4 ms·

Co-founder of Levels.fyi here - it's not so much that these sites solely support FAANG companies, it's just harder to get other people to add their salaries. We

by Zaheer 6y ago

Co-founder of Levels.fyi here - it's not so much that these sites solely support FAANG companies, it's just harder to get other people to add their salaries. We're working to encourage folks at other companies to contribute through dedicated company pages [1], etc. It's had a real impact and we've started to collect much more data across more companies / roles. We're also working to incentivize contributions more and I do think we'll be in a position to have a more representative sample over the next few months. [1] https://www.levels.fyi/company/ https://www.levels.fyi/company/

giantg2 6y ago
I like this site. It's also depressing. I see that new hires at my company are making substantially more than I was at that level, even accounting for inflation.
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  If you’re on the seller of labor side of the transaction, you should be happy labor is selling for more. Typically if new hires are getting paid more, then experience people will be getting paid more too.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    In general that would be true. The problem for me is that it requires switching companies. I'm not able to do that since I naively did the jobs I was assigned. Now I'm a Neoxam and FileNet resource with zero prospects.
  - etothepii 6y ago
    This does likely require some action on your side to achieve though. Typically, no-one will come and give you that 50% you are missing out on by not having pushed for an extra 4.1% every year for 10 years.
    - giantg2 6y ago
      Based on what I've seen, one probably has to switch companies.
    - sethhochberg 6y ago
      At my current company, we're experimenting with adding a market rate salary review component to our regular performance review cycle - we have a target salary percentile (based on years of experience, skillset, location, etc with aggregate market data from PayScale) for where we start new hires in a given role, and if for whatever reasons the market shifts upwards and leaves someone on staff below the new-hire percentile, we adjust upwards. We hope that regular pay increases, incentives, etc mean nobody's compensation ever falls lower than market rate after they're hired, but we also want to make sure we have a mechanism in place to correct if it does.
      - giantg2 6y ago
        Our company does market comparisons. It helps, but only for the severely under paid. They have a wide range that they consider acceptable.
      - etothepii 6y ago
        This is a feature we've been asked to add to our salary comparison tool (https://peerwyse.com https://peerwyse.com). The request was to be able to create peer groups that you, as the manager, thought were appropriate peers for your report. Then you would be able to see the probability the report is in the different quintiles. In the specific context the manager requesting this feature thought their reports were being underpaid and was looking for evidence that they could use to lobby for more.
IMAYousaf 6y ago
I appreciate the transparency of the data collection. I go to Levels for my first look over the Glassdoor’s of the world because I can actually trust the provenance of the data.
ryandrake 6y ago
Seems that's the major flaw in self-reported salary aggregation sites: Because it's self-reported, you're generally going to get only one side of the bell curve: The side that people feel good about reporting. The FAANG employees, probably just the subset of them that are well paid. Who wants to go to a web site to report to the world about their utterly modest, average salary? How depressing! I wouldn't want to. When I go to a site like levels.fyi looking to compare my comp, I'd have to believe that I'm not seeing "average" engineering salaries, but an average of the very best salaries at the very best companies. EDIT: Looks like you addressed my question in your comment already. Removing it!
- compthrowaway 6y ago
  I'm not convinced you're actually seeing the "very best salaries." I've not posted my compensation at some firms because it'd be too easy to identify me. I'd say that levels.fyi often _underreports_ what levels of compensation are available to people of a given level.
throw9872349872 6y ago
If I can provide some guidance, there is no upside to share your data when you’re at a small company because it’s really easy to find who you are. If there is a way to obscure the company, for example, generalize to market cap or size ($1-3b mkt cap company with 2500-5000 employees) and bucket that way.

by Zaheer 6y ago

giantg2 6y ago

I like this site. It's also depressing. I see that new hires at my company are making substantially more than I was at that level, even accounting for inflation.

lotsofpulp 6y ago
If you’re on the seller of labor side of the transaction, you should be happy labor is selling for more. Typically if new hires are getting paid more, then experience people will be getting paid more too.
- giantg2 6y ago
  In general that would be true. The problem for me is that it requires switching companies. I'm not able to do that since I naively did the jobs I was assigned. Now I'm a Neoxam and FileNet resource with zero prospects.
- etothepii 6y ago
  This does likely require some action on your side to achieve though. Typically, no-one will come and give you that 50% you are missing out on by not having pushed for an extra 4.1% every year for 10 years.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    Based on what I've seen, one probably has to switch companies.
  - sethhochberg 6y ago
    At my current company, we're experimenting with adding a market rate salary review component to our regular performance review cycle - we have a target salary percentile (based on years of experience, skillset, location, etc with aggregate market data from PayScale) for where we start new hires in a given role, and if for whatever reasons the market shifts upwards and leaves someone on staff below the new-hire percentile, we adjust upwards. We hope that regular pay increases, incentives, etc mean nobody's compensation ever falls lower than market rate after they're hired, but we also want to make sure we have a mechanism in place to correct if it does.
    - giantg2 6y ago
      Our company does market comparisons. It helps, but only for the severely under paid. They have a wide range that they consider acceptable.
    - etothepii 6y ago
      This is a feature we've been asked to add to our salary comparison tool (https://peerwyse.com https://peerwyse.com). The request was to be able to create peer groups that you, as the manager, thought were appropriate peers for your report. Then you would be able to see the probability the report is in the different quintiles. In the specific context the manager requesting this feature thought their reports were being underpaid and was looking for evidence that they could use to lobby for more.

IMAYousaf 6y ago

I appreciate the transparency of the data collection. I go to Levels for my first look over the Glassdoor’s of the world because I can actually trust the provenance of the data.

ryandrake 6y ago

Seems that's the major flaw in self-reported salary aggregation sites: Because it's self-reported, you're generally going to get only one side of the bell curve: The side that people feel good about reporting. The FAANG employees, probably just the subset of them that are well paid. Who wants to go to a web site to report to the world about their utterly modest, average salary? How depressing! I wouldn't want to. When I go to a site like levels.fyi looking to compare my comp, I'd have to believe that I'm not seeing "average" engineering salaries, but an average of the very best salaries at the very best companies. EDIT: Looks like you addressed my question in your comment already. Removing it!

compthrowaway 6y ago
I'm not convinced you're actually seeing the "very best salaries." I've not posted my compensation at some firms because it'd be too easy to identify me. I'd say that levels.fyi often _underreports_ what levels of compensation are available to people of a given level.

throw9872349872 6y ago

If I can provide some guidance, there is no upside to share your data when you’re at a small company because it’s really easy to find who you are. If there is a way to obscure the company, for example, generalize to market cap or size ($1-3b mkt cap company with 2500-5000 employees) and bucket that way.