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I ran some pretty extensive numbers on a sub-comment and don't want to repost the entire thing in reply to you. I estimated at $2,900/month rent in the valley

by froindt 10y ago

I ran some pretty extensive numbers on a sub-comment and don't want to repost the entire thing in reply to you. I estimated at $2,900/month rent in the valley and $900/month in the Midwest. Valley earned 160/year, Midwest at 80/year. My conclusion was that if everything froze and you could save all non-rent money (minus 20k for misc. other expenses), the end result would be pretty close. You'd have to commit to working in the valley fairly for about 4 years to save up for the downpayment (assuming you started at 0). After the valley developer gets the house, the numbers may swing substantially in their favor, however it's a long timeline for that to happen, and the housing prices have a fair chance of continuing to rise or for the housing bubble to burst. Full math: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13424430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13424430

obstinate 10y ago
160k total comp is still pretty early days, though. A senior engineer at Google will end up making about 250-300k. A staff engineer 300-400k. I have heard it can be far higher in the case of a highly valued specialty, or high leadership potential. It will be very difficult to ever command a salary like this as a programmer in the midwest.
- froindt 10y ago
  You know, there may be a serious upside to living in the valley as a software developer if you stay there long enough. You're right about salaries in the Midwest never reaching that high. I'm not a developer, but it seems like it's a good gig if you've been there for a number of years. It seems like it would be difficult to get by for non-tech workers, either requiring a really long commute for a somewhat reasonable rent/mortgage or putting a huge percent of take-home pay into housing. Roughly how many years would it take to get to senior engineer or staff engineer?
  - obstinate 10y ago
    It took me I wanna say three years to reach senior and six to reach staff. This is uncommonly fast, but not way outside the ordinary distribution. I don't know what they're paying the kids these days, but I wouldn't be surprised if the entry level comp for a kid right out of school is topping out at $140k. The salaries at these levels don't start out at the top number. Like many other company, it is a band, so that you can continue receiving smaller raises for a few years after you are promoted.

by froindt 10y ago

obstinate 10y ago

160k total comp is still pretty early days, though. A senior engineer at Google will end up making about 250-300k. A staff engineer 300-400k. I have heard it can be far higher in the case of a highly valued specialty, or high leadership potential. It will be very difficult to ever command a salary like this as a programmer in the midwest.

froindt 10y ago
You know, there may be a serious upside to living in the valley as a software developer if you stay there long enough. You're right about salaries in the Midwest never reaching that high. I'm not a developer, but it seems like it's a good gig if you've been there for a number of years. It seems like it would be difficult to get by for non-tech workers, either requiring a really long commute for a somewhat reasonable rent/mortgage or putting a huge percent of take-home pay into housing. Roughly how many years would it take to get to senior engineer or staff engineer?
- obstinate 10y ago
  It took me I wanna say three years to reach senior and six to reach staff. This is uncommonly fast, but not way outside the ordinary distribution. I don't know what they're paying the kids these days, but I wouldn't be surprised if the entry level comp for a kid right out of school is topping out at $140k. The salaries at these levels don't start out at the top number. Like many other company, it is a band, so that you can continue receiving smaller raises for a few years after you are promoted.