200k for sr in the valley is not weird.

Remember: it's not year 5 of your career. It's year 5 of your tenure at one company. It's a little unusual for people to stay longer than 4 years at most companies.

Then there is a selection bias: only those who manage to make it to the 200k level stay long enough, the others (the large majority) understand after a few years that their present company is not gonna promote them to that level and try to find greener pastures.

I mean, there is totally a selection bias, but we're talking about companies that have lots of 5+ year people there making that salary.

What companies are paying 5 year senior enigneers $200k base salary in the Valley???

The best approximation of an answer to that question I can find is "virtually every large non-startup tech company in the valley that isn't Cisco".

If that's the case, shouldn't there be evidence (other than anecdotal comments via HN) to support that?

Not that it's so far fetched that big Valley firms are paying over $200k base salary, but if it was so prevalent, I'd expect to see more concrete evidence to support that.

Literally, ask any friend working as SWE in any of those companies - they will confirm numbers. You are pretty much guaranteed to make that money in 5 years if you get promoted with average velocity.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but wouldn't this: https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-San-Francisco-Salari...

be more indicative than asking a person first hand what they make? I don't think saying 'personally confront friends/workers at said companies about salaries' is anymore reliable than anonymously submitted.

Look at total compensation - average total compensation says ~$238k for senior, which certainly seems to confirm numbers...and they may be higher currently since I'd guess that those numbers probably span across a number of years. Google SF is a smaller office also.

That's total compensation.

The claims I'm interested in regard Base salary.

I hate to be put in this position, but I have to call BS. This entire thread is highly biased towards people who make more: people who make more want to chime in, people who make less are more embarrassed / discouraged from chiming in.

I'm a natural (coding since 3rd grade), out of college for 6 years, and I've only known 1 engineer in my career who made over 200k. Now if by BigCo you mean Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, then I don't know them, so I can't comment.

But if by BigCo you mean IBM, Cisco, Intel, etc then I can guarantee you that I don't know a single person making 250k, and glassdoor generally corroborates (if you google STAFF (> senior) software engineer in SF for IBM your average is 132 base in SF)

Where do you live? These numbers are fairly local to SF/NYC/Seattle, with other large cities trailing a bit and smaller cities farther behind.

That said, in those cities they are far from absurd. I started out similar to you (coding since elementary school) and now live in NYC ~3.5 years out of college. Off the top of my head, I could name half a dozen developers making seven figures, and at least 100 making over $200k.

I live in San Francisco, and have for about 4 years.

I'm shocked you know the salaries of 100 other developers. Care to share some of the companies that are paying this much to developers 3.5 years out of college? I'd love to corroborate on glassdoor.

I don't know exact salaries of that many people, but I know payscales at a couple high-paying companies and people who work there, so I put 2 and 2 together. I wouldn't count people who are borderline since there's a bit of estimating involved. I would slightly less confidently put the same group of people at $250k or more.

I recently turned down an offer from Google for $270k total comp, so they're definitely one of the high-paying companies. I know Facebook pays similarly well, but have no interest in working there. Being in NYC, though, the highest paying are mostly in finance.

I've found Glassdoor to run very low for higher-paying positions, though. Their numbers are all salary as far as I can tell, while a large portion of compensation is in RSUs and bonuses (40%-90% at compensation levels of $250k and up).

At least 6 developers making over $1M? Doing what?

They likely work on trading desks at hedge funds.

Facebook, Salesforce, LinkedIn. And that's just what I have either direct or first-hand knowledge of.

AppAmaGooFaceSoft and every company which is isomorphic to them. Tens of thousands of people have this pay package.

I don't think Amazon compensates that much - I interviewed with them this past summer, and they tried to lowball me. I gave a firm number that I would not go below after giving some numbers I have turned down in the past, and the process stalled indefinitely. I have also heard stories about Apple lowballing friends as well, to the point startups were giving higher compensation. The others, I have heard stories about or could believe.

You were probably down leveled based on the interview. The comp will max out lower (and therefore the offer won't be able to budge significantly higher) than you may achieve somewhere that did not downlevel you.

I don't think so - I am pretty certain I aced both technical phone screens, answered the questions fast, and explained everything clearly with a high level understanding of everything asked (including all the nuances) while remaining calm & jovial the whole way. The technical screens were some of the easiest interviews I've ever had.

I should note that I didn't get to the in-person interview, and that was because salary negotiations start beforehand. I did my research afterwards, and everything I found seemed to point towards cheapness.

Having worked there, I am not sure I believe you. An SDE interview is a single phone screen before onsite. Salary is also not negotiated before an onsite + offer in hand. I was a hiring manager and often matched or exceeded competing offers from MSFT/GOOG, so our pay was not significantly different. The only difference is that Amazon base pay maxes out lower (at about 160k) and therefore RSUs make up a larger portion of salary for higher level positions.

I can come up with a few on top of my head: Netflix, Apple, Google

I don't think anyone makes $200k base at Netflix after 5 years as a serious SWE. "Starts with a 3" is what I've heard pretty consistently.

Do you have sources for this information?

Is 200k median salary, or an outlier for the top senior engineer there?

The top senior engineer at Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn is not making $200k.

More than 10 years ago, my in-the-door offer as one member of a team of 5-6 senior developers at an east coast tech firm was higher than $200k.

> The top senior engineer at Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn is not making $200k.

Fair point. The Top engineer at each of those companies is making more than $200k.

Edited for clarity.

What he meant is that they are making far more than $200k, which makes his next sentence illustrative as an example.

I understood what he was saying, and I concurred to his statement: that top engineers at Google et al, are making more than $200k

Not only are they making more than 200k, they are making WAY more than 200k.

Source:

http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/netflix-inc/2015

http://data.jobsintech.io/companies/google-inc/2015?utf8=%E2...

It's not median - it's maybe median if you select only for senior-level engineers, most of our industry leans quite young.

The "outlier for top engineers" at the above companies are in the $500k+ range. I'm being entirely serious.

Are you a senior engineer? Are you at a large company in a metropolitan area? Is your salary less than $250k?

If you answered yes to all three, yes, you are probably underpaid. That doesn't mean you're doing something wrong if you love your job, but know that you could earn more.

I'm sorry but... if you were a senior software engineer in Sacramento (a metropolitan city) and asked for 200k at intel, hp, oracle, apple, etc., someone would quietly hang up the phone hahaha. A laughable amount is even closer to 150k if it wasn't a tech giant ie. Sutter, Blue Shield, Proctor & Gamble, PG&E, Franklin Templeton, etc.

Lead, architect, principal... they may not hang up but I would expect a double take and a "let's be realistic."

This whole conversation is about pay at tech companies, where developers are the primary revenue generator, as opposed to other industries where developers are generally considered a cost center.

Agreed, doesn't take much looking on sites like glassdoor to confirm.. Most salary bands for principal roles are 120-150k w/ 15-20k bonus and occasionally same in stock.

When Sacramento is a 2 hour drive away, why don't you move to Fremont and work in SF, Mountain View or San Jose?

> Are you at a large company in a metropolitan area?

...on the West Coast or Northeast, sure. It's my understanding that $250k is a little high for other cities, unfortunately. Hopefully the corporate culture there catches up.

Otherwise, a lot of engineers are getting used to living off of some sort of bubble.

I recently got an offer from Google for 270k total comp (<4 years experience, nyc). I would expect tenure to be worth a sizable amount over that, and it's my understanding that nyc is very similar to silicon valley.

You and me, both, brother.

I'm not sure why your comment is grey; it's spot on, although it's not likely a sentiment that HN folks are fond of.

On the other hand, your second paragraph is exactly true in my case. But still...