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Reposting from previous comment of mine [1]: I can't speak to the actual work yet as I haven't started, but I just accepted an offer as a senior / staff level
by senordevnyc 7y ago
Reposting from previous comment of mine [1]:
I can't speak to the actual work yet as I haven't started, but I just accepted an offer as a senior / staff level engineer in NYC at one of the smaller public tech companies (think Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Snap, etc) after 10+ years of being self-employed. I had two startups offer me $170k plus some (probably worthless) options. When the offer I ultimately accepted came in, I had several more startup interviews lined up and likely could have gotten closer to $180k - 200k from the startups.
Now, $200k isn't bad. But the offer I accepted from the public tech company is for $420k the first year [2], and will likely go up from there, especially if the stock does well. It's not crazy to think I could be making $600k - 800k within a few years. And to be honest, I think it's on the low end for the big tech companies at my level. And it doesn't come with some crazy grind as far as I can tell. People seem to actually work 40 hours, the PTO policy is flexible and people take 20-25 days a year off, people work from home when they need to, the benefits are solid, etc.
After this experience and seeing the huge disparity in pay, I would never go work at some random startup unless I was founder level or deeply, deeply believed in their mission.
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21837849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21837849
2. It's $200k base, $800k RSUs over 4 years, $20k signing bonus. Role is IC, iOS engineer. 12 years of experience, 9 in iOS, all self-employed. I have a business degree from a state school, and I've never had a software engineering job.
- dublidu 7y agoI had a similar experience after my recent job search. The pay gap between startups paying ISOs and larger tech companies paying RSUs was over $100k.
- PenguinCoder 7y agoDamn I really need a new job...
- thorwasdfasdf 7y agothis is really awesome. I've worked at a SWE for over 15 years and never made anything close to that amount, even in a super high COL area.
- paxys 7y agoSince you had no big tech company on your resume, what do you think was the biggest factor in getting you the job? Interview performance? Project portfolio? Or something else?
- senordevnyc 7y agoI can't be sure, but probably specializing in iOS. I also had a few "name brand" Fortune 1000 clients on the resume, though I hadn't worked on those projects for years and didn't discuss them. But maybe helped get me to phone screen stage. From there, it's all about interview performance.
- subsubzero 7y agoI too work at a smaller tech company, market cap is near the ones you posted and one thing many people forget is the share price upside on those sized companies is enormous(also downside too!) I came in during a low point in the companies stock and saw my yearly RSU's go from being valued at 70k to over $200k a year. I don't think the large FAANGs will see even a 100% upside in share price(maybe NFLX though) in a year or two.
- senordevnyc 7y agoIt's true, I see a ton of upside for my company. I think they could theoretically 10x over the next decade, which seems unlikely for FAANG. But yeah, they could also 0.1x, I guess. I'd move on before that though!