5 ms·

I may be wrong but twice seems a stretch. I have heard of companies for instance supposedly paying a 25% premium compared to somewhere like Denver. So say 100k

I may be wrong but twice seems a stretch. I have heard of companies for instance supposedly paying a 25% premium compared to somewhere like Denver. So say 100k in Denver is 125k in redwood City. Of that 25k you get to keep about 18k... So if rent is $1500 different that accounts for the delta. I just did a long bike ride through the redwoods and along the ocean. Doesn't meet my definition of hellhole... I probably will leave if I ever want to buy a house but besides that the area has a lot to offer me at least. I do have a problem that everyone not making 6 figures is being pushed out which is another reason I would go.

umanwizard 8y ago
[deleted]
- dman 8y ago
  Did not know that individual contributors in F/A/N/G were making this much. Are we talking Jeff Dean level outliers or does this apply in a wider setting?
  - friedman23 8y ago
    $1 million is definitely an outlier but more than $300k (total compensation) is not.
    - yulaow 8y ago
      We need data to claim even something like this, especially for a dev position.
      - friedman23 8y ago
        I don't have data to show you, I'm speaking from personal experience and I talk about salaries with my coworkers.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
  - cobookman 8y ago
    Jeff Dean isn't even an IC. He does manage teams.
  - someguydave 8y ago
    The spreadsheet posted above seems to indicate that few positions have base+bonus salary of above $200k.
    - friedman23 8y ago
      Are we looking at the same spreadsheet?
- warrenm 8y ago
  >Plenty of people (individual contributors, not managers) make over a million doing software in the bay area As an absolute number - maybe As a percentage - it’s minuscule
- jboles 8y ago
  Citation. People throw around fantastical, ever-increasing numbers (250k, 400k, 500k, now a million) in these threads, but never any hard data. How many is “plenty”? I argue that it would be exceptionally few, if any.
  - Zaheer 8y ago
    There's a lot of data points here: https://goo.gl/iHw7cj https://goo.gl/iHw7cj
    - ryandrake 8y ago
      This is what passes for "data" here? Self-reported with zero verification. You're not capturing rank-and-file software engineers here, only those who have interesting enough situations to report. A spreadsheet like this is bound to skew ultra high.
  - encoderer 8y ago
    I know it sounds crazy, but it's not really crazy. People don't talk about it a lot, but it's not unlike commercial airline pilots making $300k a year. They extract their fair take from very profitable businesses.
  - booleandilemma 8y ago
    Those numbers make working in tech feel like a modern day gold rush. I work as a programmer and don’t see anything near those amounts. I suspect most other programmers don’t either, even if they won’t admit it. Colleges and bootcamps selling overpriced training certainly won’t. Working in tech is beyond overhyped and it’s only going to get worse. I’m not talking about FAANG, I’m talking about everywhere else.
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    I'd have to assume a million includes stock compensation. Even executives don't make a million in cash base (eg. Alphabet's CFO makes $760K, chief legal officer makes $664K). With stock compensation it's pretty easy because of the appreciation of company stocks. 5 years ago, Facebook was trading at $24/share. It now trades at $193/share, a roughly 8x increase. If your compensation package included $125K/year in RSUs - something eminently achievable even with just a few years of work experience - you're now making over a million a year as those stock grants vest.
friedman23 8y ago
You can make much more than $125k in the Bay Area. You should try interviewing here just to see what you are offered.
- jhall1468 8y ago
  I have and can say that Seattle and the Bay aren't anywhere near 2x, yet COL is considerably lower (particularly rent) and no state income tax. None of the offers I received would have netted me more money, in fact all of them would have been less money overall.
- runamok 8y ago
  I do actually live here. Hence the mention of the things I like about it. I was just using nice round numbers as an estimate and trying to say cost of living matters but the #1 thing I pay for here vs another American city is rent. Groceries, gas, consumer goods, etc. do not differ enough to be worth factoring into the equation. I think the big ticket is buying a house. THAT feels really out of reach because I can't do the mental gymnastics to pay around $1000 a square foot...
pm90 8y ago
I was making low 6 figures in Austin and my TC actually almost doubled when I moved to the Bay. I had multiple offers, all with similar compensation. Like another peer has said you should try interviewing and see what is offered before making these kinds of judgements.

umanwizard 8y ago

[deleted]

dman 8y ago
Did not know that individual contributors in F/A/N/G were making this much. Are we talking Jeff Dean level outliers or does this apply in a wider setting?
- friedman23 8y ago
  $1 million is definitely an outlier but more than $300k (total compensation) is not.
  - yulaow 8y ago
    We need data to claim even something like this, especially for a dev position.
    - friedman23 8y ago
      I don't have data to show you, I'm speaking from personal experience and I talk about salaries with my coworkers.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- cobookman 8y ago
  Jeff Dean isn't even an IC. He does manage teams.
- someguydave 8y ago
  The spreadsheet posted above seems to indicate that few positions have base+bonus salary of above $200k.
  - friedman23 8y ago
    Are we looking at the same spreadsheet?
warrenm 8y ago
>Plenty of people (individual contributors, not managers) make over a million doing software in the bay area As an absolute number - maybe As a percentage - it’s minuscule
jboles 8y ago
Citation. People throw around fantastical, ever-increasing numbers (250k, 400k, 500k, now a million) in these threads, but never any hard data. How many is “plenty”? I argue that it would be exceptionally few, if any.
- Zaheer 8y ago
  There's a lot of data points here: https://goo.gl/iHw7cj https://goo.gl/iHw7cj
  - ryandrake 8y ago
    This is what passes for "data" here? Self-reported with zero verification. You're not capturing rank-and-file software engineers here, only those who have interesting enough situations to report. A spreadsheet like this is bound to skew ultra high.
- encoderer 8y ago
  I know it sounds crazy, but it's not really crazy. People don't talk about it a lot, but it's not unlike commercial airline pilots making $300k a year. They extract their fair take from very profitable businesses.
- booleandilemma 8y ago
  Those numbers make working in tech feel like a modern day gold rush. I work as a programmer and don’t see anything near those amounts. I suspect most other programmers don’t either, even if they won’t admit it. Colleges and bootcamps selling overpriced training certainly won’t. Working in tech is beyond overhyped and it’s only going to get worse. I’m not talking about FAANG, I’m talking about everywhere else.
- nostrademons 8y ago
  I'd have to assume a million includes stock compensation. Even executives don't make a million in cash base (eg. Alphabet's CFO makes $760K, chief legal officer makes $664K). With stock compensation it's pretty easy because of the appreciation of company stocks. 5 years ago, Facebook was trading at $24/share. It now trades at $193/share, a roughly 8x increase. If your compensation package included $125K/year in RSUs - something eminently achievable even with just a few years of work experience - you're now making over a million a year as those stock grants vest.

friedman23 8y ago

You can make much more than $125k in the Bay Area. You should try interviewing here just to see what you are offered.

jhall1468 8y ago
I have and can say that Seattle and the Bay aren't anywhere near 2x, yet COL is considerably lower (particularly rent) and no state income tax. None of the offers I received would have netted me more money, in fact all of them would have been less money overall.
runamok 8y ago
I do actually live here. Hence the mention of the things I like about it. I was just using nice round numbers as an estimate and trying to say cost of living matters but the #1 thing I pay for here vs another American city is rent. Groceries, gas, consumer goods, etc. do not differ enough to be worth factoring into the equation. I think the big ticket is buying a house. THAT feels really out of reach because I can't do the mental gymnastics to pay around $1000 a square foot...

pm90 8y ago

I was making low 6 figures in Austin and my TC actually almost doubled when I moved to the Bay. I had multiple offers, all with similar compensation. Like another peer has said you should try interviewing and see what is offered before making these kinds of judgements.