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Netflix compensation packages are base salary only. So they are competitive by attempting to compute the value of Google or Facebook compensation packages which

Netflix compensation packages are base salary only. So they are competitive by attempting to compute the value of Google or Facebook compensation packages which include shares and generous bonuses, and then Netflix aims to slightly beat that as well. Netflix has other perks of course. But they also have a pretty crazy layoff policy and they brag about how awesome their severance package is. Employment as Netflix is really a mixture of the income premium and lack of stability that a contractor would have, with a compensation structure closer to a startup (base salary only, no formalized bonuses).

lsc 9y ago
>Employment as Netflix is really a mixture of the income premium and lack of stability that a contractor would have, with a compensation structure closer to a startup (base salary only, no formalized bonuses). Note, ever since IC Engineers started getting significant bonus/stock grants (Which, I think, is something that has been a thing for less than a decade, at least for grants of publicly traded stock.) From what I've seen? Contractors have lost their income premium. I mean, contractors still make more than what they'd make full time for base salary, but base salary is now a relatively small portion of total comp for FTEs at most places. Just my observation; I'm also talking about the sort of contractors who go through body shops and essentially do the same jobs as the regular employees.
- twodave 9y ago
  Maybe this is true on the west coast, but most of us don't work over there.
- hibikir 9y ago
  This is only true when looking at tech companies that really hand significant stock grants. There are tons of software developers, all over the US, getting only salary and modest bonuses outside of those few places that grant stock that is as good as money. When you look at that world, contractors still win by a very wide margin: They are organizations where HR will not allow a hire for a competitive salary, but a department head can spend their budget on contractors any way they want. This leads to gigantic pro-contractor differences: As recently as last year, I made three times as much as someone sitting next to me that had Architect in their title, and the contract was for many hundreds of hours, so it's not as if there was non-billable overhead. Now, the big tech companies can compete with contractor billing rates, just as long as it's either Netflix, or someone with good-as-money stock grants, but if you live in, say, Kansas City, you won't smell those companies anyway, and chances are that, barring remote work for a giant, the best you can hope for without contracting is salary that isa little bit below Google's, but no stock.
  - lsc 9y ago
    Sure, I am just saying that things changed in those silicon valley companies in the last ten years. Those jobs with the as good as money stock grants are interesting because they represent the top of the market not just locally, but globally. If you want to maximize income in this industry and you are not good enough to move markets to you, you move to silicon valley and interview.

lsc 9y ago

>Employment as Netflix is really a mixture of the income premium and lack of stability that a contractor would have, with a compensation structure closer to a startup (base salary only, no formalized bonuses). Note, ever since IC Engineers started getting significant bonus/stock grants (Which, I think, is something that has been a thing for less than a decade, at least for grants of publicly traded stock.) From what I've seen? Contractors have lost their income premium. I mean, contractors still make more than what they'd make full time for base salary, but base salary is now a relatively small portion of total comp for FTEs at most places. Just my observation; I'm also talking about the sort of contractors who go through body shops and essentially do the same jobs as the regular employees.

twodave 9y ago
Maybe this is true on the west coast, but most of us don't work over there.
hibikir 9y ago
This is only true when looking at tech companies that really hand significant stock grants. There are tons of software developers, all over the US, getting only salary and modest bonuses outside of those few places that grant stock that is as good as money. When you look at that world, contractors still win by a very wide margin: They are organizations where HR will not allow a hire for a competitive salary, but a department head can spend their budget on contractors any way they want. This leads to gigantic pro-contractor differences: As recently as last year, I made three times as much as someone sitting next to me that had Architect in their title, and the contract was for many hundreds of hours, so it's not as if there was non-billable overhead. Now, the big tech companies can compete with contractor billing rates, just as long as it's either Netflix, or someone with good-as-money stock grants, but if you live in, say, Kansas City, you won't smell those companies anyway, and chances are that, barring remote work for a giant, the best you can hope for without contracting is salary that isa little bit below Google's, but no stock.
- lsc 9y ago
  Sure, I am just saying that things changed in those silicon valley companies in the last ten years. Those jobs with the as good as money stock grants are interesting because they represent the top of the market not just locally, but globally. If you want to maximize income in this industry and you are not good enough to move markets to you, you move to silicon valley and interview.