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Tech compensation in 2021

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Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#471

Post by suzzer99 »

tubby12345 wrote: post #421
franciscop wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything else being the same, it's better to make 300k than 175k/year. And not everything is the same, normally in those better paid jobs you have better Engineers, a lot of challenging problems, many nice perks, etc. What you don't normally have is flexibility to negotiate special conditions e.g. 4day work week. Also you don't get highly ethical companies, just average ones at that (and it might actually be better…

>What you don't normally have is flexibility to negotiate special conditions e.g. 4day work week This isn't true. Google allows you to "scale" your work (eg 80% pay for 80% time).

I'd be interested in 4 different jobs at 1 day a week for 20% of pay.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#472

Post by zamfi »

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…

You are doing something very wrong. Look at that median and ask yourself: Why would you compare yourself to median income if you have 20 yoe and two books? That is far more than the median SWE has accomplished. You are paying a lot in opportunity cost for whatever you are doing now.

Of course, it could be worth it! That’s for you to decide.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#473

Post by seoulmetro »

pcmoney wrote: post #455
seoulmetro wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Truly passionate programmer doesn't ship at all, they create work for themselves. Earning money or not does not recognise the difference between hobby and profession. Ironically a lot of hobbyists make money and very few professionals work for free.

I guess if you redefine what programming is you can say that. It is literally just finding efficient and maintainable ways to shuffle 0s and 1s so a computer does something a user wants it to do. Thats it. Now there are good ways to do that and bad ways and we should take pride in our work but lets not pretend when we say “programming is an art” that we mean like a real art. Laying tile and drywall is also an “art” b…

Nope. No redefining required.

I don't think you're replying to anything I said at this point.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#474

Post by atq2119 »

vincnetas wrote: post #466
franciscop wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything else being the same, it's better to make 300k than 175k/year. And not everything is the same, normally in those better paid jobs you have better Engineers, a lot of challenging problems, many nice perks, etc. What you don't normally have is flexibility to negotiate special conditions e.g. 4day work week. Also you don't get highly ethical companies, just average ones at that (and it might actually be better…

i had to read this twice to make sure i was reading it correctly: and it might actually be better to donate the diff between 300k and 175k vs working in a slightly more ethical place for 175k this really triggered me. you basically say its ok to do shady things as long as you give something to the poor. sounds so much like "indulgence" in Christian churches where you could pay off your sins. sad. i'd say money is not…

I agree with you, but consider the possibility of donating the difference to a political organisation whose aim it is to eliminate shady behaviour by companies.

There's a broader spectrum to donation than just donating to the poor.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#475

Post by emteycz »

tunesmith wrote: post #405
zippergz wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing SQL and drawing diagrams for enterprise systems inside of a huge company is not what the highly-compensated senior engineers tend to be doing. If you want to make more money, move out of being an “architect” and into being a principal engineer at a tech company (one whose business is making software; not a company that just happens to employ software developers).

What the heck, principle engineer is considered higher than architect? What about principle architect? I might need a flowchart somewhere that describes all the tech levels above "senior software engineer".

From what I've seen architects are alongside engineers, not above. Also depends on what kind of architect - solution architecture tends to be a completely separate track, etc.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#476

Post by thaumasiotes »

jdavis703 wrote: post #381
throwaway2016a wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been told I have an excellent resume by Google recruiters and gotten a recommendation from a manager I worked with in the past there and still not gotten an interview. With that said, I think it is because at the time the Boston office was mostly specialists and I'm a generalist. I'm also not from a top 10 school in a city filled with top-10 schools which didn't help, I'm sure. But that was years ago. Maybe I'…

I applied about 6 years ago to work at HQ. I went to community college and a bottom-tier state school and got an interview. Sounds like you just may not have been a match with the available jobs.

> Sounds like you just may not have been a match with the available jobs.

People say this a lot, but Google is pretty explicit that they decide whether to hire you first, and only then consider where they might put you.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#477

Post by suzzer99 »

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…

FYI - HSA is also basically a SEP IRA you can cash out when you're 65. A lot of people I know never plan to actually spend any of their HSA on healthcare until they're 65. https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/wealth-management/hsas-a...

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#478

Post by VRay »

ceras wrote: post #155
steve_adams_86 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook seems to be aggressively searching for remote workers outside of the US if my inbox is any indication. I imagine others in the US are too.

Facebook is also aggressively expanding in expensive markets like NYC. So it looks like they aren't all-in on arbitrage. Google too: they just bought a large new building in NYC, yet they're also growing a lot in markets where they pay much less (e.g. India). Very curious how this will play out over time.

They definitely ARE all-in on arbitrage. The FAANG megacorps are all pulling in upwards of $2M in revenue per year per coder on average. So what if some of them cost $600k/year?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#479

Post by matco11 »

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 believe it’s good practice to think about your compensation not only as “what you get for what you do”, but also as “what you get for not doing what you would rather be doing”.

Some companies, some products, some teams, some (lower) level of stress, some amount of learning you are getting, some work/life flexibility - at some (temporary?) point in your life - might make a lot of sense to be considered together with the $ you get paid. I am all up for maximizing what you get out of your job, but you might want to optimize for multiple factors, not just salary.

Also, this discussion is very centered on yearly comp. It’s good practice to ask yourself how risk prone you are? That early stage startup equity comp might turn into much more than you will ever get paid at a large established company.

So when you are maximizing, ask yourself over what time horizon you want to maximize? One year?Three? Five? Ten years? It’s rare to get truly great things instantly.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#480

Post by vincnetas »

atq2119 wrote: post #474
vincnetas wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i had to read this twice to make sure i was reading it correctly: and it might actually be better to donate the diff between 300k and 175k vs working in a slightly more ethical place for 175k this really triggered me. you basically say its ok to do shady things as long as you give something to the poor. sounds so much like "indulgence" in Christian churches where you could pay off your sins. sad. i'd say money is not…

I agree with you, but consider the possibility of donating the difference to a political organisation whose aim it is to eliminate shady behaviour by companies. There's a broader spectrum to donation than just donating to the poor.

of course :) breaking system from within. I'm being sarcastic here. sure there are more charities than for the poor, but what triggered me is the reasoning that i can buy my self peace of mind for things i have done. and this is on paper. i suspect that when money are in hand, the question comes, "after all why should i not keep it" or "i already donated last year, this should be enough"
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