[longtimegoogler]

Well, if you look at the cost of living in SV the salaries aren't that insane. Buying a house is challenging on a Google salary in that area depending on level.

If you get in right out of college and live meagerly, than yes, you might be able to retire early if you leave that area.

If you actually want to build a life in the Bay Area and buy property, you will probably have to work at least 20 years to have enough for retirement or get promoted high enough where you really are making a lot of money.

[taneq]

> you will probably have to work at least 20 years to have enough for retirement

A whole 20 years? Cry me a river.

[longtimegoogler]

What I gave was a best case estimate if someone was really diligent, saving very aggressively, investing wisely, and contributing the maximum amount to retirement accounts.

As someone who has been working for over 20 years and the last 10 at Google, I am not close to retiring and I don't believe the compensation at Google is that much greater than other software jobs, as my previous compensation was comparable.

So what am I saying, yes, you might be able to retire early if you work at Google a long time and are very diligent, but you probably could do the same at most other software jobs in the region.

If you really want to make life changing money at a FAANG company you have to get promoted to a certain level, which isn't easy, IMO. Otherwise, your life isn't that different than any other software engineers.

[Infinitesimus]

> As someone who has been working for over 20 years and the last 10 at Google, I am not close to retiring and I don't believe the compensation at Google is that much greater than other software jobs, as my previous compensation was comparable.

You're probably well above the average comp at your level ( assuming L6+ ) given how much G stock has appreciated over the past decade though.

> So what am I saying, yes, you might be able to retire early if you work at Google a long time and are very diligent, but you probably could do the same at most other software jobs in the region.

The biggest advantage of these large companies is that the stock units + refreshers + stellar stock performance compounds wonderfully over time. Most other workers are chasing 5-10% raises every few years with poor 401k matching, no free food and no stocks so the gap widens over time.

[longtimegoogler]

I'm personally not L6+ and totally agree that if you can get to 6 then your compensation changes drastically.

At my previous company, I had stock options which had I held onto them would have been roughly comparable in value to my current stock grants.

But I agree that the biggest advantage over other companies are the stock grants, which have much less risk than supplemental compensation at other companies.

The moral of the story is that one really has to get to L6+ at Google to really earn money that one couldn't earn elsewhere.

IMO, that can be difficult depending on what projects you work on, your soft skills, and ability.

I routinely get solicited about jobs that have quite a bit higher compensation than Google's, particularly in finance.

[swat535]

I wish Toronto, Canada would pay such salaries.. Our COL is just as high, yet the median salary range for SWE is ~80k. Buying a house in TO proper is ~1.5M at the moment..

Honestly, folks in SV don't realize how good they have it.

[longtimegoogler]

In comparison, The median SWE salary is around ~123K in SV with a median home price in Mountain View of ~1.6m.

IMO, there are better options than SV. I would much rather be working in an area like Austin with a much more reasonable COL with a relatively small drop in median salary.

[Infinitesimus]

> The median SWE salary is around ~123K

A lot of the wealth is SV isn't from reported base salaries but from the issued company stocks (see levels.fyi for a subset )

[ivalm]

20 years out of school still puts you retiring in your 40s ...

[longtimegoogler]

See my comment above. Basically, this would be challenging to do even at Google depending on the level you get promoted to and requires total dedication to the above, i.e., saving aggressively.

I think the advantage of getting into Google right out of school is that you can start on that path right away.

I didn't get to Google until working for over 10 years at other companies and as such and I wasn't really planning for such a goal so, for me personally, I will be lucky if I can retire when I am 60.

[rorykoehler]

Most people are looking at never retiring at this stage. Retiring in your 40s puts you in a very exclusive bracket.

[longtimegoogler]

See my comment above. I think this might be rare even for most Googlers, but it is possibly doable depending on on the person.