4 ms·
The salaries for the FAANG companies are dramatically higher than even other large Silicon Valley companies. Over four years ago my first job after graduating
by linguae 7y ago
The salaries for the FAANG companies are dramatically higher than even other large Silicon Valley companies. Over four years ago my first job after graduating with a MS in computer science was at an old-school Silicon Valley giant. My offer was $100,000, roughly $2,500 of stock that vested over 3 years (with a one-year cliff), and I negotiated a signing bonus that was a little less than $4,000. While the salary was about at par with what FAANG companies offered at the time to those with similar credentials, the rest of my compensation was a far cry from the offers I've heard of from the FAANG companies.
Given the large differences in compensation (which makes a big difference when trying to save for a house in this area), I wonder how older Silicon Valley giants are able to compete with FAANG companies? Startups can justify lower compensation since there is the possibility the startup would be very successful. I wonder for giants if the difference largely boils down to interviewing processes? I do know that getting into a FAANG company is difficult and requires many months of grinding LeetCode, whereas not all Silicon Valley companies have difficult interviews.
- throwaway66920 7y agoThere’s no need to compete. Talent identification is hard and most people are approximately the same.
- zuhayeer 7y agoBtw, http://levels.fyi http://levels.fyi for FAANG salaries
- ryandrake 7y agoWhy would we trust voluntary self-reported data to be representative? There’s got to be massive sampling bias here. Wouldn’t human nature to brag and overstate bias these averages on the high side?
- bt848 7y agoJust pegging to my own personal experience, the L4, L5, and L6 total comp amounts on levels.fyi are pretty low. I guess it is because they are blended from many different sites. Looking at just the ones from SF, MV, and Sunnyvale they are consistent with my own experience and the self-reported internal salary survey Googlers conducted amongst themselves.
- opportune 7y agoit’s pretty accurate from my experience. Biased towards people who recently accepted an offer as opposed to those who have been at the same company for many years
- mathattack 7y agoThey don’t compete. If someone has a FAANG offer we let them go. No company can match everyone’s best offer away. You just try to create an environment that keeps your best folks happy.
- jmah 7y ago$2500 of stock over three years? Seems like why even bother for that small amount, the overhead of the book-keeping (on both your and their side) would be a pain at that point.