4 ms·

Nah, you don't need to get all political to make those numbers. ~300k total comp is not that hard to obtain as a salary if you meet the following criteria: 1)

Nah, you don't need to get all political to make those numbers. ~300k total comp is not that hard to obtain as a salary if you meet the following criteria: 1) Are willing and able to work in SF/Seattle/NYC. 2) Have a degree from a decent university (preferably in CS) and about 3-6 plus years of experience. 3) You spend a lot of time prepping for coding interviews (i.e reading https://careercup.com https://careercup.com, etc) See: https://www.levels.fyi/ https://www.levels.fyi/ Those numbers and levels are pretty accurate albeit a little low based on my experience living in the Bay Area. The problem is that 300k actually doesn't go that far when you factor in rent/mortgage and the concept of starting a family in those cities.

jefftk 8y ago
This is also pretty practical in Boston. I'm at ~$350k (half salary, half stock, with a bit of bonus) as a T5 at Google Cambridge. I don't manage anyone, am not political, and have been programming professionally for ten years (at Google for five). Cost of living isn't ideal, but $350k is far more than me and my family (wife and two kids) need to live on. I've been donating 50% for several years, and we still are fine. (Cost of living details: https://www.jefftk.com/p/spending-update-2018 https://www.jefftk.com/p/spending-update-2018 The big things are ~$50k on taxes, ~$33k on housing, and ~$20k on childcare.)
vonmoltke 8y ago
There's also 4) Manage to not be a semi-random false negative There's still the issue mentioned in your GP that there are not that many of those jobs out there to begin with. Also, there are more people who want them then there are slots. Note that I agree about not needing to get political to get these roles. I just disagree about how easy it is to obtain them.
- htormey 8y ago
  I agree with you. "Easy" is very subjective and to be fair, I never said that meeting any of my 3 criteria was going to be a walk in the park. Just getting a visa to work in the USA like I had to do is hard and disqualifies most of the planet (~7.7 billion) people. Getting into a decent, internationally recognized university is also difficult and likely filters out a huge number of people.
- ummonk 8y ago
  There are several employers paying that much to select from, and companies will reinterview you in a year after a semi-random false negative, so the false negatives are not really a showstopper.

jefftk 8y ago

This is also pretty practical in Boston. I'm at ~$350k (half salary, half stock, with a bit of bonus) as a T5 at Google Cambridge. I don't manage anyone, am not political, and have been programming professionally for ten years (at Google for five). Cost of living isn't ideal, but $350k is far more than me and my family (wife and two kids) need to live on. I've been donating 50% for several years, and we still are fine. (Cost of living details: https://www.jefftk.com/p/spending-update-2018 https://www.jefftk.com/p/spending-update-2018 The big things are ~$50k on taxes, ~$33k on housing, and ~$20k on childcare.)

vonmoltke 8y ago

There's also 4) Manage to not be a semi-random false negative There's still the issue mentioned in your GP that there are not that many of those jobs out there to begin with. Also, there are more people who want them then there are slots. Note that I agree about not needing to get political to get these roles. I just disagree about how easy it is to obtain them.

htormey 8y ago
I agree with you. "Easy" is very subjective and to be fair, I never said that meeting any of my 3 criteria was going to be a walk in the park. Just getting a visa to work in the USA like I had to do is hard and disqualifies most of the planet (~7.7 billion) people. Getting into a decent, internationally recognized university is also difficult and likely filters out a huge number of people.
ummonk 8y ago
There are several employers paying that much to select from, and companies will reinterview you in a year after a semi-random false negative, so the false negatives are not really a showstopper.