[memn0nis]

These salaries are incredibly high for someone who never worked at a tech company in the valley. What's the general consensus on whether these salaries will increase, decrease, or stay the same in the medium term (i.e., next 5-10 years)?

[matt-attack]

I want to think there will be a correction (because in so many ways it seem obnoxious), but frankly I don't see the need for their skills falling anytime soon. Tech drives everything in our world, and specifically, software.

[0xBABAD00C]

What kind of defeatist mentality is this? There should be a correction in the other direction, if anything.

[matt-attack]

Meaning, software dev salaries should go up at these companies?

[0xBABAD00C]

All across the industry. Engineers seem to be the most self-defeating self-doubting bunch when it comes to money. If you create X% of the value, do you want your compensation to be commensurate with your contribution, or do you want to experience a "correction" because it's "obnoxious", while the executive class enjoys the spoils?

I have worked with brilliant software engineers who have expressed thoughts such as "personally I think I'm being paid too much". It's just crazy to me that this attitude exists, and I'm sure it's encouraged by people who don't think like that at all.

[doublement]

With nothing to back me up except the general impression I have, these numbers look out-of-whack even for the highest-paying employers in the Bay Area.

[senordevnyc]

I know I'm just a random internet commenter and thus you could be forgiven for thinking I'm making things up, but I just got an offer from a smaller public tech company for a senior / staff level position making almost $400k in first year comp. I'm pretty confident that after negotiation we'll land a little over $400k. And recruiters at several other tech companies where I'm interviewing have told me they can match or exceed this offer. I think FB or Snap would pay more than $600k at this level, but I don't want to work for either of them :)

To be fair, I have 12 years of experience, 9 of that in mobile dev, but all of it is self-employment experience. Comp is just insane at the top companies.

[pascalxus]

If you can get 600K at FB or Snap, you must be a top 3% candidate, according to FYI.levels, right?

[senordevnyc]

I mean, I don't know? To be fair, I have not gotten an offer from either of those companies. Maybe I never could. But I did get an offer from a company that competes with them for talent and it's roughly at the L5 level at Snap and E6 level at FB. Looking at levels.fyi, I'm seeing $550k - 575k, and given that the offer I got was about $50k higher than the data levels.fyi has for the company in question, I don't think hitting $600k is crazy, especially if you have competing offers.

[lhorie]

It appears to be adding up a lot of different things into one number:

- base salary (cash)

- sign-on bonus (typically a large one-time equity grant that vest over 3-4 years)

- a raise each year (cash)

- an accompanying equity grant (which also vests over 3-4 years)

Where the whole thing seems weird to me is that they seem to be comparing pre-IPO options/RSUs to actual stocks as if they were apples-to-apples. This matters because the fraction of an amount that is attributable to equity is typically large (sign-on total value is a few times the amount of base salary for a year, for example, so I wouldn't be surprised if these numbers were 50-75% equity)

[Zaheer]

We have verified offer letters for several of these companies that users have submitted to us.

[doublement]

It would probably be an interesting article to delve into what accounts for the difference between the Bay Area's $227,000 median (which sounds about right) and the $400K-$500K that 5 years of experience gets at the top of your list. The difference is striking, essentially paying double the median amount for moderately experienced employees.

[joshuamorton]

That's easy: most people aren't senior/staff engineers.

[doublement]

Considering that the overall category is "software engineering compensation", many people will be senior/staff engineers, unless people are constantly washing out in less than 5 years time.

[joshuamorton]

Staff usually makes up less than 10% of people, and senior is above the median at most places.

Levels.Fyi further biases towards new grads. A more representative sample would likely move the median higher. And most people are at the low end of senior after five years, if that.

Let me reiterate that: the median silicon valley swe has under 5YOE.

[Zaheer]

I would just add that some people never make it to staff level. 5 years is a _minimum_ but majority of folks take longer to get there.