4 ms·

Only if they're working for one of the big tech companies - they almost certainly won't be making that much at a startup out of college unless they happen to be

Only if they're working for one of the big tech companies - they almost certainly won't be making that much at a startup out of college unless they happen to be uncommonly good at negotiating/have good experience from internships. $160k is low for a true senior though. I have been making $160k base at a startup since 2.5 years into my career, and basically negotiations have been name-your-price for me. I can confirm first hand that the big tech companies pay a lot for senior engineers though - if you're any good, you can hit $250k+ pretty fast (disclaimer: I work in a FAANG currently).

apexalpha 8y ago
Bit Off-topic: shouldn't it be FAAMG? Or did we collectively kick Microsoft, the global OS and Office software supplier, out of the cool kids club and replace it with Netflix, a video website?
- owyn 8y ago
  Microsoft doesn’t have much impact in the SF area. It has been around a long time before the current rent/wage inflation bubble and is based in the Seattle area which is much cheaper... Netflix is legendary for paying some of the highest salaries in the bay areas. I’ll tack this on since I didn’t think of mentioning it earlier and it’s relevant to the original post... on the low end of that range assume 10k/month in gross wages, subtract 40% in tax and another 3k in rent for a 1br apt and another 1k for car + insurance + parking + Internet + phone etc. Now you’re at about 2k left over in net income monthly. This is an expensive area. Don’t just look at the gross salary, I’m not surprised that 117k is about the minimum you would want today. I don’t know how any non tech people can afford to move here and I understand the squeeze on people who are making much less. It doesn’t seem sustainable.
- numann 8y ago
  Seeing it used as FAANG in other media makes sense to me. As an example: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/06/23/most-stockmarket-returns-come-from-a-tiny-fraction-of-shares https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/06/23/m...

apexalpha 8y ago

Bit Off-topic: shouldn't it be FAAMG? Or did we collectively kick Microsoft, the global OS and Office software supplier, out of the cool kids club and replace it with Netflix, a video website?

owyn 8y ago
Microsoft doesn’t have much impact in the SF area. It has been around a long time before the current rent/wage inflation bubble and is based in the Seattle area which is much cheaper... Netflix is legendary for paying some of the highest salaries in the bay areas. I’ll tack this on since I didn’t think of mentioning it earlier and it’s relevant to the original post... on the low end of that range assume 10k/month in gross wages, subtract 40% in tax and another 3k in rent for a 1br apt and another 1k for car + insurance + parking + Internet + phone etc. Now you’re at about 2k left over in net income monthly. This is an expensive area. Don’t just look at the gross salary, I’m not surprised that 117k is about the minimum you would want today. I don’t know how any non tech people can afford to move here and I understand the squeeze on people who are making much less. It doesn’t seem sustainable.
numann 8y ago
Seeing it used as FAANG in other media makes sense to me. As an example: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/06/23/most-stockmarket-returns-come-from-a-tiny-fraction-of-shares https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/06/23/m...