2 ms·

> 100k for working on open-source is a pretty good salary. The kind of people you're trying to hire have the option to earn 3-4x as much working for a FAANG. B

by jefftk 6y ago

> 100k for working on open-source is a pretty good salary. The kind of people you're trying to hire have the option to earn 3-4x as much working for a FAANG. Being excited about working on something you believe in can get you a long way, but that's still a lot to ask. (See discussion above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24157803 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24157803)

infogulch 6y ago
Also, when estimating total employee cost from salary, a good rule of thumb is to double it to cover indirect compensation and overhead such as healthcare, retirement matching, employer's share of income tax, office overhead, IT infrastructure, etc.
LockAndLol 6y ago
If money were everything, nobody would be working on opensource. I'd jump at that opportunity. Earning a third or a even a quarter of what I earn now would pay for every single one of my living expenses and even allow a comfortable life. There's no way that salary would be OK for a corporation, but for doing something I truly believe in? It's friggin' great.
- jefftk 6y ago
  > If money were everything, nobody would be working on opensource. A large majority of hours spent on open source are paid, though. Developers working full-time on open source projects at various large corporations. I was in that category from 2012 to early 2017 working on mod_pagespeed, for example. There are many small labor-of-love open source projects, but large ones are uncommon. > I'd jump at that opportunity. There are definitely people who would be happy to make that trade; I'm not claiming that you're the only one or something like that. Instead, what I'm saying is that there are a lot of people who are willing to take a modest pay cut to work on a public-benefit project like Firefox but aren't willing to take a ~60-75% one. And, further, Mozilla isn't going to be able to make a top-notch browser without hiring many of these people.

by jefftk 6y ago

infogulch 6y ago

Also, when estimating total employee cost from salary, a good rule of thumb is to double it to cover indirect compensation and overhead such as healthcare, retirement matching, employer's share of income tax, office overhead, IT infrastructure, etc.

LockAndLol 6y ago

If money were everything, nobody would be working on opensource. I'd jump at that opportunity. Earning a third or a even a quarter of what I earn now would pay for every single one of my living expenses and even allow a comfortable life. There's no way that salary would be OK for a corporation, but for doing something I truly believe in? It's friggin' great.

jefftk 6y ago
> If money were everything, nobody would be working on opensource. A large majority of hours spent on open source are paid, though. Developers working full-time on open source projects at various large corporations. I was in that category from 2012 to early 2017 working on mod_pagespeed, for example. There are many small labor-of-love open source projects, but large ones are uncommon. > I'd jump at that opportunity. There are definitely people who would be happy to make that trade; I'm not claiming that you're the only one or something like that. Instead, what I'm saying is that there are a lot of people who are willing to take a modest pay cut to work on a public-benefit project like Firefox but aren't willing to take a ~60-75% one. And, further, Mozilla isn't going to be able to make a top-notch browser without hiring many of these people.