5 ms·

>When big tech companies are offering a Stanford graduate with only a few summers of programming internships under the belt for 150k/year Aren't most of these

by phaus 12y ago

>When big tech companies are offering a Stanford graduate with only a few summers of programming internships under the belt for 150k/year Aren't most of these offers in a part of CA where the cost of living is just as ridiculous as the salary? Therefore making the salary not ridiculous at all. I work in the DC area, and veteran programmers normally can't get anywhere close to that unless its a contract job with no benefits and shitty working conditions. Even still, it will likely be about 30k less than that.

argonaut 12y ago
All-in compensation for a top student out of a top college (think Stanford, MIT, Berkeley) in SV can be $200k. But keep in mind that the high cost of living really only applies to certain areas (albeit desirable ones like SF, Palo Alto, even Mountain View). There are tons of affordable locations if you are willing to have a 30 minute commute and are willing to accept sketchier environments (Berkeley, Oakland, other East Bay locations, East Palo Alto, etc.).
- eli_gottlieb 12y ago
  Berkeley is sketchy now?
  - argonaut 12y ago
    The cheaper parts of Berkeley are sketchy, yes.
- jghn 12y ago
  "top student out of a top college" doesn't exactly describe a lot of individuals (10? 15?), which makes that compensation value an extreme outlier.
  - argonaut 12y ago
    Allow me to revise that to "top student at a decent school." (School is actually less important). I would say it describes >200 people every year (take the top 5-10% of Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, CMU, Princeton, UPenn, UT Austin, Caltech, a couple others, and then maybe the top 2-5% at UCLA, UCSD, CU-Boulder, dozens more schools.
Bahamut 12y ago
That is precisely a significant reason why I left DC - the pay is tied heavily to years of experience, and getting something like $150k is difficult, albeit not impossible, to do there. I'm not sure if I buy that a Stanford graduate would necessarily net $150k starting at most companies (certainly possible at big companies, but I am skeptical - one software engineer told me that at one tech giant, he was offered $160k as a senior engineer, and was told that was about the max they could offer any software engineer then. He was a lead developer for a major group for this company, and this was with proven productivity) - I certainly wouldn't hire one at that price currently unless they are absolutely stellar, and I work in downtown Palo Alto for a pretty healthy startup. At that base salary, they'd be making around my salary, with far less productivity and likely even less potential. $120k is more in the ballpark one might make typically , and even then I'd want a strong mind that is open to teaching/mentoring & investing in developing himself/herself.

by phaus 12y ago

argonaut 12y ago

All-in compensation for a top student out of a top college (think Stanford, MIT, Berkeley) in SV can be $200k. But keep in mind that the high cost of living really only applies to certain areas (albeit desirable ones like SF, Palo Alto, even Mountain View). There are tons of affordable locations if you are willing to have a 30 minute commute and are willing to accept sketchier environments (Berkeley, Oakland, other East Bay locations, East Palo Alto, etc.).

eli_gottlieb 12y ago
Berkeley is sketchy now?
- argonaut 12y ago
  The cheaper parts of Berkeley are sketchy, yes.
jghn 12y ago
"top student out of a top college" doesn't exactly describe a lot of individuals (10? 15?), which makes that compensation value an extreme outlier.
- argonaut 12y ago
  Allow me to revise that to "top student at a decent school." (School is actually less important). I would say it describes >200 people every year (take the top 5-10% of Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, CMU, Princeton, UPenn, UT Austin, Caltech, a couple others, and then maybe the top 2-5% at UCLA, UCSD, CU-Boulder, dozens more schools.

Bahamut 12y ago

That is precisely a significant reason why I left DC - the pay is tied heavily to years of experience, and getting something like $150k is difficult, albeit not impossible, to do there. I'm not sure if I buy that a Stanford graduate would necessarily net $150k starting at most companies (certainly possible at big companies, but I am skeptical - one software engineer told me that at one tech giant, he was offered $160k as a senior engineer, and was told that was about the max they could offer any software engineer then. He was a lead developer for a major group for this company, and this was with proven productivity) - I certainly wouldn't hire one at that price currently unless they are absolutely stellar, and I work in downtown Palo Alto for a pretty healthy startup. At that base salary, they'd be making around my salary, with far less productivity and likely even less potential. $120k is more in the ballpark one might make typically , and even then I'd want a strong mind that is open to teaching/mentoring & investing in developing himself/herself.