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Also, fintech is paying significantly more than FAANG right now. The interviews are harder, but there was an ~$60k premium to go to NYC over SF for most of my f

Also, fintech is paying significantly more than FAANG right now. The interviews are harder, but there was an ~$60k premium to go to NYC over SF for most of my friends in Harvard's last class. Combined with what is viewed as a relatively low promotion curve vs NYC -- if they wanted a big company, most students took NYC. At 5 years of experience, the gap was even wider. A friend just took a 400% pay raise to move from Google to a fintech firm. He shopped around at other tech companies, but no one was above a 20-30% increase.

hn_username 7y ago
This is interesting. What do you mean by fintech -- hedge funds and HFT shops, or financial technogy companies like Affirm? Could you share a few examples?
- coldpie 7y ago
  Prosthetics for sharks. It's a growing industry.
  - aswanson 7y ago
    Lol. There was a time when I wouldn't post 'lol' on hn, but I've loosened up in my old age.
xiaolingxiao 7y ago
Did your friend have special domain knowledge like machine learning?
- drawnwren 7y ago
  He has a bachelors and masters from a Top 3 US program, but neither were related to the work he's doing. In fact, they asked him to start studying ML (with the understanding that he had no prior knowledge) in preparation for his new job. My gut feeling here is that the 'I don't do what they're testing for in interviews' feeling pervades FAANG management as well as engineers. They probably don't actually see much value in programmer intelligence above a certain bar. On the fintech side, they are approaching recruiting as they always have and probably won't even schedule an interview if you don't have a recommendation and a top 5 university on your resume.
  - donaldknuth123 7y ago
    So you're saying they're likely going to flop since they're chasing prestige rather than talent? Good to know.
  - nothal 7y ago
    Top 3? Go bears! ;)
locallycompact 7y ago
400% seems much higher than anything I've seen. assuming 200k at google (likely conservative), this implies a 1m offer from a quant fund for someone with no special complementarity for the role? i would be very surprised labor market is this much out of alignment.
- donaldknuth123 7y ago
  Given that recent grads probably male 200K their first year at Google I'd say its probably north of 1.5M which is obviously ridiculous. Top portfolio managers at major Hedge Funds barely make that.
- drawnwren 7y ago
  I can't edit the original post. It was a 300% pay raise, salary was 400% of original. 1m at a quant fund isn't unreasonable 5 years out, but it would be extraordinarily high.
  - locallycompact 7y ago
    agree, but surprised at this number for someone without a proven track record given the high false positive rate for success in these roles
segmondy 7y ago
Don't believe it, numbers don't add up. Maybe he moved from Google Iowa to Janestreet. But let's say it's true, it's pretty rare. Fintech is not paying significantly more than FAANG when it comes to software developer. Not even at all.
bigthrowaway 7y ago
Can you provide some companies that could offer this? I'm interviewing in NYC atm and would be great to know.

hn_username 7y ago

This is interesting. What do you mean by fintech -- hedge funds and HFT shops, or financial technogy companies like Affirm? Could you share a few examples?

coldpie 7y ago
Prosthetics for sharks. It's a growing industry.
- aswanson 7y ago
  Lol. There was a time when I wouldn't post 'lol' on hn, but I've loosened up in my old age.

xiaolingxiao 7y ago

Did your friend have special domain knowledge like machine learning?

drawnwren 7y ago
He has a bachelors and masters from a Top 3 US program, but neither were related to the work he's doing. In fact, they asked him to start studying ML (with the understanding that he had no prior knowledge) in preparation for his new job. My gut feeling here is that the 'I don't do what they're testing for in interviews' feeling pervades FAANG management as well as engineers. They probably don't actually see much value in programmer intelligence above a certain bar. On the fintech side, they are approaching recruiting as they always have and probably won't even schedule an interview if you don't have a recommendation and a top 5 university on your resume.
- donaldknuth123 7y ago
  So you're saying they're likely going to flop since they're chasing prestige rather than talent? Good to know.
- nothal 7y ago
  Top 3? Go bears! ;)

locallycompact 7y ago

400% seems much higher than anything I've seen. assuming 200k at google (likely conservative), this implies a 1m offer from a quant fund for someone with no special complementarity for the role? i would be very surprised labor market is this much out of alignment.

donaldknuth123 7y ago
Given that recent grads probably male 200K their first year at Google I'd say its probably north of 1.5M which is obviously ridiculous. Top portfolio managers at major Hedge Funds barely make that.
drawnwren 7y ago
I can't edit the original post. It was a 300% pay raise, salary was 400% of original. 1m at a quant fund isn't unreasonable 5 years out, but it would be extraordinarily high.
- locallycompact 7y ago
  agree, but surprised at this number for someone without a proven track record given the high false positive rate for success in these roles

segmondy 7y ago

Don't believe it, numbers don't add up. Maybe he moved from Google Iowa to Janestreet. But let's say it's true, it's pretty rare. Fintech is not paying significantly more than FAANG when it comes to software developer. Not even at all.

bigthrowaway 7y ago

Can you provide some companies that could offer this? I'm interviewing in NYC atm and would be great to know.