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Tech compensation in 2021

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Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#521

Post by Aeolun »

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…

> The claim that hiring is broken has been constantly repeated since ~2010 and yet all of these companies somehow, despite hiring all of the wrong non-CTO people, are still alive and are in fact thriving.

There is little correlation between the quality of your tech stack and profitability.

You could say that means hiring isn’t broken, but only from the perspective of the company.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#522

Post by Aeolun »

hintymad wrote: post #415
throwaway2016a wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> My point was not that algorithms are irrelevant but they are table stakes You're wrong. A previous team built a simple data processing pipeline for a big customer. The throughput is single digit per second. The customer was furious as they would have wait for days to get their data in. The reason is the team was not aware that their graph building and traversal algorithms are O(n^2), and they didn't understand how…

200x single digit/second still seems lowish? I’m not sure if I’d call that a large backend for a data intensive system.

Depends on how extensive your processing is of course.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#523

Post by mikeywazowski »

andrewisaburden wrote: post #504
xupybd wrote: post #244

Wow I work in NZ and with about 9 years exp I'm only just above the equivalent of $60k USD. I think I need to move.

That's pretty low for that long experience even in NZ, what's your role and tech stack at the moment? Maybe I can find a referral for you if you want to stay in NZ. There are also Australian companies hiring remote that pay much better than that (e.g. Atlassian and Zapier,).

Hey I just checked your profile - how did you get experience with both Laravel/PHP and C#/.NET? I'm currently working with Laravel, and I like it but would prefer to get into C#/.NET.

Looking at job listings, most places seem to say that experience with C# is required. Do I just need to keep looking, or are these companies possibly more open minded regarding previous experience than they appear?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#524

Post by che_secfi »

Full disclosure: I work for Secfi (https://www.secfi.com) and we help employees understand and unlock the value of their startup equity.

The OP's point of view on equity compensation is quite common and - I believe - in principle a great way to think about an investment that one does not fully understand.

However, especially for somewhat later stage startups, a substantial amount of your wealth can be locked up in your equity or option grants! Valuing them at 0 might not be accurate and actually quite risky: you take the full risk of the startup succeeding or not!

Secfi offers a financing product for your equity that is non-recourse. It basically works like this: Secfi pays for the exercise of your options and transfers a - sometimes very substantial - part of the value of your equity to you to use as you see fit. For example, you can use the money as a down payment on a house or get that crazy Lamborghini your crypto-millionaire neighbour recently bought, too. :)

In exchange, you pay Secfi a small percentage of interest on the amount and a small equity fee if, and only if, the startup succeeds (read: has a successful exit). If the startup fails - and this is crucial - you get to keep all the money and Secfi takes the loss!

So, in this scenario, your equity has a much, much greater value than 0!

Secfi's website has a lot of information and tools to help visualise and understand the value of startup equity and might be a good way to start learning how it all works. (https://www.secfi.com/academy)

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#525

Post by purplecats »

theshadowknows wrote: post #223

I’m wondering if I’m just not worth as much money or if I’m not paid as much because I don’t work in California or both, lol. I work for an enormous company. I’ve got about 8 or so years experience. As of right now I’m a sr architect and I work on enterprise-level systems - either designing or enhancing existing processes and platforms. I don’t really code much these days, though I do write a lot of sql, build lots o…

That sounds amazing! pretty rich to me

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#526

Post by purplecats »

habosa wrote: post #518
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?

At Google making 300k total comp means you're probably a high-performing L4 or a new L5 (senior). Your day can look like absolutely anything. I know people making 300k that are writing hundreds of lines of high-quality code in important systems every single day for years in a row and also doing code reviews, system design, etc. Very productive engineers doing traditional tasks. I also know people at that level who sp…

Yikes this comment is full of bias and hate

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#527

Post by hungrybrit »

beaconstudios wrote: post #17
Etheryte wrote: post #3

While I don't have doubts about this being a good way to find rough outlines for compensation, I'm yet to find a reliable source of data for Europe. Has anyone else had better luck?

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.

I concur; this matches the salary bands offered by my employer in the Midlands.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#528

Post by jltsiren »

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)

I would add two reasons in addition to those already discussed:

1) Some of the difference is structural. Upper middle class gets a larger share of the wealth in the US than in most European countries. An American professional in any field is paid more relative to the median income than in Europe.

2) International comparisons are often misleading. This is true even if you adjust the numbers for purchasing power and structural differences (such as benefits/taxes paid on top of the nominal salary). For middle class and above, the marginal cost of employment is higher in the US than in Europe, because you are expected to contribute more towards healthcare / education / childcare / retirement / unemployment / parental leave / etc from your personal income. An American employer has to pay a larger fraction of those costs directly to their employees, while an European employer can rely more on other taxpayers.

The second point sets American middle class salaries higher relative to GDP per capita than in Europe, while the first point sets upper middle class salaries higher relative to middle class salaries.

In a truly open market, tech salaries would converge globally, but there are currently far too many legal and cultural obstacles for that.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#529

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#530

Post by cambaceres »

> Content note: this piece discusses money, quite directly, with specific numbers and examples. Discussions about money can make quite a few people uncomfortable; if that’s you, you might want to skip this post.

Is this ironic?

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