Tech compensation in 2021 • Hacker News Board

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#611

Post by runamok » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 2:27 AM UTC

diskzero wrote: post #214

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…

If you have a family that loves you, manageable stress levels and a purpose in life, I think you are doing a lot of things right. I am sure you are worth more! There are probably ways to increase your compensation and maintain your quality of life, but is it really worth it?

Don't forget good health and time to keep it that way.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#612

Post by moosebear847 » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 3:15 AM UTC

throwaway19170 wrote: post #603

moosebear847 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are many straightforward answers. Try to get the $500k jobs. If that doesn't work and you don't want to grind LC for 6 months, go for $150-200k jobs like startups. If you are as good as you say you are, you could probably study/talk your way into a job or at least figure out what you need after applying to 100 startups.

Stupid question, but where do you find em to apply to? The $500K jobs or otherwise, the 100 startups.

Faangs always seem to be hiring, not sure but having a LinkedIn seems to get inbound Faang recruiters, at least for me as a US dev. And startups, YC who's hiring has worked for friends, I'm sure grinding applications on aggregators like indeed, stackoverflow, angelist etc has some chance of working.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#613

Post by indecisive_user » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 3:42 AM UTC

a_imho wrote: post #538

HenryKissinger wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all of that. European tech companies are smaller than US tech companies, have lower gross revenue per employee, make less profit per employee. Taxes are higher in Europe, which disincentivizes risk taking and ambitious individuals. Labor productivity is also lower in Europe. Finally, Europe still has a culture where software engineers, cloud architects/products/managers/etc. are viewed as code monkeys and the pe…

Hackerrank begs to differ https://blog.hackerrank.com/which-country-would-win-in-the-p... Again, there are plenty of US tech companies in Eastern Europe.

>So based on these tests, which country has the programmers that score the highest?

>In order to find out, we looked at each country’s average score across all domains

So it's taking the average of the country, not really looking at the best individual programmers. Considering the US had more entrants than China(which has 3x the population of the US), my guess is that there are many more mediocre devs from the US participating, which brings the average down.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#614

Post by franciscop » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 4:09 AM UTC

louis___ wrote: post #531

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…

But everything else is _never_ the same. Once you're paid more, you move into a bigger house, have more needs, and without knowing it you're just as tight on money as you were before. But then you just have more stress at work, and you just can't quit that easily bc there arent so many jobs that pay as much as this one... Just to provide the other side of this general advice, that is really everywhere, but rarely del…

I've 4x my salary in the last 4 years and barely spend more than in the beginning, that's definitely up to every and each one of us (and TBF you would spend more at least to match the inflation even with no life changes, but in Japan there's almost none).

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#615

Post by indecisive_user » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 4:35 AM UTC

throwaway19170 wrote: post #602

overrun11 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stupid question but have you actually ever tried? Your tech stack seems modern enough that I'd be surprised if you couldn't get some offers from startups. New grad level at a startup generally pays 90k+ in my market so you shouldn't have a problem at least matching your current comp but I think 150-200k is probably reasonable but you might need to work remote for a company in a major city.

Based on OP, 150-200K is actually really low , no? When i read these things, I'm never sure if it's reality or what.

It is low given your level of experience and self-proclaimed proficiency, but the point is that it should be relatively straight forward to get one of these positions and double your salary.

Go look for salaries on a site like levels.fyi, find companies that pay well, apply to companies or find recruiters on linkedin and reach out to them.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#616

Post by nickthemagicman » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 12:16 PM UTC

Hermitian909 wrote: post #392

nickthemagicman wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All at a FAANG? What kind of interview process?

None at FAANG (aside from Netflix, none of the other letters pay top dollar for anything below staff anymore anyway). These were mostly companies that had IPO'd more recently, very late stage startups close to IPO. All had the format: -Hiring manager phone screen -Technical phone screen -(virtual) On Site 3/5 had leetcodes, 2/5 had no leetcode. No leetcode was harder than medium. All had behavioral interviews All but…

Thanks for this info. This will help with future job searches!

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#617

Post by benhurmarcel » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 12:25 PM UTC

seoulmetro wrote: post #114

i1856511 wrote: post #40

How many people go into programming now simply for the money? More than 70%? What percentage of programmers would still be programmers if competitive salary was not a concern in life, and people were free to simply pursue their passions?

Outside the US this is more like 10-20%. Americans care about money a lot. American SWE care about money even more.

Because comp outside of the US is low

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#618

Post by dfadsadsf » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 1:08 PM UTC

ecshafer wrote: post #116

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…

Boston has a lot of robotics which seems to pay less for some reason (less profitable? Can't scale as cheaply?) and biotech which pays less. That could be one cause.

Would you work on increasing ad click rate by 0.01% or on playing with cool tech toys and solving hard robotics problem? This is the same as SpaceX being able to pay under market - what you do matter and people are ready to take paycut to work on intersting problems.

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#619

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 3:01 PM UTC

throwaway19170 wrote: post #604

lotsofpulp wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know how to get into it. Help me out? Go to levels.fyi and apply to those companies’ job listings.

I hadn't known about levels.fyi, thanks. When I go there.... I see a lot of data points with ~10 years of experience paying ~$140K. Which is more like I expected honestly -- it's just that OP was blowing my mind suggesting $175K-$225k and up... saying they are using levels.fyi as data too... or discussions here on this post with someone making $175K being considered very underpaid ... every time I see salaries discus…

Are you looking at total compensation including RSUs?

Re: Tech compensation in 2021

#620

Post by qDnbBcCnsZneEJg » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 5:47 PM UTC

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…

I just landed a staff+ faang role over 700k and I’m 20 mi outside Boston.

Boston is a joke. Growing up here my whole life I thought we were right behind SV. Boy was I wrong. Seattle, NYC, and Austin have all eclipsed Boston as a tech hub. It’s embarrassing.

Apply for remote. Now you’re exposed to companies based in SV. This is the time to do it - The Great Resignation has made jobs plentiful with unreal comp.

Also study up. The best positions are the hardest to get into. Give yourself 3 months to study and these opportunities will be yours for the taking. You clearly have the skills, you just need to put yourself out there.