Tech compensation in 2021 • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#391

Post by bit_logic » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:27 AM UTC

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…

I'm also not into trying to maximize every dollar and care a lot about other factors like WLB. But these days I'm feeling a lot of pressure due to inflation. Everything is going up and I feel like I need to switch jobs and increase salary just to keep up. Yesterday, I read a news article that Social Security benefits are increasing by 5.9% next year due to inflation. And that's from Social Security which historically was under-adjusting for inflation (usually like 1.5% per year). So if the stingy SS program is going 5.9%, what does that say about the actual inflation?

And I've never seen anything close to 5.9% for COL from any company. Most companies don't give that even for top performers. I don't think companies are prepared to give 5.9% COL, most companies are already so short sighted they would rather lose their entire engineering department instead of give raises to keep up with the market rate (even though they would be willing to pay that market rate when hiring a replacement). That kind of short sighted thinking simply does not allow a massive COL increase, no matter how much data is out there.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#392

Post by Hermitian909 » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:27 AM UTC

nickthemagicman wrote: post #218

Hermitian909 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, I helped several people job hunt this year, here are the offers accepted (total comp, not salary, which tends to cap around 200k). None of the people listed have more than 5 years of experience: 200k (fresh grad) 352k 452k 507k 412k

All at a FAANG? What kind of interview process?

None at FAANG (aside from Netflix, none of the other letters pay top dollar for anything below staff anymore anyway). These were mostly companies that had IPO'd more recently, very late stage startups close to IPO.

All had the format:

-Hiring manager phone screen

-Technical phone screen

-(virtual) On Site

3/5 had leetcodes, 2/5 had no leetcode. No leetcode was harder than medium.

All had behavioral interviews

All but the fresh grad had design interviews

For the non leetcode, coding questions two main forms:

1. General line of business code e.g. take some JSON, derive statistics, turn it into new JSON, etc.

2. Bug squash in a new codebase (find the bug, write regression tests)

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#393

Post by compiler-guy » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:28 AM UTC

bittercynic wrote: post #389

I work as a "tech" guy at a school, and earn WAY less than what anyone in this thread would probably consider a liveable wage, but have good health and retirement benefits. Earning a modest, but reasonable living and having some stability is not an entirely bad way to go.

As long as you understand the trade offs and are doing it with your eyes wide open, more power to you.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#394

Post by Apocryphon » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:32 AM UTC

adammarples wrote: post #103

websap wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your definition of Startup, late stage companies like Stripe and Databricks are definitely matching/beating these offers. Mid-stage companies like Convoy are also going very high, but there is an upside with those companies. Don't know much about early stage, but a few of my acquaintances are moving from FAANG companies to early stage companies to play the lottery.

Stripe being founded 12 years ago with 7 billion in revenue I don't call a startup. Might as well call facebook a startup at this point. Databricks is 8 years old. They are just private.

Nearly public, to be exact

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#395

Post by overrun11 » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:32 AM UTC

throwaway19170 wrote: post #336

So there are all these people in these threads who are like "I only make $175K/200K/150K, I feel like I'm grossly underpaid when I read these things." I got you all beat. I have 15+ experience. I am a really good coder . I can be very not humble because this is a throwaway, but everyone who has ever worked with me or gone to school with me or worked on open source with me would agree, I am very good at designing and…

Stupid question but have you actually ever tried? Your tech stack seems modern enough that I'd be surprised if you couldn't get some offers from startups. New grad level at a startup generally pays 90k+ in my market so you shouldn't have a problem at least matching your current comp but I think 150-200k is probably reasonable but you might need to work remote for a company in a major city.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#396

Post by throwaway80525 » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:34 AM UTC

I'm currently working as an architect, equally skilled in coding, design, and communication, making around 225k TC remote, for 4 days a week, which I scored from being here for a while. 25 years experience. Are people in their 40s and 50s able get these higher paying jobs? Is it possible to negotiate working 4 days a week instead of 5?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#397

Post by neckardt » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:36 AM UTC

throwaway19170 wrote: post #336

So there are all these people in these threads who are like "I only make $175K/200K/150K, I feel like I'm grossly underpaid when I read these things." I got you all beat. I have 15+ experience. I am a really good coder . I can be very not humble because this is a throwaway, but everyone who has ever worked with me or gone to school with me or worked on open source with me would agree, I am very good at designing and…

The first step is to submit a job application. I picked a random one from Amazon, this one will pay at least $200k, probably far more if your experience is accurate: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/jobs/990078/software-development-...

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#398

Post by throwaway2016a » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:36 AM UTC

tubby12345 wrote: post #379

throwaway2016a wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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. This comment and those further down (particularly doubting the data) suggest that you're experiencing strong cognitive dissonance. There are, I'm sure, hundreds of engineers on HN that can testify to exactly how much FAANG pays and in which metro and…

Read what I said again. My point was not that algorithms are irrelevant but they are table stakes. I have known all the algorithms on Leet Code for years.

My comment was not that I don't need to know algorithms it was that at a senior level the questions should be far more advanced than what leet code has.

I'm a little amazed that so many people in these comments assume I don't know algorithms.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#399

Post by hintymad » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:38 AM UTC

throwaway80525 wrote: post #396

I'm currently working as an architect, equally skilled in coding, design, and communication, making around 225k TC remote, for 4 days a week, which I scored from being here for a while. 25 years experience. Are people in their 40s and 50s able get these higher paying jobs? Is it possible to negotiate working 4 days a week instead of 5?

Yes, and the most important thing is getting equity. Plus, good companies will pay probably more than 225K cash a year plus a ton of equity.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#400

Post by overrun11 » Fri, Oct 15, 2021, 3:38 AM UTC

floxy wrote: post #325

For someone who is way out of this loop, what does a typical day look like for someone who make $300k at a "tech" job? $600k? Is it actually programming intensive? Like the guy who wrote the default calculator app on the iphone was making that kind of a salary? Or are you managing teams of programmers? Architecing? Is it something like 16 hour days are the norm?

Your mistake is thinking these are substantially different jobs than any other. Don't fall into the Just World fallacy where you try to justify why compensation is so high by assuming there must be some hidden tradeoff. The tech job market just isn't very efficient.