[flaie]

Well, when you've been hearing stories about Googlers for 10 years, you don't imagine that you need "discipline" being a Googler to buy a house.

I may be a little bit naive, but when my friend talked me about it I thought he was going to announce something like 200K or more, because these are the stories we always hear around here.

In the end he decided to not go because he already made the same amount of money and didn't want to move his family to Paris just for two hundred bucks a month. But I don't know anything about bonuses and 10% raises everywhere, or at least he did not tell me.

[adrinavarro]

$200k and up, for a Senior Software Engineer, is something that's only "frequent" in the U.S. (and varying a lot based on specific locations). With rentals costing many thousands of $ a month, significant healthcare costs, a need to have a car for each person, and no safety net.

If your friend is earning around €100k in France and not even living in Paris, then they're in a VERY privileged position. I'd say that €110k in Paris, factoring in exchange rates, CoL & taxes, can be the equivalent to a $200k salary in SV. So it's hardly a downgrade.