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Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

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Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#41

Post by synnik »

d2viant wrote: post #20

Does this make anyone else feel extremely underpaid? I'm a software engineer at Fortune 200 company in a major metropolitan city, making about 30K less than these guys. It's not a technology company, so that must be the difference.

On the contrary, I suddenly feel very good about my salary. I'm right on-track with everyone except for Facebook, while I work in the corporate world.

Of course, I work in the energy industry, so that is probably the critical difference. This industry has cash.

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#42

Post by vic_nyc »

haberman wrote: post #32
catch23 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's just say I know enough Googlers who are currently fed up with the influx of subpar nooglers. It's not just one data point -- at least 4 of my googler friends complained about the new employees. They mention that Google stopped hiring around the economic crisis, and when the economy picked up again, they had to hire twice as fast to make up for the lost time and in doing so, they let in people who should have be…

I'm a Googler with the opposite complaint: in my neck of the woods we seem to be so picky that you start to wonder how any of us ever got hired. A person can do 10 or 20 interviews and have none of them (even the ones who seemed good) get an offer. Google's a big company, so I'm sure that some pockets err on one side, some on the other.

I agree with you. And the effectiveness of the criteria Google uses to screen & interview candidates is highly debatable, at best.

One of their recruiters once contacted me (because I went to a 'top university') but decided it would be a 'waste of time' because I hadn't done any Java or C++ recently. It used to be that Google was interviewing for knowledge of the fundamentals unlike most other 'business-oriented' companies that want specific recent skills.

Nowadays it seems that they've got the 'worst' of both worlds - I heard they interview for very hard-core graph programming algorithms, and at the same time they want recent experience with Java or C++. So basically if you've recently only done Lisp/Smalltalk/etc or even Python, you don't qualify. Where is the logic in that?

On top of that, my impression was that the salary levels of their employees were fairly astronomical, on par with the ones paid by banks/hedge funds, but that definitely doesn't seem to be the case.

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#43

Post by myth_drannon »

steverb wrote: post #35
d2viant wrote: post #20

Does this make anyone else feel extremely underpaid? I'm a software engineer at Fortune 200 company in a major metropolitan city, making about 30K less than these guys. It's not a technology company, so that must be the difference.

Honestly, I was looking at these thinking how under-paid they are. I contract for a company in a much lower cost of living area and I'm making more than the average Googler. I honestly don't understand why anyone would work for someone else for peanuts.

There is a difference between a contractor with 20 years of experience and a kid straight out of college.

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#44

Post by smackfu »

strlen wrote: post #40
haberman wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a Googler with the opposite complaint: in my neck of the woods we seem to be so picky that you start to wonder how any of us ever got hired. A person can do 10 or 20 interviews and have none of them (even the ones who seemed good) get an offer. Google's a big company, so I'm sure that some pockets err on one side, some on the other.

> A person can do 10 or 20 interviews and have none of them (even the ones who seemed good) get an offer. That's actually fairly common in the Silicon Valley. It's 10 to 20 people on the market, not 10 to 20 programmers selected at random: some are specialists in fields other than the ones you're looking for (or their resume is misread by the recruiter e.g., someone who has experience with enterprise search but is be…

If 10 or 20 people are getting to the technical interview stage and failing to qualify, that points to a problem. That adds up to a lot of non-productive time for the interviewers.

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#45

Post by JabavuAdams »

maxawaytoolong wrote: post #16
chime wrote: post #5

Is Facebook rated higher because it is the new cool kid in the neighborhood or because it is doing something different? After all, Google was considered the best place to work less than 5 years ago.

Google went crazy with hiring in 2006 and relaxed its standards, letting in a bunch of duds. There's a higher chance at Google that your manager is going to be a creep and your coworkers are going to be mouth breathers. Facebook is younger and smaller so does not face these issues (yet). If you do encounter a poser at Facebook, at least they are a cool, young , good looking poser, not a yucky beardo comp sci Phd pose…

> cool, young , good looking poser, not a yucky beardo comp sci Phd poser...

Is this some kind of official policy? Because ...

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#46

Post by cobralibre »

d2viant wrote: post #20

Does this make anyone else feel extremely underpaid? I'm a software engineer at Fortune 200 company in a major metropolitan city, making about 30K less than these guys. It's not a technology company, so that must be the difference.

I work in Austin, where the cost of living is much lower than on the west coast, and I'd say that the base salaries look good but not great. But those bonuses are really something.

I also don't have a sense for the range of experience levels represented by these figures. That's not insignificant.

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#47

Post by JabavuAdams »

d2viant wrote: post #20

Does this make anyone else feel extremely underpaid? I'm a software engineer at Fortune 200 company in a major metropolitan city, making about 30K less than these guys. It's not a technology company, so that must be the difference.

For me, 100K has always had the feeling of "big money". On the other hand, from a cost of living point of view, I'm guessing I have more disposable income in Toronto (and better quality of life for my tastes (except winter)), while making say 20% less.

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#48

Post by JabavuAdams »

ryanfitz wrote: post #19
rorrr wrote: post #17

Is it just me or these numbers are not that impressive? Many of my friends make $100+/hr, it's not out of the ordinary. I'm sure there are really highly paid developers there as well, but it just feels good to know that you don't need to work for one of the huge companies to make good money.

I agree, in my experience most funded startups (in nyc) are willing to pay at least 120K a year and you can make much more consulting. I would have thought these two companies, which are seen as the top of technology, would be paying much more.

The reverse is true. The cooler a place is perceived to be, the less they can afford to pay developers, up to some threshold where they can't hire any good ones.

There's a huge variance to what salary good developers are happy with. For every one who says "I wouldn't work for less than X", there are some who would, and moreover would not be unhappy at that salary level.

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#49

Post by JabavuAdams »

steverb wrote: post #35
d2viant wrote: post #20

Does this make anyone else feel extremely underpaid? I'm a software engineer at Fortune 200 company in a major metropolitan city, making about 30K less than these guys. It's not a technology company, so that must be the difference.

Honestly, I was looking at these thinking how under-paid they are. I contract for a company in a much lower cost of living area and I'm making more than the average Googler. I honestly don't understand why anyone would work for someone else for peanuts.

Dude, let's get real here. 100k + is not peanuts.

It's higher than the median household income.

There's a very real premium to working on cool stuff.

Re: Paychecks Exposed: Google, Apple, Facebook and More

#50

Post by hogu »

rorrr wrote: post #17

Is it just me or these numbers are not that impressive? Many of my friends make $100+/hr, it's not out of the ordinary. I'm sure there are really highly paid developers there as well, but it just feels good to know that you don't need to work for one of the huge companies to make good money.

agreed, especially given the recent discussion about talent wars... I would expect salaries to be higher given the war
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