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About $450k all in (not FAANG but a mid sized public company in SF I'm sure you've heard of). Fwiw, it wasn't a terrible living space before the pandemic; it ju

About $450k all in (not FAANG but a mid sized public company in SF I'm sure you've heard of). Fwiw, it wasn't a terrible living space before the pandemic; it just isn't conducive to WFH situations. I'd found that rent controlled spot, and I was paying $1100/mo for a room in an apartment with a backyard, in-unit washer/dryer, and a dishwasher. As a single dude, I really didn't need anything else, I wasn't willing to pay $4000 or whatever for a 1BR, and I just hate moving. Of course, times have changed, and I think I'll move soon. But yeah, to your point, pre-Covid SF was absurd in terms of cost of living, and the current exodus just shows how unsustainable it was.

golergka 6y ago
> living in a cramped space with 3 roommates in SF with no privacy > About $450k all in What.
- jrochkind1 6y ago
  OK, I'm out.
- gotaran 6y ago
  Haha, well it's the same spot I was living in when I was making $120k + non-liquid RSUs. And since it was rent controlled, I never bothered to move. I'd be paying $3000 more if were to move into a 1BR, and I would rather spend that on travel, dates, and post-tax investments. And anyway, an apartment that's fairly spacious can turn into a congested mess when everyone's WFH. Previously, all of us had tech jobs where we had dinner at work, did a post-dinner workout, went to happy hour, and such. On weekends, some of us would be on day trips to Napa, or at a dinner party, or some such thing like that. Now that everyone's more or less inside during business hours, organizing the fridge is like playing Tetris, walking in the house requires a level of spatial awareness driving in Manhattan does, and storing all the household essentials takes up even more space. Kitchen contention issues also come up all the time. The getting more space vs. staying tradeoff is worth it now: I'd personally value each sq ft I have to myself more, and the rent differential is much lower too (rents in SF are crashing, and I'm not restricted to living in SF anyway). IMO, that wasn't a reasonable tradeoff to make pre-Covid.
  - mepiethree 6y ago
    Not to tell you how to live your life, but if I were you, I would move ASAP. I lived alone in SF on 88k a year supporting my unemployed fiancee and a dog and still saved a good bit of money. I know people who get by on 50k. You can afford your own apartment! 4k for a one bedroom is def the high end but you can ball out!
  - em500 6y ago
    So now you're making something like 20k/month post-tax, spending 1.1k/month on rent, and complaining that you don't really like the apartment. Solution sounds pretty obvious to me.
  - golergka 6y ago
    Just curious, what's your career path? Growing your compensation 4 times in such a short timespan does sound like an achievement, at least from outside the valley.
    - gotaran 6y ago
      I think it's effectively closer to 2X than 4X. When I started as a new grad, I also had some RSUs and a sign on bonus. My employer didn't go public then, so my RSUs were not liquid, but I'd say my compensation was effectively $225k first year even though I couldn't cash out most of it. It's a different story now that my employer is public My first promo put me in the $275k-ish range, and my second promo put it in the $350k-ish range. My base salary is $220k now, and the remaining $230k is stock and bonuses. IME, getting the first promo is not too difficult, but I had to put in a substantial effort for my second one, and hit some rough patches along the way. Any promos after that are a bit of a crapshoot, and more political than anything. The politics favored me in this case. This tends to be the usual career trajectory at Facebook or Google, or some of the smaller public companies (Uber, Lyft, Square, etc.). It can be more volatile at smaller companies, given that stock based compensation is a significant portion of your total compensation, and you're taking on more risk. I stayed more or less in the same engineering role throughout my career. I think skyrocketing senior engineer compensation is a relatively recent (i.e. ~4 years ago) trend, while new grad salaries were pretty high even 10 years ago.

golergka 6y ago

> living in a cramped space with 3 roommates in SF with no privacy > About $450k all in What.

jrochkind1 6y ago
OK, I'm out.
gotaran 6y ago
Haha, well it's the same spot I was living in when I was making $120k + non-liquid RSUs. And since it was rent controlled, I never bothered to move. I'd be paying $3000 more if were to move into a 1BR, and I would rather spend that on travel, dates, and post-tax investments. And anyway, an apartment that's fairly spacious can turn into a congested mess when everyone's WFH. Previously, all of us had tech jobs where we had dinner at work, did a post-dinner workout, went to happy hour, and such. On weekends, some of us would be on day trips to Napa, or at a dinner party, or some such thing like that. Now that everyone's more or less inside during business hours, organizing the fridge is like playing Tetris, walking in the house requires a level of spatial awareness driving in Manhattan does, and storing all the household essentials takes up even more space. Kitchen contention issues also come up all the time. The getting more space vs. staying tradeoff is worth it now: I'd personally value each sq ft I have to myself more, and the rent differential is much lower too (rents in SF are crashing, and I'm not restricted to living in SF anyway). IMO, that wasn't a reasonable tradeoff to make pre-Covid.
- mepiethree 6y ago
  Not to tell you how to live your life, but if I were you, I would move ASAP. I lived alone in SF on 88k a year supporting my unemployed fiancee and a dog and still saved a good bit of money. I know people who get by on 50k. You can afford your own apartment! 4k for a one bedroom is def the high end but you can ball out!
- em500 6y ago
  So now you're making something like 20k/month post-tax, spending 1.1k/month on rent, and complaining that you don't really like the apartment. Solution sounds pretty obvious to me.
- golergka 6y ago
  Just curious, what's your career path? Growing your compensation 4 times in such a short timespan does sound like an achievement, at least from outside the valley.
  - gotaran 6y ago
    I think it's effectively closer to 2X than 4X. When I started as a new grad, I also had some RSUs and a sign on bonus. My employer didn't go public then, so my RSUs were not liquid, but I'd say my compensation was effectively $225k first year even though I couldn't cash out most of it. It's a different story now that my employer is public My first promo put me in the $275k-ish range, and my second promo put it in the $350k-ish range. My base salary is $220k now, and the remaining $230k is stock and bonuses. IME, getting the first promo is not too difficult, but I had to put in a substantial effort for my second one, and hit some rough patches along the way. Any promos after that are a bit of a crapshoot, and more political than anything. The politics favored me in this case. This tends to be the usual career trajectory at Facebook or Google, or some of the smaller public companies (Uber, Lyft, Square, etc.). It can be more volatile at smaller companies, given that stock based compensation is a significant portion of your total compensation, and you're taking on more risk. I stayed more or less in the same engineering role throughout my career. I think skyrocketing senior engineer compensation is a relatively recent (i.e. ~4 years ago) trend, while new grad salaries were pretty high even 10 years ago.