13 ms·
My offer numbers from big companies
- akhilcacharya 9y agoThese seem pretty standard for 2 years experience?
- taneq 9y agoReally? Anywhere else in the world they'd be classified as "insane".
- simonbarker87 9y agoLiterally the word I just used in my comment above.
- orjan 9y agoExactly. Even the lowest offer is more than twice my pay, after 10+ years of experience in Sweden.
- akhilcacharya 9y agoWell, add that to the list of things that make America exceptional.
- quickthrower2 9y agoWhat % of developers can get these kinds of offers? Do you need Ivy League? Insane algorithm / whiteboard testing prowess? A hot company in those 2 years of experience?
- hello_newman 9y agoFrom the post > Previously from a unicorn startup I think he graduated (says 2 years experience), picked the right company, and that put him on this kind of trajectory. It could be a different story if the last start up he was at was not a "unicorn".
- notduncansmith 9y agoOP mentioned working previously at a "unicorn" and having referrals. Keep in mind that those signals are much easier to detect (and thus justify decisions based upon). Without these, one faces a number of challenges: - You need to get your resume looked at somehow - It's well-known that when it comes to programming and system design, "Real recognize real" - You need a wide variety of skills beyond programming and system design: social skills (sometimes moreso than anything else), sometimes classic CS search/sorting/optimization techniques - They might realize they need someone with different specializations - You might remind the interviewer of someone they dislike
- akhilcacharya 9y agoGet really good at doing Graph/DP problems on a whiteboard. That’s it. I know new grads who have gotten 200k TC offers with negotiation. That’s all it takes (and sadly I don’t have that..)
- polyomino 9y agoyeah, this is standard for big tech. You can do better in finance though.
- FlyingLawnmower 9y agoIs it really possible to get 180K RSUs per year with just 2 years of experience? That's more than the standard new grad Rsu grant at Google/FB/Microsoft/Amazon, which vests over 4 years. I can't imagine that 2 years of experience plus some negotiating quadruples the stock signing bonus. Everything else seems high, but within the realm of possibility...however, the RSU grants seem to be abnormally high to me. OP claims that he gets the listed amount per year in stock, not vesting over four years.
- Redoubts 9y ago> Is it really possible to get 180K RSUs per year with just 2 years of experience? Well, to be fair that's only from Lyft which isn't even liquid yet. All other offers are half that, but at least you could sell them for cash if you wanted.
- joshuamorton 9y agoKeep in mind that pre-IPO companies are often willing to throw egregious amounts of stock at you, since it is illiquid and forces you to stick around. (and in this specific instance, Lyft is known for above-average stock grants). I got a similar offer (>180K RSU/year) from a company, and I have less experience than this guy.
- simonbarker87 9y agoI live in the UK, to me these numbers are insane. How are these salaries at that work experience possible? Is the pay increase from then on slow? Are these salaries sustainable for the industry long term? I know experienced professionals who would be considered successful in the UK who finish their careers nowhere near this level of salary (not programmers but certainly engineers). I’m astounded.
- King-Aaron 9y agoThis is what I wonder also. It's like here in Australia, where blue-collar truck drivers can get paid $200k/year. It doesn't seem sustainable... because it isn't. Edit: This has resulted in what people are calling a "two-speed" economy - http://archive.treasury.gov.au/documents/1421/HTML/docshell.asp?URL=02+The+resources+boom+and+the+two+speed+economy.htm http://archive.treasury.gov.au/documents/1421/HTML/docshell....
- simonbarker87 9y agoThe equivalent in the UK that I can think of are Pimlico plumbers in London, over £100K. But it’s a very small subset of an otherwise normal industry pay wise
- cyberferret 9y agoI knew a 19 year old girl who was driving trucks in a mine in Western Australia. She was on $180K/year. She gave it up after a year though apparently, and I don't know where she is these days so cannot ask her why she left a job that was paying that much only a couple of years out of high school.
- King-Aaron 9y agoI can give you some direct insight on that. First of all, she would have experienced severe gender bias. I don't think it needs an explanation when you consider a demographic of mostly low-to-moderately-educated men in the workforce and everyone living in fairly close quarters. Secondly, the conditions are harsh. You work around 14-hour days in 35-45 degree C heat. This wears out people very quickly. It can get so hot that rubbish bins catch on fire themselves, and you can cook an egg on your car's roof. And third, people get homesick due to the rosters - usually 2 weeks on, one week off (or similar). It disrupts relationships and takes a big personal toll on people. There are a lot of people that do it for years - but the majority pull a year or two and then leave.
- King-Aaron 9y agoJesus christ, $50k as a sign on bonus. I haven't seen anything like that in Aus for that sort of experience.
- wwalser 9y agoIf you have the flexibility, most of the companies on this list recruit regularly in Australia for roles in the US. You may need to fly state-side of an on-site but the initial round can be done in Melbourne or Sydney. Tech companies love E3 visas.
- King-Aaron 9y agoI may look into this, I'm in need of a change of scenery
- dmnd 9y agoI'll be in Melbourne renewing my E3 visa in late Dec/early Jan. And maybe doing some recruiting for my almost-unicorn company too. Message me if you'd like to get coffee or something. My email's in my profile.
- King-Aaron 9y agoI'm actually Perth-based, but I do end up in the Eastern States from time to time, I'll see how I go :)
- jacques_chester 9y agoMy chance to try and swipe a referral bonus, then. I'll be in Perth for Christmas and my lot were sponsoring E3s before it was cool. My work email is jchester@pivotal.io
- wwalser 9y agoI'm in Sydney in Feb. If that's a location that works for you I could chat or get coffee.
- ChicagoDave 9y agoI guess I need to move to Silicon Valley. These numbers are insane for two years and an undergrad degree. I have 32 years experience and I don't get these kinds of offers. This is either complete BS or the guy is a savant. Something smells fishy here.
- HN15718653 9y agoSounds high to me, but not BS-high. Just a bit surprising to see 160 base. <130 would be more commensurate with 2yrs exp.
- fossuser 9y agoThese are reasonable numbers - a little high, but not if he negotiated since he had competing offers. Silicon Valley salaries are pretty decent and I’ve heard of new grads getting 100k signing bonuses at Facebook.
- cjhanks 9y agoThey seem a bit higher than what I would normally expect for 2 year experience; sometimes a successful startup and some salary negotiations can give you a boost. But recall: $1 USD (SFO) != $1 USD (Almost anywhere else). And there are some other downsides, you work very long hours in a company of 70%+ men. I think quality of life in South Bay for most isn't as nice as much less affluent places. It depends on your cup of tea, I guess. https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare/san-francisco-vs-chicago https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare...
- holydude 9y agoWhoa...such bias. Like working in a company of 70%+ males is a bad thing. Stop this madness please. The americans are known for working hard that's not a mystery.
- joshuamorton 9y agoTrue, but the total compensation here is at or above 250K annually. Most places in the US won't break 100K with 2 years of experience, and the cost of living is less than 2.5x as much. In other words, you still come out well ahead.
- curiousgal 9y ago>Thankfully I had FB and Google referrals else I doubt I would have gotten a reply at all.
- colemannugent 9y agoThat, plus this: >Previously from a unicorn startup Still, must have been some referral for those kind of offers.
- mathgladiator 9y agoThis is one of the things that really sucks about the industry. It is a new "boy's club", and if you know people in the club then the barrier to entry is easier (if you can code at a reasonable capacity).
- wwalser 9y agoThe entry fee for a referral is striking up a single conversation at a conference. If someone from a big tech company is speaking at a conference, the fact that they are speaking isn't the primary reason for being present. They are there to recruit.
- milofeynman 9y agoHah, that assumes their current employer will let them go to conferences.
- wwalser 9y agoI'd take the day off for the prospect of $100k+ raise.
- richardknop 9y agoJust having a chat with someone at a conference is often not enough to get a referral tbh. I'd assume for a referral you need to know a person at least reasonably well, i.e. you know each other on first name basis and have been out for a beer or worked together on some open source project or something like that. I don't believe you can just walk to a person at a conference, talk to them to 15 minutes and then ask for their referral.
- Sevii 9y agoSF must have some insane margins to afford this.
- dingo_bat 9y agohttps://imgur.com/a/VpCJT https://imgur.com/a/VpCJT Is this for real? This is Ministry of Truth levels of double-speak.
- friedButter 9y agoThey make you validate your work email, which is then linked to every post you make on the platform :) This will blow up one day.
- everdev 9y agoThis is nuts unless it's AI/ML.
- flente 9y agoNo, I work at one of the companies mentioned in the post. These are typical salaries for devs without exotic specializations.
- Redoubts 9y agoYeah, same impression here. Though it seems slightly aggressive for two years non-ivy.
- akhilcacharya 9y agoWhy would the school matter? I thought this industry keeps crowing about how “school doesn’t matter”?
- adventured 9y agoBecause Berkeley, Stanford, MIT and Harvard produce radically superior computer science students vs the average community college. That doesn't mean no talent comes out of community colleges. It means the average ability level is far lower and the elite students are far more rare. The school doesn't matter much if you have the ability and can demonstrate it. The kind of grads coming out of elite schools that Google & Co are recruiting, tend to have both the ability and the school. The schools, and the professors there, help more often than not with filtering.
- akhilcacharya 9y agoAs someone that didn’t work at Google/FB and goes to a state school, Well, thanks for the vote of confidence!
- astrange 9y ago
- hpaavola 9y ago10 years ago I was working for VMware in Palo Alto as an intern and my salary was $5.5k per month. They offered me a permanent position for $75k per year, but I decided to move back to Finland. I would say that those numbers in the article sound believable. Housing costs in the bay area are crazy.
- jstanley 9y agoHousing costs shouldn't really factor into what the company is willing to pay staff though. It costs the company the same amount regardless of how much it costs the employee to live.
- hpaavola 9y agoSure, I agree. One just needs to remember that when living in the bay area sizable chunk of that money goes to housing.
- lev99 9y agoHousing costs come in to play when trying to recruit and maintain talent. All cities do not have enough tech talent. Migrant tech workers consider housing costs when deciding which city to move too. In addition, if salary does not increase with cost of living workers will leave.
- cyberferret 9y agoThere was a question on gender and race in the article comments. I am wondering how much does this play in the numbers game? Do tech companies ask this in their application process (in SF, USA anyway)? Are they even allowed to? Can they find out? Do they have recruitment teams sniffing out applicant's social media to find out? Sidenote: One of my favourite replies on the article comments: > Can you share your gender and race? >> OP is a female dwarf paladin
- bruxis 9y agoI'm somewhat confused by your question, but generally it's not a secret what gender someone is based on their resume/application. You may also be able to glean race from this. This information is rarely anonymized. That said, the "numbers game" doesn't really start until after you pass the on-site, and any inherent bias likely occurs more frequently there since there are more opportunities (likely a single phone screener/resume screener, then 4-6 on-site participants). From what I've seen in management in SV, bias tends to rear it's head more in the phase of considering on-site feedback in the topic "does this candidate fit in here?" before anything gets to the offer stage. At the offer stage, the actual financial details are usually left to a different set of individuals, depending on the size of the company (hiring manager, HR, CTO, CEO, etc.). There's a different opportunity for bias here, but I think generally, it's smaller.
- cyberferret 9y agoWell, with Western names, I guess a recruiter can guess at the gender, but with some Sub-continental or Asian names - that can be hard to do. Which leads me to another question - Do people use pseudonyms to increase their chances of getting through initial screening of their applications? (Anecdote: I had a (female) business mentor many years ago who said that she had trouble getting businesses to meet with her. Until she stopped using her full name on letters to company executives. She changed her signature from 'Anna Smith' to just 'A. Smith'. She said she then started getting lots of replies addressed to 'Dear Mr. Smith'.)
- 9y ago
- shubhamjain 9y agoIt seems standard way to get a great compensation is to sit down and exercise all the run-of-the-mill algorithmic questions because that will matter the most in the end. Further optimisation could be made by being less fearful about negotiating the offer. Asking for 10% more would never hurt [1]. I am not a fierce critic of BigCo. interviewing practises but it seems a little disappointing that coding side-projects, contributing to open source, and writing mean so little in getting hired. [1]: https://medium.com/we-are-yammer/how-i-negotiated-for-an-additional-15-000-at-yammer-2d3c137623ec https://medium.com/we-are-yammer/how-i-negotiated-for-an-add...
- amalfra 9y agoI think having a tier 1 college degree matters the most even in getting an interview, atleast here in India. This is from my experience of seeing increasing job posts having tier 1 college degree as requirement and colleagues I know having good college degree having no difficulty in getting interviews(github code, portfolio etc really doesn't matter)
- james43534 9y agoNot true for a 5+ years experience. The scene is changing fast. Github is a plus and hacker rank interviews are getting adopted in almost all new startups.
- woolvalley 9y agoIt's because the vast majority of candidates, including a lot of very good ones, will do none of those things.
- bagels 9y agoAnyone have a copy/cache of the content? It's down already.
- thisisit 9y ago> 2. What's your background? > Male. Two years of professional experience. Bachelors. Non-ivy league school. Previously from a unicorn startup. I'm mentioning these because people ask, not that I think they matter. Being an alumni from unicorn startup is my guess on why he got these offers. People are obsessed with salaries and positions which I think is unhealthy. But what I find ironic is that I have always heard the rich talk about how money can't buy happiness or how you should take risks from people who have some kind of backing - monetary/family or like here how background doesn't matter, even with evidence like unicorn or referrals. Edited for some clarity.
- dmoy 9y agoI'm not sure, I work at one of those companies and the numbers sound about right for 2-4 yrs out of undergraduate.
- hkmurakami 9y agoMoney can absolutely buy a lot of contributing factors to Happiness. However it can't solve your unhappiness. Also not having money will often cause unhappiness.
- siddharthdeswal 9y agoYou're as wise as your username. To add to your points, money used to invest in experiences with loved ones will certainly add to happiness.
- swat535 9y agoThis is really interesting because "it can't solve your unhappiness" "not having money will often cause unhappiness" So by definition, having money will not solve your unhappiness caused by not having money :)
- JBlue42 9y agoFrom a practical point of view, SF is expensive to live in so being 'obsessed' with salary might just be practical. Being able to know the range your in is also good, regardless of location, for not being taken advantage of, especially if you're young and new to the business world. I think beyond salary, maybe you meant money in general or the social status that having a lot of it confers. That can be a particular obsession that is not healthy for a person or society in general. Also, there are people obsessed with titles as status, which can be funny. A former co-worker made a stink about not getting a 'promoted' to a certain title level. At her next year's review, she finally did and she was ecstatic. She was doing the same job with the same duties and getting paid the same. But she had the title.
- yuz 9y agoLink broken
- jstanley 9y agoI just get a 403 page instead of an article, probably because I browse via a DigitalOcean IP address. If this is enough to get me blocked, that's hilarious given that this company's product is supposed to be "anonymous work talk" - if they like anonymity so much why am I not allowed to browse from whatever IP address I like? EDIT: And furthermore, all it takes to find out if a company uses Blind is to type in the company name and see what it says. That's a pretty blatant privacy leak right on the company's home page.
- joshuamorton 9y agoI get the same thing. It also breaks out of a google cache view. Here's archive.is: https://archive.fo/FF094 https://archive.fo/FF094
- tim333 9y agoor http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:rfUbpCao_bEJ:https://us.teamblind.com/article/sharing-my-offer-numbers-from-big-companies-for-your-reference-yNgqUPQR&num=1&hl=en&gl=id&strip=1&vwsrc=0 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:rfUbpCa...
- thisisit 9y agoThis is interesting. Archive: > 5. Did you get rejected anywhere? > Yes, I got rejected by Asana and Instacart at the onsite stage. Web Link: > 5. Did you get rejected anywhere? > Yes, I got rejected by some smaller startups at the onsite stage.
- joshuamorton 9y agoGuess he edited the post shrug.
- striking 9y agoI browse with a regular Comcast IP in the US. I think it's just down, sorry.
- 9y ago
- skellertor 9y agoI'm getting a 403 for this site. Any one else experiencing this?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- holydude 9y agoWhy are people so surprised ? US and especially US's tech sector is known for trowing money at people. They are doing it in a hope to get those sweet Rob Pikes of our time by sheer brute force.
- thisisxavier 9y agoGetting a 403 when trying to access the link? Anyone else having problems?
- piyush_soni 9y agoSame here.
- kevindeasis 9y ago403 Error. TLDR the author had 2 years experience 1) Google - 140k base, 107.5k RSUs, 50k sign on, 15% bonus 2) Facebook - 160k base, 75k RSUs, 70k sign on, 10% bonus 3) Lyft - 170k base, 180k RSUs, 20k sign on 4) Dropbox - 162k base, 114k RSUs, 10k sign on 5) Airbnb - 152k base, 75k RSUs, 13.5k sign on 6) Palantir - 150k base, 51k stock options, 25k sign on, 25k bonus
- hkmurakami 9y agoI cringe every time I see Palantir still on options when their 409a valuation must be very close to their preferred price at this point.
- richardknop 9y agoFrom what I have read about the potential Palantir IPO in 2019, they might be valued less than current 20 billion valuation if they IPO, potentially much less. It will depend on how well they do in 2018, that will be key year if they are going for 2019 IPO.
- cakkineni 9y agoDamn... I guess anyone smart should just stop complaining and find a way into the big co.s... Living in midwest this is insane... :) ...congrats....
- chrisper 9y agoYou also need to think about what you'd lose if you were to work for a big company. I do not know your current company, so maybe there is nothing to lose.
- cakkineni 9y agoI just recently quit a Big 8 co and moved to a smaller co (was working remote for a few yrs, wanted to do something local); its just different styles of working; the quality of work isnt much different between each other.
- Rainymood 9y agoThese numbers seem high in absolute value but one must compare Cost of Living (insane in the Bay Area I guess) and insurance costs and other living expenses as well
- aroundtown 9y agoWell this makes me feel terrible... Your sign on was probably for more than I've made in my professional career. My first job after graduating 10 years ago was for 45k per year. I have had an awful lot of bad luck since graduating and have yet to be paid more than that since. Every job I've had paid progressively less, always took them cause I needed the job. My last programming job paid $14 an hour. Can anyone offer advice on breaking out of the cycle of terribleness? I'm a US citizen, bachelors in CS, live in Tx.
- electrograv 9y agoRegionally: The wealthiest companies pay the highest salaries. In the tech world, those live on the west coast or the east coast. Texas probably isn’t going to give you much room to grow in the tech world. Some of it is regional, and some of it will depend on what you do. The best salaries will go to the most valuable roles, so you may need to find out how to develop a specialty to make your work more valuable. $14/hour is really low. I don’t know what exactly you do, but for most programming that’s below the market rate. If you can give me more info I’d be happy to help with advise where I can.
- bdcravens 9y ago> Texas probably isn’t going to give you much room to grow in the tech world. Outside of Austin, Texas definitely isn't a tech hub, but there's tons of work in energy and health care, and the pay isn't bad. Your average tech worker in Dallas or Houston is probably on par with the average SV tech worker, when you adjust for cost of living.
- aroundtown 9y agoI understand that Texas isn't going to pay well, I'm anchored to a wife who has a PhD with extremely limited opportunities that pay decent. So here I am. The $14 was way below market, some web work, some IT, and some updating a program that I had built for them a year earlier. I needed the cash and it beat flipping burgers or working retail. The place was interesting, people did Bio-Research. I was trying to get my foot in the door and get a better job with them. About that time my wife took a job that brought us back to Texas, outside of San Antonio.
- kjhsfkjldfhkjsf 9y agoHow do these numbers carry over to non bay area places like Austin? I've got an offer for 86k base, 4000 RSU, no sign on here in Austin for an L2 at one of those companies in the top 5 and it seems like a joke.
- crorella 9y agoI think the numbers are ok considering you have almost not experience.
- yuanzhen 9y agoHere in Australia there is no point even being a software engineer. 2 years experience will be 90k base, I don't even know what a sign on or bonus is because we don't even have them, and your wage will rise with inflation. Inflation seems to be a fairly garbage number so I would say your wage goes down each year. There are plenty of other jobs that are much easier that pay the same. Australia is not an innovative or technology-oriented or entrepreneurial country. Some multinationals mine our land, that is it. It is a bit of a joke country compared to China or the USA.
- briga 9y agoSilicon Valley is an anomaly when it comes to salary. $90k would be considered an excellent salary for most of the world's software developers. Even in most parts of the US a salary like that is considered quite good for 2 years experience.
- yuanzhen 9y agoYes, although I should say, 2 years experience and top 1%. The thing about the US though is that in places where you get offered 90k, house prices are about half what they are here. The amount of tech companies you have in Tennessee is more than all the tech companies in Australia. So you don't really get those types of jobs here.
- ozcoder56 9y agoGoogle in Australia does pay AUD 130k base with USD 80k in RSUs for someone with 2 years of experience. Not comparable with US figures, but still pretty decent.
- softawre 9y agoNo Point? Programming is sorta fun, at least compared to the rest of the shit jobs out there. Not to mention, 90k? Come on.
- jacques_chester 9y agoAustralians can get into the US market easily. Look up the E3 visa, it's how I got here. Or email me (jchester@pivotal.io), my lot are hiring and I like referral bonuses.
- leyth 9y agoDude is advertising for LeetCode. He’s not too clever, easily figured out.
- wwalser 9y agoIn every single thread where someone publicly discloses rates like this the comments are flooded with people who use all kinds of FUD to explain why what they've just read must be untrue. It's strange. > Are these numbers real? Yes. I'm not the author, but they don't appear at all unusual to me. SF's developer market is nearly as screwed up as it's housing market (except not really, the housing market is truly something else). > Is this "normal"? No. Well… yes and no. These numbers are real and you can get offers like that too. But this type of pay isn't "normal" in the sense of historical norms. Tech isn't normal right now. We have a shortage on one side of the market. It will be relatively short lived. That doesn't mean you should ignore you're ability to make unreasonably amounts of money for the next 10 years. If you're qualified to fill the positions that people are over-paying for, you should totally take that money. > But this person had "special" access because of ${referral/previous company/magic}! Yes. This person did have "special" access. But being granted that access is literally as easy as talking to someone who works for the company that you'd like to work for. Are they attending a conference? Walk up to them. It's really that easy. I know. I've done it. > No really, this person got lucky because they worked for a unicorn before applying to these companies. They got lucky by picking a place that happened to turn into a rocket ship. Little secret, you don't have to work at a unicorn _before_ applying to a unicorn. There's a phase after everyone knows it's a rocket ship where the company is still hiring like a madhouse. You can join during that phase and still get credit for "picking" a unicorn. You'll likely get a very small piece of an over-saturated employee pool so the equity won't make you rich, but it does allow you the pick of the litter amongst other top tier firms, App/Goo/Ama/book/Soft, which all pay along the lines of what the author posted. > I have no desire to live in SF. Yeah, SF is awful, don't move there. You can get close to these numbers in some cities that have a much better standard of living. NY, LA, Austin (the numbers are close but come down in that order). Feel free to ask any questions about getting a job in a company like this if you'd like. I find it mystifying that people consider it some kind of secret so I'm down for sharing w/e people want to know (within some personal boundaries). I wouldn't say that it's easy to get a job like this, but the information isn't hidden. In my experience it's right in front of people and they either ignore it or choose different paths because they prefer the lifestyle that they have outside of these major US hubs.
- monaghanboy 9y ago
- diiaann 9y agoThese seem in line with what I've seen from friends and acquaintances. I've also heard 100K signing bonuses to new grads at FB. https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-rationale-behind-Facebooks-100K-signing-bonuses-for-engineers-and-why-havent-other-top-software-companies-followed-suit https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-rationale-behind-Facebooks-1...
- akhilcacharya 9y agoIt can go up to $125k if you negotiate. I’ve heard even higher but I’m skeptical of those claims. I’m just sad I can’t get even a fraction of that at my Big4. Source - multiple friends at FB.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- throwaway713 9y agoWow. These are high. Anyone know what the numbers are for data scientists nowadays? Also, how hard would it be for a senior data scientist working at a large (non-tech) company on the east coast to get an interview at one of these places?
- 40acres 9y agoIt always strikes me as odd at how much HN complanies about hiring practices in tech. Spend a few weeks with Leetcode and CTCI and you have a decent shot at salaries in this range at the BigCo's (depends on location of course). What other industry has it's interview process so transparent with such high rewards?
- mchaver 9y agoWhat is CTCI? Search engines didn't return any results that make sense.
- Momquist 9y agohttp://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/ http://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/
- sidlls 9y agoCracking the Coding Interview. It's a book by a software coder about how to pass code interviews at places like Facebook and Google. I suspect the author makes more money on the book than she ever did as a coder.
- mchaver 9y agoThanks. I knew of the book, but not the acronym.
- sidlls 9y agoI complain about it because it's absurd. It's also actually not that transparent, because for all it supposedly is there is still the bias against age, gender and a number of other things that no matter how Leet your Code interview is will get you rejected.
- hocuspocus 9y agoIf you have a job and any kind of social life, going through 200~300 questions like OP is going to take you more than a few weeks. A lot of people complain because this is the very example of cargo culting, you hire people who went through the same questions and reject those who haven't, even though it has no bearing on their ability to do the job.
- xab9 9y agoTop notch devs earn less than the quarter of that money around here (I know about the cost of living, but still). No wonder the US is outsourcing all its dreams here, from faceplus to instasnap, from payeasy to dollarpal.
- NiklasMort 9y agoI just left a company that got aquired by a big US security company, I was offered a 140k bonus (50/50 cash/stock, under the condition of staying min. 2 y) if I stay (because they knew I was probably leaving). The Bonus was several times more than my annual salary (Eastern Europe). Despite all the day dreaming about the numbers I declined and left. Why? Because after 2 years there I was already burned out, had no time, was getting calls at 5am, had to be available 24/7. I was miserable and had no life and for what? “The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” - Thoreau. Now I only work 10h a week and am so happy and relaxed, I earn enough to cover my living costs and can use the rest of my LIFE to do whatever I want. Just wanted to share that because I often see people here obsessing about money, but what's the point of it if you can't live?
- krolley 9y agoCouldn't you have negotiated that in your offer e.g. I'll take the 140k bonus but my phone is off from 6pm to 8am, only covering night shift on certain days etc. If they say no that's OK, but if they say yes, great.
- NiklasMort 9y agoThere were other issues which the new company didn't agree on. But I wanted to leave anyway. In the end I followed this: "You can always earn more money but you can never make more time"
- thebiglebrewski 9y agoI think you made the right decision! Enjoy your life friend :)
- nickh9000 9y agoI am curious what would 10 years of experience would translate to.
- koevet 9y agoThese numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. I live in Zurich, Switzerland and I have a similar salary (~200K) but the high cost of living (which, I assume, is similar if not lower than the Bay Area) make my salary comparable to an "ok" salary in other European countries. Just to give you an idea: the overall cost of school + a nanny for 2 kids under 6 is around 70K year in Zurich. As other have mentioned, the sign up bonus is quite awesome, but I assume is not the standard in the US either. edited: nannies -> nanny
- X-Istence 9y agoMost people/families in the US don't hire nannies...
- slackingoff2017 9y agoUnless the culture is wildly different than here in the US I don't think it's reasonable to consider private school and nannies as part of "cost of living"... Those are both unnecessary luxuries.
- koevet 9y agoIn Zurich, there are no public kindergarten. The monthly fees ranges from 2.500 to 3K+ a month. A nanny is necessary, when both parents have a full time work and family is not around (like in my case).
- s3nnyy 9y agoI think what you are talking about are "Kindergrippen" (when kids are 2-3 years old). Kindergardens are public and free. This Kindergrippen-age is really the only moment when kids in Switzerland cost you significantly more than in the rest of Europe. Think it this way: From the actual kindergarden age (4 years old?) you won't pay anymore. It's even free to send the kid to the best technical university in mainland Europe, which is supposed to be ETH (think MIT of Europe)
- 9y ago
- TamDenholm 9y agoCan someone explain what RSU's are? I'm assuming its something specific to being American and since i'm not i'm afraid i'm not familiar with the term. Thanks
- izacus 9y ago"Restricted Stock Units" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restricted_stock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restricted_stock . It's basically company stock you get after you've been there awhile.
- Redoubts 9y ago"Restricted Stock Units". Company grants you the $$$ worth of stock, but access is spread out over time (i.e. 1/8th of it every 6mo over 4 yr)
- TamDenholm 9y agoThank you to those that replied.
- hiram112 9y agoSo that $100k RSU you see in the list should not be considered yearly, but instead something like 25% of it per year?
- Redoubts 9y agoThe author claims > figures above are ANNUAL. But if he is mistaken on the RSU part, then people might find these offers easier to understand. (-e- but the only thing typically not annual in these numbers is the RSU, so I don't think that mistake is likely)
- ken47 9y agoTrue, if big. Anyone could write up such a Blind post. And when it comes to anonymously bragging via lies on the internet, there is no shortage of prior art. To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if the growth rate of engineering applications to these bigcos has declined over the past few years. A decline in the supply of candidates relative to demand, among other factors, could lead to an increase in compensation per offer. That being said, I'm still leaning towards this post being BS.
- richardknop 9y agoBut you get these posts on HN quite often with similar numbers. I'd assume all of them are not lying or using fake data to brag. If only some of them are telling the truth then the numbers are real which is why I tend to believe them.
- adventured 9y agoThe only thing about the post that seems off, is the experience level that's generating that income. It could happen though, it's not implausible. The income figures stand-alone are not abnormal for someone with several more years of experience. We're looking at maybe 3.7% type U3 unemployment in 2018. The Fed's GDP Nowcast figure is projecting nearly 4% growth for the fourth quarter. Throw on corp tax cuts and possibly infrastructure spending in 2018, and the US economy might expand at something like 3.5% for all of 2018. There's a massive hiring rush going on around things like artificial intelligence, that is vacuuming up immense amounts of engineering talent (depleting the total pool for everything else). These salaries might get crazier yet.
- richardknop 9y agoWhich is good for us (software engineers). I have noticed the same thing in Europe. Even though it's nowhere near Silicon Valley, I have noticed salaries in London rising faster than they used before. So there's definitely shortage of talent and market (supply / demand) seems to be reacting to this and driving salaries up.
- Nursie 9y agoThese are insane compared to the UK. 17 years ago I started out on £21k, which was considered pretty reasonable. Two years later I switched job and got £35k and over the next few years until I hit the 10 year mark I pushed it up to almost £50k. At that point AFAICT I was actually doing better than average. I'm now contracting in the financial world, earning well over twice that figure, but while I can match the salary the various otions, bonuses etc put a guy two years out of college in SV well ahead of the game. I like the bay area, too...
- richardknop 9y agoYes, it's the bonuses and stock options that make the compensation in SV ridiculous. If we compared just base salaries then SV would be ahead but comparisons wouldn't be so silly. But all these sweet RSUs and cash bonuses that are standard in SV make their overall yearly compensation really insane (plus things like 50k sign up bonus... I got no sign up bonus when I moved to London from EU). I wonder why software engineers don't get those kind of bonuses / extra cash on top of base salary in London.
- hobaak 9y agoGiven with multiple offers, he didn't drive hard negotiation like this guy. http://haseebq.com/farewell-app-academy-hello-airbnb-part-ii/ http://haseebq.com/farewell-app-academy-hello-airbnb-part-ii... HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11552780 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11552780
- nerflad 9y agoI'm in the southeast. 24, self-taught, no degree (I was able to make it through Triplebyte, though I'm not persuaded that actually means anything). 2009-2015 IT/helpdesk/sysadmin, and 2015-2017 more dev/devops, all with a local medium (~350 employee) retail-ish business that grosses about $30m annually if I had to guess. I quit this year for a number of reasons (depression), but I mainly worked on automation. A collection of scripts I wrote (and documented!) saves about 30 days' worth of the team's time annually. I made $22.50/hour. The numbers in this post are unfathomable to me.
- sillysaurus3 9y agoSwitch companies more frequently. Each time you do, you'll make more. The trick is, you're worth whatever the market is willing to pay. But the only way to find out is to go out on the market. Most people stick with the same job for years, meaning they only check their worth a few times. Hence low salaries.
- stocktech 9y agoIMO, the key to this is to also increase your responsibilities and skill level - which sounds like the OP has, but some people ignore. It's the difference between a 10% bump and 2x-3x moves early in your career. I also think it's worthwhile to find a good company - growth and culture - and then negotiate well as tech and domain knowledge will make you less replaceable. One thing that gets ignored on the west coast is how to specialize without hurting your career. In the southeast, we don't have endless tech companies, if you specialize poorly, you could get stuck with relocation being the only answer.
- corruptbytes 9y agoI think location matters the most
- akhilcacharya 9y agoA friend of mine dropped out of CC with a 1.9 at the age of 20. During/after he did 4 internships at top-tier companies making $8-9k a month in each one. Now he’s choosing between FB, Google, Microsoft, a few other unicorns, and a tiny startup all with offers over $160k TC. He’s incredibly smart, no question, but at the end of the day it’s all a game. For him, all it took was his first internship at a top-tier company to land future interviews and months of practice to get offers.
- ramtatatam 9y agoRecruiters who was interviewing this guy must have been all believing he is worth it. Well done. Have been interviewing people, many with 5+ years of experience and in my opinion it is not too difficult to spot somebody who is not fit for the job. So well done again.
- joshfraser 9y agoI'm guessing he was working at Uber before. Would explain why Lyft wanted him so badly and why Uber is missing from the list of companies he talked to.
- richardknop 9y agoCould be. Also Uber pays top end salaries so it would make sense with these very high offers as they probably had to at least match but preferably beat his current Uber package (and potential counter offer).
- Redoubts 9y agoFor those who are incredulous or doubtful, what experience do you think should command $150K Salary and $100K liquid stock in SV?
- sytelus 9y agoIf you are making $100K in Albany, GA then to have same standard of living in SFO you need to make $201K: http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/index.html http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/index.html So SFO/Bay area is that expensive. Most people don't think of that and assume that SFO requires modest 20% increase in cost of living. Absolutely not true. So before you get floored with these numbers you need to divide them by almost a factor of 2 for the corresponding standard of living.
- polock 9y agoNah, actually it's totally not any meaning to me. Because the numbers are too impractical to me. Whuu...
- austinpray 9y agohttps://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?dataset=&i=$140k+salary+san+francisco+vs+dallas https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?dataset=&i=$140k+salary+... For anyone else that was confused
- senatorobama 9y agoDoes this motivate anyone else to move to Silicon Valley?