Just go to levels.fyi and see what people are reporting per company and region, and of course what is discussed on blind if you're familiar with that. Maybe no

Just go to levels.fyi and see what people are reporting per company and region, and of course what is discussed on blind if you're familiar with that. Maybe not outbid but coming within 10-15%, which is going to be dramatically better than other regional options. By these other companies, I mean more established ones like Linked In or pre-IPO like Slack/Stripe. There are quite a few of them and they are indeed competing with FAANGs for talent. But the FAANGs are going to have larger national spread. My point is, if someone lives in a 2nd tier tech hub they should have a handful options to make dramatically more than average from one of these companies; but the interviews are tough and whether or not they want to have a conversation in the first place are gating factors.