4 ms·

Is it really typical in SV tech to get that much matching on 401k and/or get a bonus? Seems extraordinarily high. Maybe that bonus, stock, 401k match is sort o

Is it really typical in SV tech to get that much matching on 401k and/or get a bonus? Seems extraordinarily high. Maybe that bonus, stock, 401k match is sort of an unknown that one may or may not receive (in which case, you'd be comfortably saving $10k/year). At any rate, if those bonuses are real, maybe I need to move out of Texas.

ryandrake 9y ago
No, they are extraordinarily high. Those comp figures are what I like to call "HN normal". My theory is that HN readers/posters tend to be smarter than the average bear -> they and their peers tend to get better than usual pay -> they begin to believe these extraordinarily large comps are "normal" for tech workers. You'll actually see people here with a straight face claiming $400K is a totally usual "all-in" package at a normal tech company.
- majormajor 9y ago
  I've seen numbers like that from a company that says their salary range target is "70th percentile of peer companies." Dunno how they defined peer company, but I need to find that one-out-of-three peers that pay even more.
Bahamut 9y ago
Only at the big tech companies in the Bay Area will you get a hefty bonus, and typically generally mainly in the Valley in particular - startups generally don't pay that (occasionally you might find a startup that does 401k match though). I haven't been at my BigCo long enough to say how much a bonus is like, but I do have max 401k match at 3% of my salary (rises up to 6% given time), which alone turns out to be ~$5k. Employee stock purchasing program with 15% discount with 10% of my salary maxed out also turns out to be ~$25k in stock (savings of ~$4k) - this does not include whatever benefits might come out of refresh stock grants, or performance bonuses. $50k in extra benefits does sound quite attainable though, even for an engineer not on $200k base at a BigCo. YMMV of course.
tezzer 9y ago
It took me 10 years to get close to that, but I didn't work for Goog/Facebook/Amazon, and didn't jump jobs every 1.8 years to maximize salary increases. Salaries keep going up; so does cost of living (see: 1400 sq ft house in sunnyvale just sold for $780,000 over the asking price of 1.4m)

ryandrake 9y ago

No, they are extraordinarily high. Those comp figures are what I like to call "HN normal". My theory is that HN readers/posters tend to be smarter than the average bear -> they and their peers tend to get better than usual pay -> they begin to believe these extraordinarily large comps are "normal" for tech workers. You'll actually see people here with a straight face claiming $400K is a totally usual "all-in" package at a normal tech company.

majormajor 9y ago
I've seen numbers like that from a company that says their salary range target is "70th percentile of peer companies." Dunno how they defined peer company, but I need to find that one-out-of-three peers that pay even more.

Bahamut 9y ago

Only at the big tech companies in the Bay Area will you get a hefty bonus, and typically generally mainly in the Valley in particular - startups generally don't pay that (occasionally you might find a startup that does 401k match though). I haven't been at my BigCo long enough to say how much a bonus is like, but I do have max 401k match at 3% of my salary (rises up to 6% given time), which alone turns out to be ~$5k. Employee stock purchasing program with 15% discount with 10% of my salary maxed out also turns out to be ~$25k in stock (savings of ~$4k) - this does not include whatever benefits might come out of refresh stock grants, or performance bonuses. $50k in extra benefits does sound quite attainable though, even for an engineer not on $200k base at a BigCo. YMMV of course.

tezzer 9y ago

It took me 10 years to get close to that, but I didn't work for Goog/Facebook/Amazon, and didn't jump jobs every 1.8 years to maximize salary increases. Salaries keep going up; so does cost of living (see: 1400 sq ft house in sunnyvale just sold for $780,000 over the asking price of 1.4m)