. complaint 3. recommendation crop up with 100% perfect regularit…

It was data. The "I must be doing something wrong" was tongue in cheek. The specific data point was that I am not seeing any salaries anywhere near that. And Salary.com actually backs me up. Just the fact "grind Leet Code" is a recommendation to someone who's most recent job title was CTO and has written two books may be a sign these interviews are broken. But point taken, I'm sure if I studied specifically for inter…

[deleted]

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#316

Post by Jensson »

adventured wrote: post #266
somewhereoutth wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US everything is pretty broken anyway - so go right ahead and change stuff, you might even fix something!! Whereas in Europe everything pretty much works as it should, so why rock the boat??

If things are working so well in Europe, why hasn't most of Europe seen any economic growth in two or three decades? That sure sounds like it's severely broken to me. The GDP of Germany and France are both below where they were in 1995 inflation adjusted (and that was true even before Covid hit). Britain's economy is where it was in 1998. Italy is far below where it was 30 years ago ($2.1t today; $1.32t in 1992, whic…

> The GDP of Germany and France are both below where they were in 1995 inflation adjusted

In US dollars. You can't use USD inflation numbers for other countries, Euro inflated much less than US dollars in these years. The effect you see where Europe has stagnated given USD levels of inflation is just the effect of USD currently being a bubble. If you use their internal inflation numbers then the economies of Europe are growing just fine.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#317

Post by jfcllotr »

loeg wrote: post #256
chiefofgxbxl wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> looks like it’s leetcode time Haven't searched for a job in a few years, but would consider based on TC. Are all these good-paying software jobs behind the "leetcode firewall", even for non-FAANG? I guess my willingness to practice on leetcode would be partly driven by potential TC reward, but I really would like to be judged on the merits of the development I've already done for previous companies instead of havin…

Leetcode will only cover the easiest part (IMO) of the interview. For senior roles, expect to spend half or more of the interview on “system design” and “behavioral” interviewing.

This ^. I’m surprised most people don’t realize this.

After a certain level, leetcode is 30% of your interviews. Your level is decided by system design and behavioral, which IMO you’ll do naturally better at with experience

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#318

Post by [deleted] »

beebmam wrote: post #23
KronisLV wrote: post #14

As someone who works in an Eastern European country, i also did a writeup on how much i've made over the years and how that figure has changed, while working for a local company: https://blog.kronis.dev/articles/on-finances-and-savings In short, this year i'll probably make around 18k Euros, in total. I guess that just goes to show how different the situation is depending on where you live and where you're employed.

Why are these numbers so massively different across the world? Do European companies generate that much less revenue? Or are labor unions in Europe just that much less effective at bargaining? Or is productivity that much lower in Europe? (I'm not sold on any of these)

[deleted]

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#319

Post by jrochkind1 »

tubby12345 wrote: post #174
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…

>every time I see an article like this, I think I am doing something "very wrong" there's a comment like this in every single thread like this. and the recommendation is always the same: grind LC for however long you need in order to be comfortable solving hard problems cleanly in 35-45 minutes and then collect your pay bump. the fact that the 1. data 2. complaint 3. recommendation crop up with 100% perfect regularit…

What's "grind LC"?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#320

Post by Tiktaalik »

It's honestly remarkable just how much money the FAANG companies can throw around.

What on earth can relatively small private tech shops that can't dangle heaps of RSUs possibly do to compete?

Quality of life improvements may be some of the only levers they have available to pull.

Generous time off (for NA standards at least), beyond four weeks could lure people.

Permanent, flexible WFH and remote work options will be a new one that they can use to differentiate from big public companies that want seats in desks.

Lastly potentially 4 day, 32 hour work weeks could be an effective tool. We've seen stories of Eidos Montreal implementing this recently.

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