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Co-Founder of Levels.fyi here. As Jacob points out, the market is extremely hot right now. It feels like salaries are inching up slightly each month. We're work

by Zaheer 5y ago

Co-Founder of Levels.fyi here. As Jacob points out, the market is extremely hot right now. It feels like salaries are inching up slightly each month. We're working on improving how numbers are updated and working on weighing recent salaries more heavily. Would really encourage everyone to submit their compensation on the site. We also have some relevant discussions with recruiters from FANG type companies on our team in our community.

paxys 5y ago
I haven't been able to get a clear answer for this so hoping you can help – what are companies' appetites for matching existing stock grants for senior hires? Say someone gets a FAANG or "hot startup" offer, but has $800K worth of stock (mainly due to price appreciation) at their current company vesting in the next year, is a direct match out of the question?
- Zaheer 5y ago
  Some companies are willing to match stock grants. We've even seen some companies up-level candidates (to meet the higher compensation band) to nudge them out of their current roles where they've experienced a lot of stock growth. That said, there's still probably a cap to it, it'd be really hard even for a Facebook to get someone away from a multi-million dollar vest as an IC. Also keep in mind that all companies won't value options / ISO / private shares as much as public companies.
reilly3000 5y ago
Thank for your work! I’d be really interested to see YoY trend data for the aggregate and for the same level. Also if there is ‘level inflation’ happening over time.
- Zaheer 5y ago
  Will see if we can include that in the annual report!
Invictus0 5y ago
Do you have any forecast for SWE salaries over the next few years?
ecshafer 5y ago
levels.fyi is a great resource, thanks for putting the time in to build it.
chiefofgxbxl 5y ago
What's the consensus on the tech market being really hot right now? Does that imply a potential crash in the future, or simply a "cooling down" or plateau-ing? Can anyone point to some commentary on future expectations, beyond the immediate salary bumps we can get today?
- Zaheer 5y ago
  Don't think there is a consensus. We talk to HR / Compensation analysts at companies every week and the consensus is noone knows what's going on / what to do anymore. Companies are scrambling to figure out how much more to pay people so that they can attract the talent they want. Keep in mind the tech industry is supply side constrained (particularly for mid-senior+ talent). As long as that's the case, wages will always go up. The huge immediate increase is due to several macro factors (covid, remote, great resignation, capital flowing into public markets, etc). As those cool, increases may cool down but still trend up likely.
moneywoes 5y ago
Based on the data, do you foresee a correction or dotcom-esque bubble situation?
joshuamorton 5y ago
Heya, question: Have you considered including h1b or Colorado job data to help benchmark stuff in addition to self reported data? Its obviously imperfect (referencing my own post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28875365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28875365), but given that y'all have the resources to figure out what the locations are (like, how much more companies pay in SF vs. Seattle vs. Colorado), providing the Colorado data scaled based on that would be another neat resource.
- Zaheer 5y ago
  Yup have considered it. Like you mentioned they both have flaws like you've already highlighted but we're still thinking of ways we can use it to further augment our dataset.
jacobian 5y ago
Hey, thanks for levels.fyi! It makes this kind of accurate compensation math possible in a way that really wasn't before y'all came along. Thanks again!

by Zaheer 5y ago

paxys 5y ago

I haven't been able to get a clear answer for this so hoping you can help – what are companies' appetites for matching existing stock grants for senior hires? Say someone gets a FAANG or "hot startup" offer, but has $800K worth of stock (mainly due to price appreciation) at their current company vesting in the next year, is a direct match out of the question?

Zaheer 5y ago
Some companies are willing to match stock grants. We've even seen some companies up-level candidates (to meet the higher compensation band) to nudge them out of their current roles where they've experienced a lot of stock growth. That said, there's still probably a cap to it, it'd be really hard even for a Facebook to get someone away from a multi-million dollar vest as an IC. Also keep in mind that all companies won't value options / ISO / private shares as much as public companies.

reilly3000 5y ago

Thank for your work! I’d be really interested to see YoY trend data for the aggregate and for the same level. Also if there is ‘level inflation’ happening over time.

Zaheer 5y ago
Will see if we can include that in the annual report!

Invictus0 5y ago

Do you have any forecast for SWE salaries over the next few years?

ecshafer 5y ago

levels.fyi is a great resource, thanks for putting the time in to build it.

chiefofgxbxl 5y ago

What's the consensus on the tech market being really hot right now? Does that imply a potential crash in the future, or simply a "cooling down" or plateau-ing? Can anyone point to some commentary on future expectations, beyond the immediate salary bumps we can get today?

Zaheer 5y ago
Don't think there is a consensus. We talk to HR / Compensation analysts at companies every week and the consensus is noone knows what's going on / what to do anymore. Companies are scrambling to figure out how much more to pay people so that they can attract the talent they want. Keep in mind the tech industry is supply side constrained (particularly for mid-senior+ talent). As long as that's the case, wages will always go up. The huge immediate increase is due to several macro factors (covid, remote, great resignation, capital flowing into public markets, etc). As those cool, increases may cool down but still trend up likely.

moneywoes 5y ago

Based on the data, do you foresee a correction or dotcom-esque bubble situation?

joshuamorton 5y ago

Heya, question: Have you considered including h1b or Colorado job data to help benchmark stuff in addition to self reported data? Its obviously imperfect (referencing my own post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28875365 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28875365), but given that y'all have the resources to figure out what the locations are (like, how much more companies pay in SF vs. Seattle vs. Colorado), providing the Colorado data scaled based on that would be another neat resource.

Zaheer 5y ago
Yup have considered it. Like you mentioned they both have flaws like you've already highlighted but we're still thinking of ways we can use it to further augment our dataset.

jacobian 5y ago

Hey, thanks for levels.fyi! It makes this kind of accurate compensation math possible in a way that really wasn't before y'all came along. Thanks again!