Do you think your degree helped?
Is $240k a lot or a little as a senior SWE at a FAANG? Don't freshers hired out of school get offered tht much?
Any advice for others?
$240k seems in the range of normal for most of the FAANGs. Of course it can go much higher.
It doesn’t seem like the typical new hire just out of undergrad gets that much to start.
this is it? any reason for the toxicity? poor moderation?
As for salary, it depends on the company. In many places, this number would indeed be low. (See Netflix with its $300-$400k starting salaries.) At my company, it's maybe on the low-mid of the scale for employees who've had my position for a few years. (Last I checked, the range is approx. $200-$300k TC.) However, I considered it a very high offer indeed, given the large "gap" and general lack of corporate experience on my resume. I actually got in one level higher than I thought I would. (Though I've since come to realize that it was definitely the right slot for me.)
• 2011 — $80k at a startup in CA, a year out of college
• 2012 — $90k, and we got acquired by an industry big fish
• 2013 — $90k, but got laid off in the middle of the year
• 2013 through 2018 — making random software, traveling, and using up my savings; made some money, but not enough to count as "salary" in any real sense
• 2018 — $240k ($180k base) as a senior SWE at a FAANG
Given my long stretch of being a software ronin, I didn't expect to get what I got in 2018, but I did my research (mostly on Blind), asked for what I wanted, and then asked for a little more on top when I realized that I was selling myself short.