9 ms·

Software engineers complaining about a $450k salary?

• totaldude87 7y ago
  one of the comment is legit af.. "There’s something wrong with our society where the guy who puts mustaches on cartoon images makes half a million dollars a year, so the rest of us are glued longer in front of our little screens like zombies. God help us all and our future generations. I can’t wait for this scam/sham tech bubble to burst."
  • seattle_spring 7y ago
    How is it any different than a sports player getting millions of fans to glue to their TV screens watching them play? How about a highly paid actor convincing billions of people to glue themselves to the silver screen? They're all forms of widespread entertainment and are valuable enough to pay good money for.
    • nine_zeros 7y ago
      Theres a difference. A top athlete is the highest form of human physical endurance. A top actor is the highest form of human self expression. A top clickbait maker is really one of the highest forms of addiction producer. Clickbait companies are really no different from porn or nicotine companies and top engineers today are producing said goods.
    • muzani 7y ago
      It depends on what they build exactly. Some things spark imagination. Some things are direct dopamine hits, no better than cocaine. Sports and good TV are often in the former; they're addictive because they jog the mind. Even wrestling. Microtransaction games and social media often fall in the latter.
  • saradhi 7y ago
    if only social service and society impact was measured for the pay, me, my other friends and may be you would have been homeless
  • bdcravens 7y ago
    My father was a grade school janitor. He labored harder in an hour than I do in a week. Most of my extended family are educators, with the academic requirements, stress, and emotional rollercoaster that goes with it. Any of these folks deserve more than me probably, but I can string letters together to make computers do things, so apparently that's highly valuable.
    • sethammons 7y ago
      As a former high school math teacher in an inner city, I absolutely worked more and longer and harder as a school teacher than I ever have in software development. I also get paid like 4x. And get more usable vacation. I was regularly 60-80 hours a week as a teacher. As a developer, I'm seldom over 40-50 hours.
    • theflyinghorse 7y ago
      And I work a full-time job as well as running a startup on the side which amounts to another near full-time job and a ton of stress, what do I deserve? Truth is is that I deserve precisely nothing. I get what I get and not because the heavens above postulated thus but because my work had value to someone who was willing to give me money for it.
• tempsy 7y ago
  What exactly is sad about negotiating a high salary (if you can get it) from a multi-billion dollar company? My understanding is Snap has something like a 10/20/30/40 vesting schedule, so it's a long commitment that comes with a lot of risk relative to working at a company with a 25/25/25/25 schedule, especially if you're comparing it to Google. You should be compensated for that added risk in that case. Plus, you'll probably be working longer hours at a Snap vs a Google.
  • seattle_spring 7y ago
    > What exactly is sad about negotiating a high salary In reality? Nothing. People should be fighting to raise the bar for everyone, but instead there's a trend to push people who are doing well down to the lowest common denominator.
  • Oppertunity123 7y ago
    Snap is monthly vesting with no cliff.
• vnpc1 7y ago
  I didn't see anyone complaining about a $450k salary - the closest thing was the guy who's L6 at Facebook and making the same as L5 at Snap while working 60h weeks. Not sure what the problem is - people with high compensation can also discuss how much they're making and talk about their career moves. None of it comes across as entitlement. Also didn't get why any of it would be sad to you or why you're implying that they're not real engineers by putting quotes around the word engineers.
  • non-entity 7y ago
    Not sure of OP's nationality, but I vaguely remember hearing certain countries dont care for the title engineer because software engineers dont go through the sale licensing processes other engineers do, or something like that.
    • blaser-waffle 7y ago
      Nn a lot of other places (even here in Canada), "Engineer" has a specific meaning and licensing requirements, similar to Doctor and Lawyer. Like, to be an official medical Doctor you have to graduate from an accredited program, do specific training and internships, pass the boards, etc. Likewise with Lawyers you have to come out of certified law schools, pass the bar, do articling, etc. Same deal with Engineers. Otherwise the term starts to lose meaning, such as someone being a Sanitation Engineer (Janitor) or Food Service Engineer.
  • misterpoomanchu 7y ago
    Read through more of the posts on this website, Teamblind, it made me physically ill thinking that people are upset or conflicted about which ship to jump to next to get the highest possible TC. In reality, if the market will bear it and pay them this much, good for them - still doesn't mean it's absurd.
    • vnpc1 7y ago
      > it made me physically ill thinking that people are upset or conflicted about which ship to jump to next to get the highest possible TC. I really think that this says more about you than about the people who post there. And again, you're using the word upset but nothing in the original post indicates that anyone there is upset - it's just natural for people to look to improve their situation regardless of their current level.
• codingslave 7y ago
  Why is it sad? 450k is reaching the top of our field, but is nowhere near the top of finance, law, and business. Engineers at the top of their game should be unsatisfied with this type of compensation.
  • pathartl 7y ago
    This is something that actually really bothers me. Heads of business have a near infinite wage ceiling, same with sales. I guess engineers are probably given incentive with stock, but even still they're not treated nearly as well as even lower management.
    • Kevin_S 7y ago
      I dunno, that kinda makes sense to me if you think about the structure of a business. An elite CEO makes the most critical decisions that can be easily worth billions either positive or negative. An elite engineer makes a stellar project sure, but they work on a team etc. An elite engineer that makes elite decisions becomes an executive, and doesn't stay an engineer.
      • sieabahlpark 7y ago
        Nevermind a singular engineer usually isn't responsible for the livelihood of every employee at the company.
      • mattmanser 7y ago
        What's elite about them? There's nothing elite about them, almost anyone can do their job. It's more a matter of connections and luck if you're a CEO.
        • AnimalMuppet 7y ago
          Beware the company that has a CEO due to connections and luck. Sure, anyone can sit in the seat and cash the salary checks. Not just anyone can do a good job of actually running the company, though.
• superflit 7y ago
  I don't think there is any problem with someone complaining about 450K. I think the problem is people are envy about him. I want to be this guy with a 450K salary. I want to complain about it. I do envy in a good way. Doing my best to learn and be open to opportunities. Will I succeed? It is not fair to envy or be jealous. How much this guy had suffered to have a "tunnel" effort to reach that point? Sometimes people are successful to escape something that is always there and WE always pay a price.. Be it on relationships, health or love. There is Always a price. Sometimes you don't know the price sometimes you do.
  • muzani 7y ago
    It's the case with millionaires and billionaires too. There's always a price. The price isn't really relationships, health, love. You get that quite easily with enough money. But it's often things like not being able to lie around watching Netflix all weekend. Someone like Bill Gates can't backpack all over the Europe even if they had the money to. Lots of royalty may not have to worry about food and housing, but they live in a gilded cage. Most of us can work 40 hours a week, but a president or CEO might not have the luxury to.
• diehunde 7y ago
  If you spend more time on blind you'll see it's kind of a thing there. Obsession around TC. Take a look at the highest salaries on 2019: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19ne7ccUdOWewD4rFDQjjnQEJDgsmgFID/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/19ne7ccUdOWewD4rFDQjjnQEJDgs... 450k is not even high compared to other positions.
  • misterpoomanchu 7y ago
    Yeah this is nuts, $950k for a principal engineer, hahahah what a joke
    • sieabahlpark 7y ago
      For anyone that actually uses blind, this list is from user submitted data. I could say I make 1.5m if I wanted to.
• zadkey 7y ago
  It's important to keep in mind that the cost of living in certain cities is massively higher than others, in some cases more than 4 times higher. It's also important to keep in mind that there are CEO's that make 275 times their average worker, some exceeding 50k per hour. When I see a highly paid engineer salary, I consider a form of societal progress that a skilled worker can make a good living. Something that used to be reserved only for upper management. It is an acknowledgement from society that work we do is meaningful and valuable.
  • Sohcahtoa82 7y ago
    > It's important to keep in mind that the cost of living in certain cities is massively higher than others, in some cases more than 4 times higher. People don't understand this. I live in suburbs near Portland, OR, and paid $330K for a 3 br, 2.5 bath, 1850 sq foot house near the end of 2015. Meanwhile, in Palo Alto, I've seen 1 br, 1 bath, 700 sq ft condos on sale for over $1.5M. It's pretty ridiculous.
    • bdcravens 7y ago
      And even Portland is expensive - you can buy many homes in the suburbs near Houston for closer to $200k. If I came to work for your company, that would factor into my compensation conversations.
    • UncleMeat 7y ago
      People overstate this. Specifically owning a home in the bay area is insane. But outside of this one thing, COL changes don't come anywhere close to matching the increased salary. Even if you are including things like childcare. I'd expect my salary to drop by 250k if I left the bay area. After accounting for COL differences, my savings rate would be far lower elsewhere. Even if you aren't making top of line income, people still can very easily come out ahead in the bay area. That 700 sq ft condo may sell for millions, but it is still only 2.5k/month in rent.
      • nine_zeros 7y ago
• bdcravens 7y ago
  Entitlement is "I deserve". A job offer is "we think you deserve" in what is presumably a fair trade of income for work performed.
• jakobmi 7y ago
  The blind community is 200% sarcastic. Don't take anything read there seriously.
• trixtur 7y ago
  It seems that salary should be based upon more than just numbers. If an engineer is producing a value greater than a few times $450k they should be adequately compensated.
• mc3 7y ago
  Not the epitome of entitlement at all. Is Apple entitled because it makes such vast profits and wants to make more? Maybe it should reduce it's product prices and all the execs take home $100k/y so they can buy a typical house in a typical city? Why one standard for business (make profit) and a different one for employees (be humble, be reasonable, don't get too rich)? If you work for these big companies you are just working for a machine in many regards. There is nothing personal about it even. Even if you are working for a small company, they are not your family (unless they are, but that is rare), you don't owe them to take a smaller salary so that you aren't being too greedy. Especially when you don't get the upside they could get if they sold the business.