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Tech compensation in 2021

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Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#481

Post by VRay »

sharpy wrote: post #324
tshaddox wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I just put the extra money into regular investment account. My investments account tend to perform better than the rather boring results that 401k accounts give me. Would be different story, if I was allowed to contribute to Roth IRA. I actually didn't know about the backdoor conversion until this year, but that loophole seems to be on its way out.

you can usually roll your company's 401k savings into a self-managed IRA with level 2 options once a year, FYI

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#482

Post by biztos »

jjav wrote: post #463
tubby12345 wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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).

> This isn't true. Google allows you to "scale" your work (eg 80% pay for 80% time). Well.. sort of. My partner was doing 80% for 80% at goog for many years, which sounds like a good deal. Except the demands were more like 40-50 hours/week, with management always saying that full-timers were working way more than 50 hours, so at 80% salary you better be working 40-50hrs/wk.

That reminds me of the old “120% time” problem at Google[0]. Sounds like your partner had a bad manager. Much easier to change managers than companies if your partner is/was otherwise happy with Google. Or, given the CV mojo of a Google job, to go to a different FAANG.

In Europe such scaling is generally guaranteed by law, and I don’t think any big company would be stupid enough to be caught cheating. And based solely on anecdata I think at least as many people are “phoning it in” at Google as at any other company regardless of salary.

Hope it worked out for your partner. Being exploited with lots of privilege is still being exploited.

[0]: Google famously used to let workers spend 20% of their time working on anything they wanted (for the company’s benefit) but bad managers, which turned out to be most managers, did not reduce the load of “normal” work, so it became known as 120% time.

[edit] past tense, they may no longer work there

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#483

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

mFixman wrote: post #81
beaconstudios wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in the UK, junior is £20-40k, mid-level is around £40-60k, lead can be around £60-100k. Very rough numbers, and adjust upwards slightly for London. The big money is in contracting in the UK, which would be our accessible FAANG-equivalent.

FAANG in London pays ~£200k total comp for a senior engineer. There are also a couple of local non-FAANG companies that pay similar salaries.

> There are also a couple of local non-FAANG companies that pay similar salaries.

Who, if you don’t mind?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#484

Post by VRay »

nonameiguess wrote: post #104
beebmam wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

What country? Serbia's GDP per capita is about 1/10 of the United States. Software developers make less money there because everyone makes less money there.

Man, some Eastern Europeans offered to write an app for me for $2000, and I assumed it was a scam since it'd be 50+ hours of work. Maybe I should hit those guys up again, if someone posting to HackerNews is making less as a programmer there than you'd make flipping burgers in California

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#485

Post by therealdrag0 »

foota wrote: post #243
eminence32 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Honestly, I make 300k TC and joined one company out of college and stayed there for the last 4 years. I live in Seattle. I just want to show that not everyone making > 200k switches companies every 2 years trying to minmax.

How much of that is from your stock that you got 4 years ago vesting while the market has gone up? Or is your newly infused grants and cash 300?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#486

Post by burntoutfire »

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…

> Are you able to live comfortably on $175k per year?

Most people can't live comfortably while holding a full-time job, esp. a demanding one. The job just eats too much time and energy.

The exceptions are people with very high energy levels and people for whom the job is their passion (but even for them, it's usually temporary - passions change over the duration of one's life).

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#487

Post by ggm »

The "... in rat models" here is of course, "in the usa"

If you aren't in the USA your salary expectations should be significantly different.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#488

Post by SergeAx »

bit_logic wrote: post #391
eminence32 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Inflation is not a universal metric, it's individual. Every person, every household has their own inflation rate depending on spending profile. I would not use government figures to make decisions about my financial affairs.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#489

Post by SergeAx »

Jensson wrote: post #413
skeeter2020 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what does staff even mean when in his previous example someone with 5 years experience is "mid career"?

It is a measure of skill. Senior is when you are good enough to lead a team with your technical skills, staff is when you can lead a team of seniors. Typical people reach senior level after 5 years and never reach staff level, so a typical engineer would still be senior even after 20 years. It is a bit silly to label those senior, but that is how the industry decided to label things. If your company is more strict th…

Grades are not the same in different companies. I can be on a senior grade in firm A, but will have only middle grade offer from company B.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#490

Post by loeg »

eegg7 wrote: post #191

These articles always undershoot the top end comp. I’m staff+ with ~15 years exp at a FANG like big tech company. I currently make low seven figures. I don’t think I’m unique among my peer group. When you add in refreshers and stock appreciation it gets even higher. Currently remote.

Most people aren’t eligible for top-end comp so focusing on it is pretty niche. The 300k jobs are a lot more accessible than the 1m jobs.
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