5 ms·

$250 - $500k? Got anything to back up this claim?

by totalrobe 11y ago

chrisdbaldwin 11y ago
FWIW I knew a systems architect/senior dev making ~$350k back in 2002. Those numbers are not as blown up as they seem.
- totalrobe 11y ago
  I was hoping some of these big numbers would show up on the #talkpay twitter excitement a while back, but didn't see anything close.
  - chrisdbaldwin 11y ago
    I feel you. It seems like the very high paid tech workers prefer to be incognito. This makes sense since they must have an essential and scarce skill set to bring in that kind of money.
  - nostrademons 11y ago
    There is a very strong incentive when you make that kind of money to not let anybody know that you make that kind of money. There's zero upside and lots of downsides - jealousy, people asking for money, awkward conversations, competition in your niche skillset, etc.
dreamdu5t 11y ago
I don't know about 500k but 250k is achievable at big companies that are serious about tech talent and matching responsibility with compensation.
varelse 11y ago
I wouldn't even call this inflated in the valley anymore. There are outliers making serious money right here, right now. Such a salary pairs nicely with our lovely $1M+ median house price to insure we can never afford to buy one without living like a monk or going up to our eyeballs in debt. If you don't believe me, then just who's buying those $2M+ houses that stay on the market a week or two? SPOILER ALERT: Double income couples each making that kind of money. In fact, I'm making the kind of money from my first post (not bragging, you asked for evidence). But what's really funny are the isolated unicorns out there making $1M+ annually because they were both very smart and very lucky to have the specific skills for a hot technology that ignited a runaway bidding war between giants. I have never been close to that lucky but I have witnessed it firsthand. As for me, my offers are $250K+ when I've interviewed for big co or late stage startup positions. In contrast, my startup offers are $150-$200K with 0.7% or less equity. The startup offers are completely uninteresting to me at that level. I'm better served branching out on my own which I may or may not do someday (YOLO and all that).
- ryandrake 11y ago
  Congratulate yourself, because you are, for sure, a fortunate outlier! I don't doubt that there exist engineers out there making $250K+, but they are definitely not the norm, big company or small. Check out a bigger sample of Bay Area companies on Glassdoor. My bet is you'll find the middle 90% to be between, say, $90K and $150K.
  - varelse 11y ago
    Really? My starting salary as a level 1 engineer in the first dotcom boom was $115K. Now had I taken a more fun (but as it turns out in reality frequently not very fun) job in the game industry, that salary would have been ~$70K. This of course is an industry segment with its own crazy outliers. Fortunately, someone sensible figuratively smacked me upside the head and convinced me to take a more practical job (which ended up pretty fun actually).
    - ryandrake 11y ago
      That's about 3X what mine was for a similar junior position during the same time period, so again, congratulations :-)
  - exacube 11y ago
    Every level 5 (senior) engineer at Google and Facebook converge around $250k in total yearly income (probably more for facebook recently since their stock tripled in the past year).
  - rhc2104 11y ago
    Here's Google on Glassdoor, for "Senior Software Engineer". http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Senior-Software-Engineer-Salaries-E9079_D_KO7,31.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Senior-Software-Engin... About 250k in total comp. A lot of it is in stock grants, but those are completely liquid.
- vlasev 11y ago
  Would you care to expand on what makes you such an outlier? Would another person be able to go along in your footsteps?
mbesto 11y ago
Netflix: http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/netflix-inc/2015 http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/netflix-inc/2015 I know Google, Facebook, etc. also do but those salaries are probably reserved for the van Rossum's (Google/Dropbox) and the Lerdorf's (Etsy) of the world.
- varelse 11y ago
  No, they're not. Google paid me well to be the equivalent of an NCG python script kiddie. I'm the one that got bored and failed to convince them they ought to be making using of the skills that made them notice me in the first place. I'm no van Rossum, but I'm pretty good at the thing I do.
Bahamut 11y ago
I've been contacted recently about a VC firm offering $350k+ for a frontend developer to own the frontend web app. I had to turn it down due to lack of flexible hours, but it otherwise intrigued me. I also have been told by a friend that his brother ran a company that was acquired by Google for $100m, and suspects that his brother makes several million $ a year from Google (he wasn't ever told how much) - that is probably more of an outlier though.
- totalrobe 11y ago
  Had to turn down an offer for $350k for frontend development?! There are worse problems to have...

$250 - $500k? Got anything to back up this claim?

chrisdbaldwin 11y ago

FWIW I knew a systems architect/senior dev making ~$350k back in 2002. Those numbers are not as blown up as they seem.

totalrobe 11y ago
I was hoping some of these big numbers would show up on the #talkpay twitter excitement a while back, but didn't see anything close.
- chrisdbaldwin 11y ago
  I feel you. It seems like the very high paid tech workers prefer to be incognito. This makes sense since they must have an essential and scarce skill set to bring in that kind of money.
- nostrademons 11y ago
  There is a very strong incentive when you make that kind of money to not let anybody know that you make that kind of money. There's zero upside and lots of downsides - jealousy, people asking for money, awkward conversations, competition in your niche skillset, etc.

dreamdu5t 11y ago

I don't know about 500k but 250k is achievable at big companies that are serious about tech talent and matching responsibility with compensation.

varelse 11y ago

I wouldn't even call this inflated in the valley anymore. There are outliers making serious money right here, right now. Such a salary pairs nicely with our lovely $1M+ median house price to insure we can never afford to buy one without living like a monk or going up to our eyeballs in debt. If you don't believe me, then just who's buying those $2M+ houses that stay on the market a week or two? SPOILER ALERT: Double income couples each making that kind of money. In fact, I'm making the kind of money from my first post (not bragging, you asked for evidence). But what's really funny are the isolated unicorns out there making $1M+ annually because they were both very smart and very lucky to have the specific skills for a hot technology that ignited a runaway bidding war between giants. I have never been close to that lucky but I have witnessed it firsthand. As for me, my offers are $250K+ when I've interviewed for big co or late stage startup positions. In contrast, my startup offers are $150-$200K with 0.7% or less equity. The startup offers are completely uninteresting to me at that level. I'm better served branching out on my own which I may or may not do someday (YOLO and all that).

ryandrake 11y ago
Congratulate yourself, because you are, for sure, a fortunate outlier! I don't doubt that there exist engineers out there making $250K+, but they are definitely not the norm, big company or small. Check out a bigger sample of Bay Area companies on Glassdoor. My bet is you'll find the middle 90% to be between, say, $90K and $150K.
- varelse 11y ago
  Really? My starting salary as a level 1 engineer in the first dotcom boom was $115K. Now had I taken a more fun (but as it turns out in reality frequently not very fun) job in the game industry, that salary would have been ~$70K. This of course is an industry segment with its own crazy outliers. Fortunately, someone sensible figuratively smacked me upside the head and convinced me to take a more practical job (which ended up pretty fun actually).
  - ryandrake 11y ago
    That's about 3X what mine was for a similar junior position during the same time period, so again, congratulations :-)
- exacube 11y ago
  Every level 5 (senior) engineer at Google and Facebook converge around $250k in total yearly income (probably more for facebook recently since their stock tripled in the past year).
- rhc2104 11y ago
  Here's Google on Glassdoor, for "Senior Software Engineer". http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Senior-Software-Engineer-Salaries-E9079_D_KO7,31.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Senior-Software-Engin... About 250k in total comp. A lot of it is in stock grants, but those are completely liquid.
vlasev 11y ago
Would you care to expand on what makes you such an outlier? Would another person be able to go along in your footsteps?

mbesto 11y ago

Netflix: http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/netflix-inc/2015 http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/netflix-inc/2015 I know Google, Facebook, etc. also do but those salaries are probably reserved for the van Rossum's (Google/Dropbox) and the Lerdorf's (Etsy) of the world.

varelse 11y ago
No, they're not. Google paid me well to be the equivalent of an NCG python script kiddie. I'm the one that got bored and failed to convince them they ought to be making using of the skills that made them notice me in the first place. I'm no van Rossum, but I'm pretty good at the thing I do.

Bahamut 11y ago

I've been contacted recently about a VC firm offering $350k+ for a frontend developer to own the frontend web app. I had to turn it down due to lack of flexible hours, but it otherwise intrigued me. I also have been told by a friend that his brother ran a company that was acquired by Google for $100m, and suspects that his brother makes several million $ a year from Google (he wasn't ever told how much) - that is probably more of an outlier though.

totalrobe 11y ago
Had to turn down an offer for $350k for frontend development?! There are worse problems to have...