[askafriend]

This isn't just any job. This is a $250-450k per year job for an engineer working on multi-billion-user scale systems/products at one of the most successful companies in the world.

Everybody and their mother wants to work at companies like Google, Facebook, Netflix, or similar. So while the preparation and interview processes can be brutal, they filter out all the people who aren't 100% serious or committed. There are many talented people that get rejected from Google routinely and that's fine - Google can't employ them all. They will be fine.

I don't see people gawking at MIT's admission standards. MIT turns down ridiculously talented and accomplished students all the time.

That being said, with enough grit, preparation, and patience, getting a job at Google isn't that crazy assuming you're good at what you do and you're willing to put in the time. It's probably far far more of a crapshoot to get into MIT.

Again, I'm not saying I agree with the way things are but I'm trying to help put them in context for you. Not every job pays $250-450k and not every job is Google.

[zerr]

> I don't see people gawking at MIT's admission standards. MIT turns down ridiculously talented and accomplished students all the time.

Well, MIT or any other university has a limited number of free seats which is not true for Google I believe - I don't think they have a problem with the desk space for engineers, also considering their open space hell, or at least the desk space (limit) is not the reason of not hiring someone, I hope :)

[askafriend]

Fair point. There's nothing that indicates that they're having any trouble filling seats though. Maybe they could hire faster but I don't think hiring is the bottleneck for their business. They probably would rather go slowly and carefully at their size anyway. I also don't really see any reason why they're not in a great hiring position as an employer already - especially compared to their industry peers.

[ajeet_dhaliwal]

Every Google engineer makes a minimum of $250k? Glassdoor doesn’t suggest this. Do you know this to be true?

[askafriend]

Yes, if you're in the Bay Area and work for Google as a mid level engineer your total compensation is at least $250k a year. Closer to 200k a year for new grads fresh out of School who have 0 experience.

Look at my other reply. This is incredibly common at the top companies in the Bay Area or any other major city (Seattle, NYC, etc).

[ajeet_dhaliwal]

He hasn’t said what city or even country this is in. We can’t just assume it’s a $250k + salary give the job could be in the UK, Germany, Canada and knows where else where salaries are lower in general for software engineers.

[askafriend]

You're absolutely right. However a lot of the engineering is concentrated in a few major centers so there's a good chance he's near a major city like LA/SF/NYC/Seattle/etc

Even if the office is in a low cost of living city, the effect is similar with Google paying at the high end of the cost-adjusted band.

The point was more to illustrate that it's not just any average job and they can do things that work for them that don't work for a lot of other businesses.

[zerr]

Where did you get such numbers? H1B data and Glassdoors show significantly less.

[askafriend]

Those numbers are wrong and outdated. Every mid level engineer at Google is pulling near 250k at least in total compensation and up to $450k depending on experience and expertise. By total compensation I mean Base + Stock + Yearly Bonus + Signing Bonus. And that's not even factoring in the stock growth. Keep in mind the stock is as good as cash since it's very liquid.

Yes people make this much money. Yes they make it a couple years out of school. No I'm not lying or making this up. Yes this only represents a tiny tiny portion of engineers globally that have the privilege of working somewhere like Google and in a place like the Bay Area.

I swear, this conversation happens every single time on HN when people bring up comp numbers.

I know the salary ranges at nearly all major valley companies, have friends that work at all of these companies, and have gotten offers myself.

[zerr]

H1B data is official and updated - including this year. But for Bay Area, yes, 250K sounds realistic. I can't imagine someone wanted to move there for less.

> I know the salary ranges at nearly all major valley companies

Can you comment on Netflix? They say that they significantly outbid Google or FB... So e.g. 500-600K is the norm there?

[askafriend]

I’m not sure about H1B status or how that impacts comp.

Netflix does outbid Google and Facebook routinely in one key component: base cash salary. I think you can request a portion of this in stock but the default is cash.

So you’d get $350k handed to you straight cash versus the traditional approach of base + stock + other variable components like bonuses, performance based comp and refresher stock. The 500-600k numbers you’re suggesting are not realistic for an average mid level engineer though.

But in general, Netflix’s comp philosophy is a complete outlier in the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Might be more common in hedge fund or quant roles but I don’t know much about that world.