6 ms·
Retired after 8 years as a Staff SWE at Google. Do I really need a why for retired?
by romed 8y ago
Retired after 8 years as a Staff SWE at Google. Do I really need a why for retired?
- sjg007 8y agoSure! You could've kept working! Why did you retire?
- drewg123 8y agoI'm guessing "because he could". 8 years of L6 at Google should set you up for life if you move to a moderate cost area of the country.
- tinktank 8y agoWhat's the net worth of an L6 for 8 years at Google?
- jjasghar 8y agohttps://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Staff-Software-Engineer-L6-Salaries-E9079_D_KO7,33.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Staff-Software-Engin...
- romed 8y agoI'm pretty sure glassdoor is a conspiracy by FAANG executives to confuse their employees. If you believe these numbers you will not be able to get what you deserve when negotiating comp at these companies.
- Zaheer 8y agoI helped make https://www.Levels.fyi https://www.Levels.fyi - a lot of folks reference our site as being the most accurate for FANG compensation. I would also check PayScale, Paysa, Blind, etc
- romed 8y agoVery nice. Your numbers are consistent with my experience, and the presentation is very useful.
- madeuptempacct 8y agoI have never had Glassdoor give a useful estimate of any job I had, including those at major companies.
- oblio 8y agoSince from what I hear a fresh grad in the Bay Area gets $100k+ just in cash, we could extrapolate. I'm guessing that's at least $150k (probably more like $200k+ in today's market) in total compensation for year. Add about $20k+ in cash and probably the close to the same in Google shares per level, that would make it easily $400k per year. So he would have gotten $3.2 million, I can't imagine his expenses being higher than half of that, so he should be worth $1.6 million after 8 years. Probably more. I'm curious how off my estimations are :)
- mywittyname 8y agoAlso, if he was in Mountain View, it's likely that he owned a home and that contributed a bit. The tech sector stock growth has been amazing/unprecedented over that time period. His first few years of stock grants have tripled or more in value. I'm betting it's something like $2.6mm. $1.5mm in saved income, $0.8 in stock appreciation on savings, and $0.3 in housing/misc.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago...are you assuming a 0% tax rate?
- rpcastagna 8y agoYou're so low it's actually kind of uncomfortable.
- oblio 8y agothausamiote thinks I’m at the other end of the spectrum because I forgot taxes :o)
- exhaze 8y agoOther estimates in the thread (and Glassdoor) for annual TC are way off. L6 at G is a big range - 350-700k. Hard to say how much the guy made, because it depends on how much stock he kept vs. sold throughout the years, so I'll do a range. Let's assume he worked from 2010-2018: Average TC: $450k - $850k Post-tax: $270k - $470k Annual expenses: $60k - $120k Savings: $1.2m - $3.3m Obviously this is a gross simplification, since it ignores other investments and makes pretty broad assumptions about their expenses, but it should give you the broad strokes.
- romed 8y agoExactly. Now some other slob with a job has to pay to feed my family just because I can afford to buy a house and he can’t. The American way. The only practical problem with this scheme is the cost of private medical insurance is astronomical for someone who retires before Medicare age. So I might get some kind of token job just to get group health plan.
- throwaway5250 8y agoDon't understand first sentence. Are you saying you bought a house and rent it out?
- thrwthrwthrwy 8y agoWhat advice do you have for junior developers trying to make it? Is there a niched area you specialized in or were you a generalist?
- romed 8y agoHow about: don't believe in yourself because luck is everything? I walked into Google with 15 years of industry experience. I lucked out being in the early days of the web, lucked out in the dot-com boom, lucked out with a referral to Google, lucked out with real estate appreciation.
- thrwthrwthrwy 8y agoThat is quite amazing. Thanks for the response!
- mtnGoat 8y agogot to appreciate the honesty! i've seen some peers whom i felt really sucked at tech rise through what appeared to be luck alone.