As an SE in King County (they really should include Snohomish County too) I’ve noticed comps for this line of work really going up over the past 5-6 years. I at

As an SE in King County (they really should include Snohomish County too) I’ve noticed comps for this line of work really going up over the past 5-6 years. I attribute it to Amazon and Facebook’s growth and Microsoft paying people more to stay-put. What I don’t know is when it will end. Smaller established companies that don’t have the RSUs to give-out in lieu of cash comp are already feeling the pinch: one small company I worked at recently is certainly circling the drain because they can’t afford to attract talent. However, given Amazon’s famously short employee tenures, do people decide to do a 1-3 year stint at a $250k/yr job and then retire or move-back to a slower-paced job, or do they get established locally? I know there’s a LOT of new startups in Seattle lately that were founded by former Amazon people - but we don’t see this happen anywhere near to the same extent with Microsoft’s people. Perhaps it’s self-selection-bias: the people who want/choose to work at Microsoft want a stable career and not deal with the stresses of moving every couple of years?