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0 pointsstale20029y ago0 comments

O.o These numbers are surprisingly high, to the point of almost being unbelievable.

And I go around telling my friends that software engineers can make 120k right out of college, and I'M getting laughed at by my friends at how apparently unbelievable ridiculously high this is.

I've got 3 years experience and I'm making not much more than that working at a midsized startup (I went to a top tech school and everything!).

And then I go on Hacker News and learn that the fair salary for people working at big companies, with around my experience is 330k!?! Man what am I doing wrong.

Is this what it is like being the mythical, 10x developer unicorn that I hear so much about?

0 comments

sidlls9y ago

Skepticism is the best policy with things like this. It's easy for an anonymous person on the internet to make claims like this.

op00to9y ago

I am a master donut artist at Dunkin Donuts. I make $5.3 million a year. See how this works?

caminante9y ago

> O.o These numbers are surprisingly high, to the point of almost being unbelievable.

Bingo! He's joking.

well_negotiator9y ago

Sorry, but this is real. It's very normal for a new grad googler to make $185k total comp in first year.

Offers i had got, Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat, Google, Robinhood, Netflix, Salesforce, Affirm, An investment bank in NYC, Two stealth startup in SF.

In Facebook, it's very common for one high perfoming engineer getting discretionary equity of 1M+ if you do re-defines or create a meaningful impact.

I'm sorry i'm not going for any startup soon as it's hard for employees to make money now. People join startups thinking they are going to do 10X. But investors give equity to startup engineers at 4X inflated valuation. So outcome is probably 2.5x with very high risk.

You do exceptional performance at google/facebook/uber and get noticed by your director and he throws 1M worth RSUS on you in next review cycle. Do it twice and there goes `rest and vest`.

The worst part is if you think this is the best offer for the years of experience, then you're totally mistaken :D

ryandrake9y ago

Thank you, anonymous person on the internet. You are talking about outlier people at outlier companies. The majority of software engineers not in top roles inside top companies are not making even close to that.

Every compensation discussion on HN invariably brings out of the woodwork That One Guy Who Knows That One Guy Who Makes $400K at Google. The take-away from reading these threads should NOT be that this is an ordinary compensation.

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Software_Engineer/Sa...

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/san-francisco-software-en...

1 more reply

selimthegrim9y ago

He's not joking. This is the talking style of all those people from IIT and IIM bragging about their "pay packets" to "freshers" about to be ragged. I wonder if he is going to copy/paste that directly into his matrimonial.

1 more reply

snarf9y ago

Thanks for sharing an above average scenario and congrats. Genuinely curious, where did the offers initially start out (I'm assuming based on your previous comp) and how much were you able to negotiate up? And were the offers from startups like Robinhood/Affirm and the I-bank competitive with the big tech cos?

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ThePawnBreak9y ago

> And then I go on Hacker News and learn that the fair salary for people working at big companies, with around my experience is 330k!?! Man what am I doing wrong.

Why not go interview at a big company, then?

stale2002OP9y ago

I've job hopped a little too much already, and I do like my job. But things like this make it awfully tempting....

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsstale20029y ago0 comments

O.o These numbers are surprisingly high, to the point of almost being unbelievable.

And I go around telling my friends that software engineers can make 120k right out of college, and I'M getting laughed at by my friends at how apparently unbelievable ridiculously high this is.

I've got 3 years experience and I'm making not much more than that working at a midsized startup (I went to a top tech school and everything!).

And then I go on Hacker News and learn that the fair salary for people working at big companies, with around my experience is 330k!?! Man what am I doing wrong.

Is this what it is like being the mythical, 10x developer unicorn that I hear so much about?

0 comments

sidlls9y ago

Skepticism is the best policy with things like this. It's easy for an anonymous person on the internet to make claims like this.

op00to9y ago

I am a master donut artist at Dunkin Donuts. I make $5.3 million a year. See how this works?

caminante9y ago

> O.o These numbers are surprisingly high, to the point of almost being unbelievable.

Bingo! He's joking.

well_negotiator9y ago

Sorry, but this is real. It's very normal for a new grad googler to make $185k total comp in first year.

Offers i had got, Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat, Google, Robinhood, Netflix, Salesforce, Affirm, An investment bank in NYC, Two stealth startup in SF.

In Facebook, it's very common for one high perfoming engineer getting discretionary equity of 1M+ if you do re-defines or create a meaningful impact.

You do exceptional performance at google/facebook/uber and get noticed by your director and he throws 1M worth RSUS on you in next review cycle. Do it twice and there goes `rest and vest`.

The worst part is if you think this is the best offer for the years of experience, then you're totally mistaken :D

ryandrake9y ago

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Software_Engineer/Sa...

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/san-francisco-software-en...

1 more reply

selimthegrim9y ago

1 more reply

snarf9y ago

1 more reply

ThePawnBreak9y ago

> And then I go on Hacker News and learn that the fair salary for people working at big companies, with around my experience is 330k!?! Man what am I doing wrong.

Why not go interview at a big company, then?

stale2002OP9y ago

I've job hopped a little too much already, and I do like my job. But things like this make it awfully tempting....

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse