5 ms·

> "hope to make 400k" Even with 10-20 years of experience in the bay area at small, medium, large size software companies, I've never ever made anything close

> "hope to make 400k" Even with 10-20 years of experience in the bay area at small, medium, large size software companies, I've never ever made anything close to that amount.

dunpeal 8y ago
FAANG and other large, profitable companies like Microsoft will pay you that.
- babaganoosh89 8y ago
  FAANG tends to pay ~300k for senior engineers. For 400k you usually need to get lucky with stock appreciation.
  - dunpeal 8y ago
    You can't just claim one absolute number as the comp for all "senior engineers". There's a huge amount of variance, within FAANG and elsewhere. As a simple example, SDE III at Amazon typically pays a bit more than $300k. Principal SDE, the next rank above that, will pay well over $400k. And don't forget that during years of steep stock appreciation, like much of the past decade, actual compensation will often be higher than that.
    - Aeolun 8y ago
      I can pretty much guarantee you’ll only get that in the US.
  - htormey 8y ago
    Nah, that wasn’t my experience (apple/Facebook). Just look at the levels posted here: https://www.levels.fyi https://www.levels.fyi Hitting 400k total comp if you have the right experience (5-10 years, good brand university or companies) is totally doable.
    - ttty 8y ago
      But the is a big difference between total compensation and salary. Just to be clear
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mosdl 8y ago
don't listen to them, the FAANG pay thing is only for select few and is obviously a bubble waiting to pop
- realbarack 8y ago
  People are talking about total compensation, not just cash.
- dunpeal 8y ago
  > don't listen to them GP has replied elsewhere that all his employers were startups that paid him in "worthless options". Indeed, you won't ever see $400k or even $300k working for startups that "pay" you in illiquid 0.001% stakes in what will surely become a multi-billion dollar runaway success (in which unlikely case your share will be diluted to nothing anyway). You can certainly stick your fingers in your ears and sing LALALA while the rest of us make real money,. Your life, your choice.
hn_throwaway_99 8y ago
What was your equity compensation at these companies? Given that many (most?) companies refresh equity grants, it's very possible that after a full vesting period (usually 4 years) that you would then have multiple RSU grants vesting every year. With ~150k annually in RSUs, 150-200k base salary and 15-25% bonus is how lots and lots of people attain compensation this high.
- megaman8 8y ago
  It was always worthless Options that could never be sold. One company's options I worked for 6 years, was worth about 4K after taxes, fully vested. Our typical bonuses were 1-2%. A 10% bonus was considered very high.
  - dmoy 8y ago
    Well there's your problem. My comp is like 40% publicly tradeable stock. Also bonus closer to 15-20%.
  - dunpeal 8y ago
    > It was always worthless Options that could never be sold. One company's options I worked for 6 years, was worth about 4K after taxes, fully vested. There's your problem. Getting paid in options is the exact mistake I've warned about repeatedly in comments throughout this thread. Yours is a fairly common case in SV: worked in a series of startups that "paid" you in illiquid options that ended up being totally worthless. I'm willing to bet these very same startups encouraged you to value these options very highly: high 6 and even 7 figures, right? These places don't pay well, because why should they? Talent is apparently willing to work their ass off for these "worthless options" that are sold to them as vouchers for surefire multi-million-dollar jackpots.
dmoy 8y ago
See levels.fyi 400k for senior is pretty good, but still doable at a lot of the big companies. I make over 300 and I'm not senior yet.
seesaw 8y ago
You are not alone. I have 20+ years, and I am in a senior position with a fortune 100. I don’t get paid that much. I know most of my colleagues don’t either. I think 400k+ is more common at FAANGs. 200k and below is common for a lot of experienced developers in the Bay Area.

> "hope to make 400k" Even with 10-20 years of experience in the bay area at small, medium, large size software companies, I've never ever made anything close to that amount.

dunpeal 8y ago

FAANG and other large, profitable companies like Microsoft will pay you that.

babaganoosh89 8y ago
FAANG tends to pay ~300k for senior engineers. For 400k you usually need to get lucky with stock appreciation.
- dunpeal 8y ago
  You can't just claim one absolute number as the comp for all "senior engineers". There's a huge amount of variance, within FAANG and elsewhere. As a simple example, SDE III at Amazon typically pays a bit more than $300k. Principal SDE, the next rank above that, will pay well over $400k. And don't forget that during years of steep stock appreciation, like much of the past decade, actual compensation will often be higher than that.
  - Aeolun 8y ago
    I can pretty much guarantee you’ll only get that in the US.
- htormey 8y ago
  Nah, that wasn’t my experience (apple/Facebook). Just look at the levels posted here: https://www.levels.fyi https://www.levels.fyi Hitting 400k total comp if you have the right experience (5-10 years, good brand university or companies) is totally doable.
  - ttty 8y ago
    But the is a big difference between total compensation and salary. Just to be clear

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

mosdl 8y ago

don't listen to them, the FAANG pay thing is only for select few and is obviously a bubble waiting to pop

realbarack 8y ago
People are talking about total compensation, not just cash.
dunpeal 8y ago
> don't listen to them GP has replied elsewhere that all his employers were startups that paid him in "worthless options". Indeed, you won't ever see $400k or even $300k working for startups that "pay" you in illiquid 0.001% stakes in what will surely become a multi-billion dollar runaway success (in which unlikely case your share will be diluted to nothing anyway). You can certainly stick your fingers in your ears and sing LALALA while the rest of us make real money,. Your life, your choice.

hn_throwaway_99 8y ago

What was your equity compensation at these companies? Given that many (most?) companies refresh equity grants, it's very possible that after a full vesting period (usually 4 years) that you would then have multiple RSU grants vesting every year. With ~150k annually in RSUs, 150-200k base salary and 15-25% bonus is how lots and lots of people attain compensation this high.

megaman8 8y ago
It was always worthless Options that could never be sold. One company's options I worked for 6 years, was worth about 4K after taxes, fully vested. Our typical bonuses were 1-2%. A 10% bonus was considered very high.
- dmoy 8y ago
  Well there's your problem. My comp is like 40% publicly tradeable stock. Also bonus closer to 15-20%.
- dunpeal 8y ago
  > It was always worthless Options that could never be sold. One company's options I worked for 6 years, was worth about 4K after taxes, fully vested. There's your problem. Getting paid in options is the exact mistake I've warned about repeatedly in comments throughout this thread. Yours is a fairly common case in SV: worked in a series of startups that "paid" you in illiquid options that ended up being totally worthless. I'm willing to bet these very same startups encouraged you to value these options very highly: high 6 and even 7 figures, right? These places don't pay well, because why should they? Talent is apparently willing to work their ass off for these "worthless options" that are sold to them as vouchers for surefire multi-million-dollar jackpots.

dmoy 8y ago

See levels.fyi 400k for senior is pretty good, but still doable at a lot of the big companies. I make over 300 and I'm not senior yet.

seesaw 8y ago

You are not alone. I have 20+ years, and I am in a senior position with a fortune 100. I don’t get paid that much. I know most of my colleagues don’t either. I think 400k+ is more common at FAANGs. 200k and below is common for a lot of experienced developers in the Bay Area.