3 ms·

Don't forget a lot of it comes down to compensation as well. It's not unusual for FAANG company to pay 2x more compared to another public company for example.

• laumars 8y ago
  That really depends on your basis for comparison because there will be a lot of variation between wages for different jobs within the same company; let alone different jobs in competing companies. It can even vary depending on how good your recruiter is, how generous the management for the vacant position are, the type of job that's on off and how important that position is to that company (are they desperate? Is it an area of strategic growth? etc). Anecdotally I've really not seen the 2x trend you described and I have spent a fair amount of time negotiating peoples wages. Plus engineers who are really concerned about maximizing their income will generally turn to contracting rather than permanent work anyway (at least that is the case in London where contracting is common place). Suffice to say, I'm pretty unconvinced that FAANG pay people twice what any other business would. Maybe if you're looking for jobs outside of tech hubs (like smaller towns away from expensive cities) but other tech firms in London (and SV I'd guess?) would have to pay competitive wages else risk not attracting any talent.
  • Vadoff 8y ago
    I've seen total compensation packages of $100k for senior engineers in SF/SV before (really low side), FAANG comparatively would pay $350k+. There are plenty of public companies in SF/SV that pay senior engineers $175k total compensation. I also want to clarify that I didn't mean they always pay 2x over the competition, I meant that it's not unusual for them to. Also when I say FAANG - I kind of included similar large companies (Microsoft, LinkedIn, Salesforce, etc). There's also a lot of large companies that come close, maybe 80-90% of FAANG pay. >Plus engineers who are really concerned about maximizing their income will generally turn to contracting rather than permanent work anyway I think it's pretty difficult to get steady contract work that pays more than what FAANG does. I charged $175/hr when I used to contract and it was decently steady, but that only comes out to around the same I would be making at a FAANG minus all the perks/benefits. Also when you get to higher seniority levels, your pay at FAANGs start to reach into the 6 or 700's, meaning you'd need a contract rate of $300+/hr to compete. Usually when companies need that high level of technical architecture/leadership - they'd normally hire someone full-time rather than use a contractor, so it would probably be difficult charging that rate while getting steady work.
    • laumars 8y ago
      > Also when I say FAANG - I kind of included similar large companies (Microsoft, LinkedIn, Salesforce, etc). Ahhh I was including those sort of companies (baring Microsoft) as part of my counterexample. If the discussion was "any large / reputable organisation" then my comments would have differed a little. In any case it sounds like London is very different to SV. It's very common for senior engineers to contracting and that's precisely because the difference in pay between permanent and contracting is night and day (the polar opposite to what you were describing in SV)
    • AlexCoventry 8y ago
      > FAANG - I kind of included similar large companies (Microsoft, LinkedIn, Salesforce, etc) FAMLANGS