Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

levels.fyi

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 91 posts

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#71

Post by lhorie »

throwawaymath wrote: post #26
grammarxcore wrote: post #8

I feel like this list is skewed by cost of living. The top four cities are also very expensive cities to live in and around. 200k in the bay area is scraping by whereas 100k in the Austin area gets you a house in a reasonable amount of time. Are there any plans to provide adjustments like that?

Can we please stop with the hyperbole? $200k in the bay area is emphatically not scraping by. You can live on your own, without roommates, save money and have a social life if you have a $200k income in SFBA. What people (especially on HN) think "scraping by" looks like is getting a little nuts. Just because you can't have an opulent lifestyle and a cheap five bedroom house doesn't mean you're struggling. $200k in SF…

What's wrong with hyperbole? You seem to be saying: unless you're sickly and starving in some unloved corner of Ethiopia, then you're not "scraping by"? Ok, then, but then by that same logic, no one in the Bay area is "scraping by". People are pointing out (validly IMHO) that 2 bed rent + preschool for 2 kids don't leave you a whole lot of disposable income left in the Bay each month if your household income is 200k and you're used to middle class lifestyle anywhere outside of Bay Area (which would be a reasonable expectation, given that that's what the equivalent work experience elsewhere would grant you).

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#72

Post by throwawaymath »

lhorie wrote: post #71
throwawaymath wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we please stop with the hyperbole? $200k in the bay area is emphatically not scraping by. You can live on your own, without roommates, save money and have a social life if you have a $200k income in SFBA. What people (especially on HN) think "scraping by" looks like is getting a little nuts. Just because you can't have an opulent lifestyle and a cheap five bedroom house doesn't mean you're struggling. $200k in SF…

What's wrong with hyperbole? You seem to be saying: unless you're sickly and starving in some unloved corner of Ethiopia, then you're not "scraping by"? Ok, then, but then by that same logic, no one in the Bay area is "scraping by". People are pointing out (validly IMHO) that 2 bed rent + preschool for 2 kids don't leave you a whole lot of disposable income left in the Bay each month if your household income is 200k…

> You seem to be saying: unless you're sickly and starving in some unloved corner of Ethiopia, then you're not "scraping by"?

Nope! I'm not saying that. Read my reply to a sibling comment here, I think it largely responds to the point you're making. I'll reiterate again: being unable to afford all the luxuries you'd like is not equivalent to any reasonable definition of "scraping by."

As an aside, I find it funny in a meta sort of way that while we're talking about hyperbole, you interpreted my point to be literally about starving people in Africa.

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#73

Post by grammarxcore »

throwawaymath wrote: post #67
aguyfromnb wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you have have to stipulate that one can live without roommates and "all basic needs are met" with a $200,000 salary proves the OP's point. That's more than 6 times the median annual income in the US. The median home price in the Bay area is ~$1.5 million, so at $200k salary you'd be stretched with that kind of mortgage. Most homes where I'm from aren't worth $200k. What about child care, and the cost of…

No, my stipulations don't prove OP's point, and it's concerning to me that so many people think they do. Believe it or not, there is a vast underclass of people who live and work in San Francisco who are actually struggling because they make less than half that. They don't work in tech and they can't even think about these problems because of the more pressing ones they're facing. You're talking about things like buy…

Having grown up below the poverty line, I'll double down on my original point as well. Most people don't work in tech and most people get screwed. The idea behind minimum wage is to provide all the necessities to everyone, be it housing, childcare, or food. When I interviewed with Google my Uber drivers all talked about how they had been forced to further and further suburbs because of tech workers and the rising cost of housing. I'm not bashing people on government assistance. Instead, I think more should be done for them by people like us.

That being said, you have just proved my point. If I can buy a house in Austin for half the starting salary in the Bay Area then, by that metric, if I can't in the Bay Area, I'm just scraping by.

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#74

Post by lhorie »

throwawaymath wrote: post #72
lhorie wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with hyperbole? You seem to be saying: unless you're sickly and starving in some unloved corner of Ethiopia, then you're not "scraping by"? Ok, then, but then by that same logic, no one in the Bay area is "scraping by". People are pointing out (validly IMHO) that 2 bed rent + preschool for 2 kids don't leave you a whole lot of disposable income left in the Bay each month if your household income is 200k…

> You seem to be saying: unless you're sickly and starving in some unloved corner of Ethiopia, then you're not "scraping by"? Nope! I'm not saying that. Read my reply to a sibling comment here, I think it largely responds to the point you're making. I'll reiterate again: being unable to afford all the luxuries you'd like is not equivalent to any reasonable definition of "scraping by." As an aside, I find it funny in…

Is it that much different though? You're saying "X is not scraping by, look at Z for proof"; I just happened to pick a Z for which your argument becomes weak: I could have picked single moms w/ kids w/ cerebral palsy too, but the point is that we're cherrypicking a sob story that isn't all that relevant to the demographic being discussed. The non-literal interpretation of the OP is more along the lines of what I said earlier: "Bay Area middle class is shittier than middle class elsewhere"

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#75

Post by electricslpnsld »

rcpt wrote: post #48
Trias11 wrote: post #16

Can we separate salary from stock-based comps?

Why? They're all reported the same as income on your taxes

Compensation from stock grants is significantly more volatile than base salary or bonus targets, but otherwise I don’t see a major difference.

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#76

Post by jedberg »

senordevnyc wrote: post #70

Is this getting flagged? It's currently near the bottom of page 4, and should be in the top 10 of page 1. Are HN'ers just bitter / skeptical of these numbers?

Controversial items can sometimes fall due to the anti-flamewar code. If it thinks the article is generating a flamewar in the comments it will get sunk.

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#77

Post by pascalxus »

txcwpalpha wrote: post #33
pascalxus wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it all depends on your situation. Sure, as a single person 200K is doing well. But, 200K with a family of 4 (2 kids and a wife) is definately scraping by on the penninsula or SF. The only way that's not scraping by is if you bought your house over 20 years ago (or during 2010-2012 housing slump) OR you got yourself a Rent controlled apartment. Other than that, You ARE scraping by. In SF, day care is almost 3K per mon…

>But, 200K with a family of 4 (2 kids and a wife) is definately scraping by on the penninsula or SF. Lol. No, it isn't. It is absolutely mind blowing what the general tech industry thinks "scraping by" means. The median household income in SF is less than 100k. At 200k, you make more than twice that. If you're just "scraping by" with 200k, then I can't even imagine what people making less than the median are doing.

The Median houshold in SF has a rent controlled apartment and no kids (roughly 70% or more is rent controlled). If that's not you, you will have hard time.

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#78

Post by pascalxus »

senordevnyc wrote: post #44

If you're a software engineer in a city where these companies employ folks and you're thinking this doesn't apply to you, I'd encourage you to at least give it a shot. It's not only the absolute best of the best who get these jobs. I recently decided to do a round of interviews after 10+ years as an independent web / iOS dev, having never had a professional software dev job. I'm also a self-taught developer with a bu…

That's awesome that you got so much success from interviewing at FAANGS. But, I'd say you've done a lot better than most people could. So, give yourself some credit.

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#79

Post by pascalxus »

senordevnyc wrote: post #50
doublement wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With nothing to back me up except the general impression I have, these numbers look out-of-whack even for the highest-paying employers in the Bay Area.

I know I'm just a random internet commenter and thus you could be forgiven for thinking I'm making things up, but I just got an offer from a smaller public tech company for a senior / staff level position making almost $400k in first year comp. I'm pretty confident that after negotiation we'll land a little over $400k. And recruiters at several other tech companies where I'm interviewing have told me they can match o…

If you can get 600K at FB or Snap, you must be a top 3% candidate, according to FYI.levels, right?

Re: Highest Paying Tech Companies of 2019

#80

Post by doublement »

senordevnyc wrote: post #70

Is this getting flagged? It's currently near the bottom of page 4, and should be in the top 10 of page 1. Are HN'ers just bitter / skeptical of these numbers?

I don't know why it's falling away from the front page, but as far as skepticism goes, numbers that surprising raise more questions than answers. Your anecdotes have been very informative by the way.
Post reply on HN