4 ms·

I make that much: Senior Software Engineer at a startup (joined among the first 3 hires), Bay Area. About 6 years of experience. 200k$ base salary 50k$ perfor

I make that much: Senior Software Engineer at a startup (joined among the first 3 hires), Bay Area. About 6 years of experience. 200k$ base salary 50k$ performance bonus 1% ISOs (after considering dilutions. Company is ~1y post Series B)

bsvalley 10y ago
That is pretty impressive I have to say...
- memmove33 10y ago
  As a further data point, some people in my personal network of comparable experience and age are pulling 500-700k a year from Google/fb. That of course includes RSUs, but that's literally the total compensation they are able to translate into hard cash every single year.
  - bsvalley 10y ago
    Now I don't believe you :) 6 years of experience pulling $500k at google/fb? I've worked for these kind of companies, there is no such things. Unless you're one of these isolated rats who don't communicate to anyone. There are some at google but not a lot..
    - memmove33 10y ago
      Well, that's simply true. Two close acquaintances go like this: - age: 29 base: ~150k, RSU package: 1.8M negotiated upon joining (4y vesting) - age: 34 base: ~250k, RSU package: 3M, same terms Both are very solid individual contributors, smartest guys in my personal network for sure. It's really not hard to believe. Another acquaintance of mine works at a very big Hadoop startup here in the bay (guess name) as a product manager, and her total compensation is around 350k a year. It's not surprising to have a very solid engineer get some multiple of that.
      - bsvalley 10y ago
        what do you mean by 1.8M and 3M? if you get 150k RSU and $200/base salary per year, how do you end up with 1.8 million?
        memmove33 10y ago
        Poor formatting (editing from mobile). $150k is base salary. $1.8M is the additional RSU grant with 4 year vesting schedule heavily negotiated prior to joining (in these examples, with a bidding war between google, fb and another very big company). Also, I can personally testify how important negotiating the offer is. I routinely (every ~2y) interview to discover my market value and, from a position of power (e.g. "Well I'm happily employed at the moment so the incentive has to be good" or "I have a higher offer"), is very easy to negotiate additional stocks. I've been able to improve the offer by a good $100k yearly RSUs (!!) just by negotiating with HR. It also helps that I kind of like the process (I'm that weird person who gets thrilled by buying a new car and making a car salesman lose his patience by constantly asking a better offer and absolutely be ready to leave if it doesn't happen)
        mailshanx 10y ago
        Would be great if you could impart some offer negotiation advise! I was once interviewing with the fruit company. The HR guy was very aggressive, and insisted that I reveal all details of my current comp before we proceed further. This was after I was referred by an employee and already had an conversation with the team lead. After I revealed my comp, he acted very surprised about how high it was, and about how difficult it would be for them to exceed it. How do you respond when they insist on knowing your comp details?
        fuzzy-logic 10y ago
        Step 1: you never reveal your comp data. At all. I will, and have, walked away from interviews when they ask this stuff and don't let up.
        memmove33 10y ago

bsvalley 10y ago

That is pretty impressive I have to say...

memmove33 10y ago
As a further data point, some people in my personal network of comparable experience and age are pulling 500-700k a year from Google/fb. That of course includes RSUs, but that's literally the total compensation they are able to translate into hard cash every single year.
- bsvalley 10y ago
  Now I don't believe you :) 6 years of experience pulling $500k at google/fb? I've worked for these kind of companies, there is no such things. Unless you're one of these isolated rats who don't communicate to anyone. There are some at google but not a lot..
  - memmove33 10y ago
    Well, that's simply true. Two close acquaintances go like this: - age: 29 base: ~150k, RSU package: 1.8M negotiated upon joining (4y vesting) - age: 34 base: ~250k, RSU package: 3M, same terms Both are very solid individual contributors, smartest guys in my personal network for sure. It's really not hard to believe. Another acquaintance of mine works at a very big Hadoop startup here in the bay (guess name) as a product manager, and her total compensation is around 350k a year. It's not surprising to have a very solid engineer get some multiple of that.
    - bsvalley 10y ago
      what do you mean by 1.8M and 3M? if you get 150k RSU and $200/base salary per year, how do you end up with 1.8 million?
      - memmove33 10y ago
        Poor formatting (editing from mobile). $150k is base salary. $1.8M is the additional RSU grant with 4 year vesting schedule heavily negotiated prior to joining (in these examples, with a bidding war between google, fb and another very big company). Also, I can personally testify how important negotiating the offer is. I routinely (every ~2y) interview to discover my market value and, from a position of power (e.g. "Well I'm happily employed at the moment so the incentive has to be good" or "I have a higher offer"), is very easy to negotiate additional stocks. I've been able to improve the offer by a good $100k yearly RSUs (!!) just by negotiating with HR. It also helps that I kind of like the process (I'm that weird person who gets thrilled by buying a new car and making a car salesman lose his patience by constantly asking a better offer and absolutely be ready to leave if it doesn't happen)
        mailshanx 10y ago
        Would be great if you could impart some offer negotiation advise! I was once interviewing with the fruit company. The HR guy was very aggressive, and insisted that I reveal all details of my current comp before we proceed further. This was after I was referred by an employee and already had an conversation with the team lead. After I revealed my comp, he acted very surprised about how high it was, and about how difficult it would be for them to exceed it. How do you respond when they insist on knowing your comp details?
        fuzzy-logic 10y ago
        Step 1: you never reveal your comp data. At all. I will, and have, walked away from interviews when they ask this stuff and don't let up.
        memmove33 10y ago