Employee 1: Yahoo • Hacker News Board

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#61

Post by morgante » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 7:57 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #59

morgante wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a ridiculous trope which keeps getting trotted out. You can easily live in SV for under $100k/year. You can earn >$200k as an engineer in SV (and in few other places). SV is almost certainly going to leave you with more money in your pocket than working at the average tech job.

The ">$200K/yr engineer" is also a ridiculous trope. I'm sure there are a handful of outlier engineers at top companies making that, but the median base Software Engineer salary in the Bay Area is anywhere from $100k to $105k depending on your source (+ maybe a few K in equity depending on the company).

Almost any publicly available source is heavily skewed downwards. Also, total compensation is much more important than base salary.

I am a fairly mediocre engineer. I have less than a decade of experience and have never worked at a "top" company. Yet I earned over $200k last year.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#62

Post by shostack » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:02 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #49

douche wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a continuum between hand-to-mouth and fuck-you-money. The closer you can get to the latter, the better.

I think that depends on your definition of FYM. For me it's $1.3MM. For others it might be $5MM or $750k. I make a good living for my area but have nowhere near $1.3MM liquid or even my entire net worth. Getting and extra $500k would not give me any peace of mind or security that I don't already have.

Getting an extra $500k would put you ~38% closer to your goal of $1.3M. So to say it wouldn't give you any peace of mind or security that you don't already have seems odd as it would put you SIGNIFICANTLY closer to your goal of FYM, which presumably would bring you peace of mind and security that you don't have now, and reduce the risk you would not eventually get there.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#63

Post by xigency » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:05 PM UTC

shostack wrote: post #60

xigency wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I think of the bottom falling out on a team this year, I think of the White Sox. But maybe that's because I'm from Chicago.

I think that's just because the Cubs are by some fluke doing so well comparatively. Don't worry, Cubs will still choke :)

Nope, I'm pretty sure it's the players, the manager, and the front office.

It's hard to go from 23-10 to fourth in the division.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#64

Post by taurath » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:11 PM UTC

I do always love the underdog stories, but then you get to "I had to explain to my parents, who were paying my way through [Harvard] Business School". I realize a lot of people here had their educations paid for or at least got some hereditary assistance. Not sour grapes here - I'm happy with where I am from what I've had. I do hope people see how many more options become open to people though with parental support.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#65

Post by ryandrake » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:15 PM UTC

morgante wrote: post #61

ryandrake wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ">$200K/yr engineer" is also a ridiculous trope. I'm sure there are a handful of outlier engineers at top companies making that, but the median base Software Engineer salary in the Bay Area is anywhere from $100k to $105k depending on your source (+ maybe a few K in equity depending on the company).

Almost any publicly available source is heavily skewed downwards. Also, total compensation is much more important than base salary. I am a fairly mediocre engineer. I have less than a decade of experience and have never worked at a "top" company. Yet I earned over $200k last year.

Congrats! That's awesome, and I'm really happy for you. You're a far outlier.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#66

Post by mwfunk » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:17 PM UTC

hitekker wrote: post #5

Excellent article; I thought the section copy-pasted below to be a rather non-trivial, unintuitive, and meaningful lesson: > Craig : How was it to ride that wave, especially when the bottom fell out in 2000? > Tim : When things are going well and you’re in a growth industry, you don’t have to deal with many difficult issues. It’s the old cliche, winning solves everything. > Craig : For sure. > Tim : It’s really true.…

Success hides failure...every company does some things right and some things wrong, but when things are going well it can be very hard to get anyone to acknowledge the wrong things. People can always point to the profits and use that as evidence for staying the course, even on internal issues that don't directly relate to P&L.

IMO this is what ultimately kills successful companies- once they've conquered their market (whatever they see their market as being), it's all too easy to take success for granted and get too focused on internal politics. The absence of fierce external competition is the ultimate test of a company's internal culture.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#67

Post by overcast » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:27 PM UTC

morgante wrote: post #61

ryandrake wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ">$200K/yr engineer" is also a ridiculous trope. I'm sure there are a handful of outlier engineers at top companies making that, but the median base Software Engineer salary in the Bay Area is anywhere from $100k to $105k depending on your source (+ maybe a few K in equity depending on the company).

Almost any publicly available source is heavily skewed downwards. Also, total compensation is much more important than base salary. I am a fairly mediocre engineer. I have less than a decade of experience and have never worked at a "top" company. Yet I earned over $200k last year.

I don't agree with this. People making good money would be most often the ones to boast about it. You sound like my hiring manager regarding total compensation. Base salary is everything, and I can prove this when I lost 20% of my "total compensation" in no bonus this year for the first time ever.

You can downplay your expertise, but from reading the About of morgante.net you have plenty of accolades, programming contributions, winning the 2013 ArabNet developer tournament and receiving awards from MIT, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, starting various companies, and even an investment fund. You are very much in a top minority percentage making $200,000 a year with under ten years experience.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#68

Post by hibikir » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:39 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #59

morgante wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a ridiculous trope which keeps getting trotted out. You can easily live in SV for under $100k/year. You can earn >$200k as an engineer in SV (and in few other places). SV is almost certainly going to leave you with more money in your pocket than working at the average tech job.

The ">$200K/yr engineer" is also a ridiculous trope. I'm sure there are a handful of outlier engineers at top companies making that, but the median base Software Engineer salary in the Bay Area is anywhere from $100k to $105k depending on your source (+ maybe a few K in equity depending on the company).

If as a mid career engineer you can only make 105k in SV, then leave the valley and go to the Midwest. Random senior engineers make more than that in KC, with cheap cost of living. Top senior engineers make a lot more.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#69

Post by cdnsteve » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:56 PM UTC

I miss the old yahoo in its heyday. I remember hearing their radio commercials .. yahoooo! Sounds like a great ride.

Re: Employee 1: Yahoo

#70

Post by overcast » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 8:58 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #58

overcast wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, and the reason I am sitting here in Upstate New York, making way more(cost of living) adjusted than I would there. Though it can be argued you're paying the experience tax working for big names there. But it doesn't interest me.

I've worked both in and out of Silicon Valley and you can't beat SV in terms of "opportunity risk". Most places outside of the area are one-horse towns when it comes to tech: If you lose your job there's nothing else there, you're picking up your family and moving to another city at least, maybe another state. I lived on the east coast for years, and I'd happily move back in a heartbeat, but I'd be a nervous wreck ev…

That's just crazy talk, there are PLENTY of companies to work for. If you're talking about big tech companies sure, but for every big tech company, there are zillions of other companies that require big tech people. I work for a company that is complete unrelated to my field. I get paid well, I travel the world to their ninety offices, and my house is only a five minute commute.