4 ms·

I'm in a "senior" position now. But I'm not talking numbers on the internet. Right now I'm head of R&D. I can tell you starting engineers on my team make abo

I'm in a "senior" position now. But I'm not talking numbers on the internet. Right now I'm head of R&D. I can tell you starting engineers on my team make about 10% more than their Bay Area counterparts. That's a deliberate decision backed by our Board.

vecinu 10y ago
> I'm not talking numbers on the internet. I can respect that. It sounds like you actually were promoted a couple of times since relocating and now you're in a leadership/director position. I'm not surprised your salary increased. But honestly, I find it hard to believe you can match a senior level salary here in the Bay Area at a larger company. A standard offer for someone that is not really "gifted" is $160-$190k base + $100-$150k/yr RSUs. You're really able to pay people over $250k? And I'm not even including 401k matching, ESPP, healthcare, discretionary bonuses and annual incentive bonuses.
- zeamaize 10y ago
  The promotions are the reason to job hop, aren't they? That's always why I moved in SFO. Wisdom I always received was every 2-3 years it's time to move out and up. It's served me well. I think now I'm "career" as we like where we live and I want to build something in my division. And yes, we easily offer that. Why is this a surprise? Our costs are lower and our clients are largely the same as they would be in the Bay Area. Our major markets are national and international. We don't discount our enterprise level systems and new tech for having been developed in fly over country, and we have a MUCH lower cost of doing business. Physical plant is CHEAP here as are our taxes. This results in more capital available for HR, and we consider human capital our single most important investment. Our entire strategy is built on innovation and we do that by hiring the top talent we can. That means offering top tier compensations.
  - dkfmn 10y ago
    It's probably surprising because most companies design compensation programs that are normalized on [talent and geography] rather than talent alone. Sounds like your company has a more holistic approach and that's likely a strategic advantage for hiring. Side note: SFO is the airport, SF is the city.
    - zeamaize 10y ago
      I'm used to calling metro areas by their major airport callsign, then again I fly 2-3 times a month, minimum.
      - dkfmn 10y ago
        Fair enough, as long as you don't tag us SQL :)
        FabHK 10y ago
        (SQL is the IATA and FAA identifier for San Carlos Airport, near the Oracle headquarters half way between San Francisco International (SFO) and Palo Alto (PAO))
        dkfmn 10y ago
        Correct... but there was also a bad joke in there.
        FabHK 10y ago
        Oh, good joke, just wanted to make sure everyone got the double entendre (I assume everyone here knows Structured Query Language, but San Carlos is a fairly small airport, isn't it)
        dkfmn 10y ago
        Yes, completely tiny, but great if you'd like to rent a Cessna for a few hours. I'm sure the extra detail helped a few people :)
  - vecinu 10y ago
    Like dkfmn said, it's surprising because most companies just adjust salaries to cost of living and try to get away with paying the least they can. I applaud your approach and would love to one day work for your company as it sounds like a great place to work since you actually appreciate your human capital. I also agree on the 2-3 years hopping, it's a great strategy.
Cymen 10y ago
Do you mind sharing where the company you work for advertises open positions? You could just share 5+ such sites to avoid revealing anything if you are concerned. I'm at the tail end of interviewing and have some great options however finding open remote positions at remote-friendly companies can be difficult. I've been looking at sites like weworkremotely.com and remoteok.io.
- zeamaize 10y ago
  I tend to do my recruiting two ways: 1) From people I know well who make a solid recommendation. 2) At major tech conferences. Hiring is a very risky and high stakes proposition. A new hire easily costs us a million or more if it doesn't work out. We are very cautious, and I take our hiring process very seriously. Junior positions we typically recruit from Univerisities in the region with top CS and ECE programs since they are less likely to be skeptics of fly over country.

vecinu 10y ago

> I'm not talking numbers on the internet. I can respect that. It sounds like you actually were promoted a couple of times since relocating and now you're in a leadership/director position. I'm not surprised your salary increased. But honestly, I find it hard to believe you can match a senior level salary here in the Bay Area at a larger company. A standard offer for someone that is not really "gifted" is $160-$190k base + $100-$150k/yr RSUs. You're really able to pay people over $250k? And I'm not even including 401k matching, ESPP, healthcare, discretionary bonuses and annual incentive bonuses.

zeamaize 10y ago
The promotions are the reason to job hop, aren't they? That's always why I moved in SFO. Wisdom I always received was every 2-3 years it's time to move out and up. It's served me well. I think now I'm "career" as we like where we live and I want to build something in my division. And yes, we easily offer that. Why is this a surprise? Our costs are lower and our clients are largely the same as they would be in the Bay Area. Our major markets are national and international. We don't discount our enterprise level systems and new tech for having been developed in fly over country, and we have a MUCH lower cost of doing business. Physical plant is CHEAP here as are our taxes. This results in more capital available for HR, and we consider human capital our single most important investment. Our entire strategy is built on innovation and we do that by hiring the top talent we can. That means offering top tier compensations.
- dkfmn 10y ago
  It's probably surprising because most companies design compensation programs that are normalized on [talent and geography] rather than talent alone. Sounds like your company has a more holistic approach and that's likely a strategic advantage for hiring. Side note: SFO is the airport, SF is the city.
  - zeamaize 10y ago
    I'm used to calling metro areas by their major airport callsign, then again I fly 2-3 times a month, minimum.
    - dkfmn 10y ago
      Fair enough, as long as you don't tag us SQL :)
      - FabHK 10y ago
        (SQL is the IATA and FAA identifier for San Carlos Airport, near the Oracle headquarters half way between San Francisco International (SFO) and Palo Alto (PAO))
        dkfmn 10y ago
        Correct... but there was also a bad joke in there.
        FabHK 10y ago
        Oh, good joke, just wanted to make sure everyone got the double entendre (I assume everyone here knows Structured Query Language, but San Carlos is a fairly small airport, isn't it)
        dkfmn 10y ago
        Yes, completely tiny, but great if you'd like to rent a Cessna for a few hours. I'm sure the extra detail helped a few people :)
- vecinu 10y ago
  Like dkfmn said, it's surprising because most companies just adjust salaries to cost of living and try to get away with paying the least they can. I applaud your approach and would love to one day work for your company as it sounds like a great place to work since you actually appreciate your human capital. I also agree on the 2-3 years hopping, it's a great strategy.

Cymen 10y ago

Do you mind sharing where the company you work for advertises open positions? You could just share 5+ such sites to avoid revealing anything if you are concerned. I'm at the tail end of interviewing and have some great options however finding open remote positions at remote-friendly companies can be difficult. I've been looking at sites like weworkremotely.com and remoteok.io.

zeamaize 10y ago
I tend to do my recruiting two ways: 1) From people I know well who make a solid recommendation. 2) At major tech conferences. Hiring is a very risky and high stakes proposition. A new hire easily costs us a million or more if it doesn't work out. We are very cautious, and I take our hiring process very seriously. Junior positions we typically recruit from Univerisities in the region with top CS and ECE programs since they are less likely to be skeptics of fly over country.