4 ms·

I’m sorry, but what exponential growth are you talking about? No company will ever pay you that much as a regular salaried employee.

itake 2y ago
Career growth. This includes job title, responsibilities, and compensation. Companies can promote you every 1-2 years, but you need to start that clock.
- fellowmartian 2y ago
  It’s not exponential though, at most you’re looking at 2-3 orders of magnitude growth unless you’re a founder.
  - mattmanser 2y ago
    Not sure you understand what orders of magnitude means. 3 orders of magnitude is 1,000 times larger, so $100,000 salary would become $100,000,000. Never going to happen.
    - fellowmartian 2y ago
      I perfectly understand what orders of magnitude means. The growth you’ve described does happen, eg if you start at $65000 as junior eng and end up in dozens of millions a year as a SVP or CTO at FAANG-level company. My point is that even that is not exponential yearly, unless you mean “exponential” in the narrow sense of “compound returns”, by that is available to everyone with a brokerage account.
      - itake 2y ago
        “Compound returns” are exponential returns. Is there another definition of exponential that im not away of?
      - buzzerbetrayed 2y ago
        I think you’re the one that has an abnormal definition exponential growth
  - itake 2y ago
    My RSUs and total compensation has grown by 20-30% the last 3 years, despite my base salary only increasing 1-2%. If that isn't exponential growth, idk what is. RSU values compound.
    - fellowmartian 2y ago
      Refreshers aren’t priced at the price of the date of hire, that would be crazy. It’s not more exponential than holding S&P 500.
      - itake 2y ago
        Refreshers are priced at when they were granted and compound 4 years. So you have 4 years of compounding growth. Refreshers also stack, creating more compounding. Once they vest, you can sell them to match snp500 past the 4 years.
- coldtea 2y ago
  That's not exponential growth. It's not even linear-with-good-slope. And it's not even "give 1x work -same as before- and take x1.5 money" but more like "give 1.5x work and take x1.5 money" at best (and usually less): more responsibilities, more stress, and more work time.
  - itake 2y ago
    > "give 1x work -same as before- and take x1.5 money" This is exactly my case. Here are my w2 compensation (salary+bonus+rsu) changes YoY working at $Yelp and $Grab: 2025 35.96% (projected) 2024 20.77% (projected) 2023 30.39% 2022 -0.65% <- promotion 2021 34.25% 2020 65.06% <- job change (December 2020; 2020 had a big jump due to unemployment in 2019) I don't think my work hours, responsibilities, or work stress has any connection to my compensation or career growth, primarily due to the "work smart, not hard" thinking. Even if you have zero promotions or changes in responsibility, RSU grants compound, even if your salary increase by only 1-6% (like mine did)
    - oblio 2y ago
      I don't know how old you are but you are likely to hit a compensation ceiling as an individual contributor at some point. Or you manage to move into those staff/post-staff positions but those are very few, hyper competitive and during rounds a layoffs you have a huge target on your back.
      - nickjj 2y ago
        > I don't know how old you are but you are likely to hit a compensation ceiling as an individual contributor at some point. Realistically it's not a bad problem to have. I'm no where near making a capped IC amount but if someone were in this position you really only need ~5-8 years of working to pretty much set yourself up for life financially if you keep your living expenses reasonable.
      - itake 2y ago
        I’m 35. I survived 80% layoffs because I’m one of the lowest paid people in my grade and office. Im still earning way less than what I see reported on Blind and what my coworkers make.

itake 2y ago

Career growth. This includes job title, responsibilities, and compensation. Companies can promote you every 1-2 years, but you need to start that clock.

fellowmartian 2y ago
It’s not exponential though, at most you’re looking at 2-3 orders of magnitude growth unless you’re a founder.
- mattmanser 2y ago
  Not sure you understand what orders of magnitude means. 3 orders of magnitude is 1,000 times larger, so $100,000 salary would become $100,000,000. Never going to happen.
  - fellowmartian 2y ago
    I perfectly understand what orders of magnitude means. The growth you’ve described does happen, eg if you start at $65000 as junior eng and end up in dozens of millions a year as a SVP or CTO at FAANG-level company. My point is that even that is not exponential yearly, unless you mean “exponential” in the narrow sense of “compound returns”, by that is available to everyone with a brokerage account.
    - itake 2y ago
      “Compound returns” are exponential returns. Is there another definition of exponential that im not away of?
    - buzzerbetrayed 2y ago
      I think you’re the one that has an abnormal definition exponential growth
- itake 2y ago
  My RSUs and total compensation has grown by 20-30% the last 3 years, despite my base salary only increasing 1-2%. If that isn't exponential growth, idk what is. RSU values compound.
  - fellowmartian 2y ago
    Refreshers aren’t priced at the price of the date of hire, that would be crazy. It’s not more exponential than holding S&P 500.
    - itake 2y ago
      Refreshers are priced at when they were granted and compound 4 years. So you have 4 years of compounding growth. Refreshers also stack, creating more compounding. Once they vest, you can sell them to match snp500 past the 4 years.
coldtea 2y ago
That's not exponential growth. It's not even linear-with-good-slope. And it's not even "give 1x work -same as before- and take x1.5 money" but more like "give 1.5x work and take x1.5 money" at best (and usually less): more responsibilities, more stress, and more work time.
- itake 2y ago
  > "give 1x work -same as before- and take x1.5 money" This is exactly my case. Here are my w2 compensation (salary+bonus+rsu) changes YoY working at $Yelp and $Grab: 2025 35.96% (projected) 2024 20.77% (projected) 2023 30.39% 2022 -0.65% <- promotion 2021 34.25% 2020 65.06% <- job change (December 2020; 2020 had a big jump due to unemployment in 2019) I don't think my work hours, responsibilities, or work stress has any connection to my compensation or career growth, primarily due to the "work smart, not hard" thinking. Even if you have zero promotions or changes in responsibility, RSU grants compound, even if your salary increase by only 1-6% (like mine did)
  - oblio 2y ago
    I don't know how old you are but you are likely to hit a compensation ceiling as an individual contributor at some point. Or you manage to move into those staff/post-staff positions but those are very few, hyper competitive and during rounds a layoffs you have a huge target on your back.
    - nickjj 2y ago
      > I don't know how old you are but you are likely to hit a compensation ceiling as an individual contributor at some point. Realistically it's not a bad problem to have. I'm no where near making a capped IC amount but if someone were in this position you really only need ~5-8 years of working to pretty much set yourself up for life financially if you keep your living expenses reasonable.
    - itake 2y ago
      I’m 35. I survived 80% layoffs because I’m one of the lowest paid people in my grade and office. Im still earning way less than what I see reported on Blind and what my coworkers make.