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Couple thoughts: 1) This engineer is getting offers from FB, Goog, etc. They are definitely in the top 1% of engineers in terms of interviewing ability if not i

by lquist 9y ago

Couple thoughts: 1) This engineer is getting offers from FB, Goog, etc. They are definitely in the top 1% of engineers in terms of interviewing ability if not in terms of engineering ability. 2) No salary increases do not slow down. A friend of mine has 4 years of experience, is a top 1-5% engineer/interviewer and had multiple offers at 350-500k. 3) Sustainable? No. This is a supply/demand issue and supply is increasing rapidly (more CS grads, etc)

polyomino 9y ago
Facebook and Google are making over $1 million in revenue/yr per employee. They can afford to pay this.
- bald 9y ago
  revenue != money to spend
  - adventured 9y ago
    Well in this case, for Google and Facebook, it is pretty close to that. Facebook has 86% gross profit margins. Google's are a little lower but still incredible, at 60%. For the most part, they print as much profit as they want to. Google could get rid of half of their staff and just print $40-$50 billion per year in profit off of search (while keeping various critical moat pieces like Android). They have nearly 80,000 employees now, the majority of that is a combination of bloat and efforts at expansion into other non-search things. To put into perspective how hilariously profitable Google (the search business) is, they're now capable of doing $35 to $40 billion per year in operating income. Last quarter they generated $8.7 billion in operating income for that segment. Google's (search biz) capital expenditures were a mere $3.5 billion out of $27 billion in sales. If they cared to do it, they could push margins to the ceiling.
  - mrdodge 9y ago
    He was mistaken. It's almost a million in profit.
fossuser 9y ago
I think they actually do slow down in most cases. While some engineers may continue to get promoted and get large bumps I think most are probably in the 150k-200k (base+bonus) range after a couple years.
- Bahamut 9y ago
  FWIW, my BigCo has base comp in that range for the second lowest level. I think comp gets even higher after a few years, but there is pressure at these companies to reach a certain tier in a couple of years. For competant engineers able to learn & adapt, they will reach it just fine, but I imagine there is a percentage who struggle as well.
closeparen 9y ago
Making more CS majors doesn't decrease the salary someone needs to live in the Bay Area/Seattle/New York. As long as FAANG insists on engineers living in cities with housing crises and minimal supply growth, I just don't see the floor coming down much. Entry-level engineers already live far away with roommates. What are they going to do if salaries fall? SROs? Bunks? Doesn't seem like people who are generally capable of knowledge work would take that deal.

by lquist 9y ago

polyomino 9y ago

Facebook and Google are making over $1 million in revenue/yr per employee. They can afford to pay this.

bald 9y ago
revenue != money to spend
- adventured 9y ago
  Well in this case, for Google and Facebook, it is pretty close to that. Facebook has 86% gross profit margins. Google's are a little lower but still incredible, at 60%. For the most part, they print as much profit as they want to. Google could get rid of half of their staff and just print $40-$50 billion per year in profit off of search (while keeping various critical moat pieces like Android). They have nearly 80,000 employees now, the majority of that is a combination of bloat and efforts at expansion into other non-search things. To put into perspective how hilariously profitable Google (the search business) is, they're now capable of doing $35 to $40 billion per year in operating income. Last quarter they generated $8.7 billion in operating income for that segment. Google's (search biz) capital expenditures were a mere $3.5 billion out of $27 billion in sales. If they cared to do it, they could push margins to the ceiling.
- mrdodge 9y ago
  He was mistaken. It's almost a million in profit.

fossuser 9y ago

I think they actually do slow down in most cases. While some engineers may continue to get promoted and get large bumps I think most are probably in the 150k-200k (base+bonus) range after a couple years.

Bahamut 9y ago
FWIW, my BigCo has base comp in that range for the second lowest level. I think comp gets even higher after a few years, but there is pressure at these companies to reach a certain tier in a couple of years. For competant engineers able to learn & adapt, they will reach it just fine, but I imagine there is a percentage who struggle as well.

closeparen 9y ago

Making more CS majors doesn't decrease the salary someone needs to live in the Bay Area/Seattle/New York. As long as FAANG insists on engineers living in cities with housing crises and minimal supply growth, I just don't see the floor coming down much. Entry-level engineers already live far away with roommates. What are they going to do if salaries fall? SROs? Bunks? Doesn't seem like people who are generally capable of knowledge work would take that deal.