3 ms·

It is pretty near impossible to beat that at a startup...

• echelon 7y ago
  Right. The big players have salary on lock down and small players can't compete on that front. You pretty much have to believe in your startup. It's a gamble.
• Bahamut 7y ago
  That's why I'm at a big company now instead of startups, where I have most of my experience in my career (about 5 years). 2 years of working at a lower paying FAANG and I am getting ~$320k total compensation for a mid-level dev (granted, that is as a top performer) - that is double what my last job (startup) was paying me. I think I'm now on a road of buying a house in the Bay Area sometime down the line, whereas my previous years of working brought me no closer.
• lonelappde 7y ago
  The startup can get you hired at bigcorp at a higher level than if you joined and crawled up the ladder. This is never mentioned when discussing comp comparisons.
  • fnbr 7y ago
    Yeah, but it's still a gamble. Unless you become a VP/Director it's tough to get to a sufficiently high level to make it worth it. It's rare, for instance, for someone from a start-up to come in as a Staff/Senior Staff engineer (L6/7).