4 ms·

>Very few companies include bonus as a part of a software engineer's compensation (large SV companies are more or less alone in this). Bonuses are generally res

by lsc 7y ago

>Very few companies include bonus as a part of a software engineer's compensation (large SV companies are more or less alone in this). Bonuses are generally reserved for executives (excluding sales staff, of course) in most industries, including mine (defense). Yup, that's what I'm saying. I'm just a sysadmin; I'd never gotten a bonus in my 20 years working as a programmer or sysadmin, mostly at tier 3 tech companies... not until I started working at a FAANG company these last few years, but the bonus + equity is a really significant portion of my compensation now, and brings the whole package from "nicely comfortable for someone who didn't go to college" to "wow"

jcadam 7y ago
I'm much too old to work at a FAANG :), I do make a pretty good salary for the area of the county I live in, though. In any case, moving to SV would only be worth it if salary+bonus were close to half a Megabuck, and I doubt there are more than a dozen engineers in the world making that kind of money as a FTE.
- lsc 7y ago
  https://www.paysa.com/salaries/netflix--senior-software-engineer https://www.paysa.com/salaries/netflix--senior-software-engi... so, uh, if you think software engineers are engineers, half a megabuck is a lot more attainable than you think. I mean, I'm not saying it's easy, but it's not 'no more than a dozen worldwide" - a megabuck just isn't what it used to be. (I mean, to be clear, if you limit the field to people I'm personally close enough to share this sort of data with, you are looking at a quarter megabuck if you really are pretty good, but from what I see? paysa isn't lying; I punch in my title and job and location, and it's not far off.) My own personal impression is that it's easier to be 60-somthing man at a faang company than it is to be a woman. mean, I'm not saying age discrimination doesn't exist, but I do work with a fair number of folks in their 60s.(Of course, not being a woman and not being 60 something, my impression here is somewhat suspect.) I'm pushing 40 myself, and on my current team there are more people who are obviously older than I am than there are people who are obviously younger than I am. (Systems administration drifts older (I assume 'cause kids don't have to learn command line stuff to use computers anymore, and if you are gonna learn it, you might as well go for SRE or SWE and get a pretty good pay bump) and the last half-decade or so, I've been supporting server farms for folks doing electrical engineering, system verilog and the like or kernel-type/embedded work, which also tends attract older people.) (Of course, your locational preferences and housing space requirements are yours, I'm just saying)

by lsc 7y ago

jcadam 7y ago

I'm much too old to work at a FAANG :), I do make a pretty good salary for the area of the county I live in, though. In any case, moving to SV would only be worth it if salary+bonus were close to half a Megabuck, and I doubt there are more than a dozen engineers in the world making that kind of money as a FTE.

lsc 7y ago
https://www.paysa.com/salaries/netflix--senior-software-engineer https://www.paysa.com/salaries/netflix--senior-software-engi... so, uh, if you think software engineers are engineers, half a megabuck is a lot more attainable than you think. I mean, I'm not saying it's easy, but it's not 'no more than a dozen worldwide" - a megabuck just isn't what it used to be. (I mean, to be clear, if you limit the field to people I'm personally close enough to share this sort of data with, you are looking at a quarter megabuck if you really are pretty good, but from what I see? paysa isn't lying; I punch in my title and job and location, and it's not far off.) My own personal impression is that it's easier to be 60-somthing man at a faang company than it is to be a woman. mean, I'm not saying age discrimination doesn't exist, but I do work with a fair number of folks in their 60s.(Of course, not being a woman and not being 60 something, my impression here is somewhat suspect.) I'm pushing 40 myself, and on my current team there are more people who are obviously older than I am than there are people who are obviously younger than I am. (Systems administration drifts older (I assume 'cause kids don't have to learn command line stuff to use computers anymore, and if you are gonna learn it, you might as well go for SRE or SWE and get a pretty good pay bump) and the last half-decade or so, I've been supporting server farms for folks doing electrical engineering, system verilog and the like or kernel-type/embedded work, which also tends attract older people.) (Of course, your locational preferences and housing space requirements are yours, I'm just saying)