4 ms·

>Now, I’m earning 2-5x more than my peers (that were more senior than me) that chose to live in those cities. Salary or takehome? Sure, your net in SF will be

>Now, I’m earning 2-5x more than my peers (that were more senior than me) that chose to live in those cities. Salary or takehome? Sure, your net in SF will be higher than Orlando or London, but looking at resources such as levels.fyi, internal salary sharing sites at large companies, etc. the math for Seattle comp with no state income tax is pretty close to bay area minus tax.

dilyevsky 2y ago
Seattle has enforceable (and readily abused) non-compete and also virtually non-existent startup scene
- Arainach 2y ago
  In practice, no, the non competes are never enforced, and if the goal is to brag about high compensation startups don't matter.
  - dilyevsky 2y ago
    Amazon has filed numerous lawsuits for this - it’s well documented. I think there’s some some sort of ban for non-competes on w2s under $120k now (which doesn’t really help tech workers), but otherwise you’re wrong. To your second point - there are always a bunch of well capitalized startups in the valley. Today it’s AI, before it was crypto, etc. These startups pay really really well when compared nationally. You dont have to get into 500k+ faang salaries to win against other locales On top of that there are many more private companies that also pay good base + offer liquidity events for employees. Again - orders of magnitude more than seattle, austin or even nyc
    - Arainach 2y ago
      Startup equity should be assumed to have a value of 0, which statistically it does. I've never seen one be competitive on actual hard currency compensation - even the hot ones. And that's before valuing your time per hour worked. I'd love to see examples of Amazon trying to enforce noncompetes at levels lower than VP, because I've never seen it. Folks move to direct competitors all the time - AWS to Azure or Oracle, etc.
      - dilyevsky 2y ago
        > I'd love to see examples of Amazon trying to enforce noncompetes at levels lower than VP, because I've never seen it. Easy[0]. I also know a few cases where a 3rd company refused to extend an offer due to legal flagging it [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7975428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7975428 > I've never seen one be competitive on actual hard currency compensation - even the hot ones OpenAI famously was pretty generous. It’s all public data now due to lawsuits
itake 2y ago
Take home. Salary seems to be 1.5-2x Orlando peers. I prefer Seattle over SF. In Seattle, I can own a car and have a safe place to park it.

dilyevsky 2y ago

Seattle has enforceable (and readily abused) non-compete and also virtually non-existent startup scene

Arainach 2y ago
In practice, no, the non competes are never enforced, and if the goal is to brag about high compensation startups don't matter.
- dilyevsky 2y ago
  Amazon has filed numerous lawsuits for this - it’s well documented. I think there’s some some sort of ban for non-competes on w2s under $120k now (which doesn’t really help tech workers), but otherwise you’re wrong. To your second point - there are always a bunch of well capitalized startups in the valley. Today it’s AI, before it was crypto, etc. These startups pay really really well when compared nationally. You dont have to get into 500k+ faang salaries to win against other locales On top of that there are many more private companies that also pay good base + offer liquidity events for employees. Again - orders of magnitude more than seattle, austin or even nyc
  - Arainach 2y ago
    Startup equity should be assumed to have a value of 0, which statistically it does. I've never seen one be competitive on actual hard currency compensation - even the hot ones. And that's before valuing your time per hour worked. I'd love to see examples of Amazon trying to enforce noncompetes at levels lower than VP, because I've never seen it. Folks move to direct competitors all the time - AWS to Azure or Oracle, etc.
    - dilyevsky 2y ago
      > I'd love to see examples of Amazon trying to enforce noncompetes at levels lower than VP, because I've never seen it. Easy[0]. I also know a few cases where a 3rd company refused to extend an offer due to legal flagging it [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7975428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7975428 > I've never seen one be competitive on actual hard currency compensation - even the hot ones OpenAI famously was pretty generous. It’s all public data now due to lawsuits

itake 2y ago

Take home. Salary seems to be 1.5-2x Orlando peers. I prefer Seattle over SF. In Seattle, I can own a car and have a safe place to park it.