I hate this system as well, but are you absolutely sure it’s only 10-20%? Many of my colleagues who switch jobs often (who are all mediocre at best) make twice as me and I already make happy money.

Money isn’t everything, for sure, so if you’re happy here stay here. But let’s not blow things out of proportion. Ranting about an exercise that involves only your brain for 30 minutes that could turn to hundreds of thousands of dollars to gain, sounds like a kid ranting about exams. Do you know other jobs involve physical labor? Have you seen cheerleader tryouts? No one owes anyone any luxury. If a company decides for any stupid reason that they want to keep a hard interview then it’s their prerogative.

Exactly. Someone senior with 6+yrs of exp can easily make $400-600k. So unless you're already making $300k+, it's far more than 10-20%.

I'm at 15+ years of experience and not even close to that. You're describing a small fringe of the industry.

Same but it's not because it's not possible, it's because we simply have not bargained well enough for ourselves. This decade I decided to, and I'm already seeing what the OP laid out. Literally, until you ask for what you're worth, you will continue to get low balled.

I seem to be stuck. Even companies that at first seem amenable to giving me a significant increase always try to talk me down later in the hiring process. Dropped out of a few because of that.

Recently went through the leetcode circus myself and ended up with an offer in this range, thus 4-5x my previous salary, and I have 7 years of experience. The interview had almost nothing to do with my work experience (which isn't that great btw) except for the behavioral portion. I am not exceptional either - most HN comments go over my head really quickly. Now I can actually think about affording real estate and starting a family.

Companies that can pay this much aren't rare. They're all in plain sight. FAANG, Coinbase, Stripe, Brex, to name a few.

6 years at 600k is a stretch. 400k is very doable though. I think you're looking at closer to 10+ years to hit the higher end of 600k (at big tech)

I keep hearing this, but which positions are they and what job history are they looking for?

Tech Lead, Staff Engineer, Principle Engineer, CTO, etc.

The industry is doing just fine. You're assuming everybody else is as reluctant to get hazed as you are.

No its not. Even Google has to change its hiring practices and move away with the current system, as it is creating a lot of noise. (i.e. hiring people that are good at leetcode, while great engineers are being left out just because they don't have time to practice stupid/pointless problems).

The weird thing is that now you even have small dipsh!t start ups that have even harder/longer interview process and questions than some of the large tech cos, which doesn't make sense. It is a form a cargo cult following that it is detrimental to the whole industry.

1. Google is skiping phone screening for many (more experienced folks, as they found it was low value, and filtering out really good candidates. Yet many startups keep doing them.

2. Google is going towards a team hiring strategy, where specialized skills will be more valued, rather than the current 'generic leetcode' process.

3. I just went through an interview process of an old startup/not yet IPO company, and had to go through 10 stages!!

1. Recruiter screening

2. Phone Screening

3-8. A full round with 6 interviews (6 hrs long).

9. Final manager interview/round

10. Call for references, which a previous manager was a must

It was insane, like I was interviewing for a CEO and not just another IC Engineer role. At some point, I started refusing companies that had extremely long processes. They almost are never worth it.

I am currently a hiring manager at Google looking for somewhat specialized skill sets, but all the candidates I see are still going through the usual rounds of coding interviews.

By using the process you do you end up with the most money hungry candidates with the specialized skills you require. You end up with more candidates from the bottom half of the resume pile disparate enough to spend hours weekly learning to game these types of interviews.

I went through a google interview process 10 years ago - only made it a couple rounds in and it did not go well. Started getting recruiter emails from them again recently; either they forgot that I suck, or they're getting desperate. In any case, I only do remote work now, so feh.

>Call for references, which a previous manager was a must

I've literally never had references contacted. Where are you located?

I dropped out of the process when a company asked me to get a reference from my current manager... for a job I had not yet left. I responded quizically and they amended it to "we'd make a conditional offer". I said I was uncomfortable leaving a job where I had (as I would hope most do) some guilt about putting them in a challenging position, wanting to keep a strong personal relationship and then saying "Hey, can you be a reference for my new (i.e. better) gig?" They couldn't udnerstand this perspective, so no thanks!

That's extremely bizarre

Old USA, and this is a famous tech, (YC Seeded, SF Bay Area), company (older, and semi-large, but not public yet).

I have had this 'references', but requiring a former manager was a first. The whole process had way more interviewing rounds than Meta and Google did. At least Google decided to skip the phone screen for me.

Sounds like Stripe. I gave a (peer) reference check for a former colleague. They asked a lot more than title and dates of employment.

lol they don't have to do shit they just buy whatever they don't have anyway

is it really?

> This industry dug its own grave

The industry found a way to retain talent for cheap, a. la "I'll never leave my current company at this point"

This is why I tend to hop between jobs with people I know already. You get to skip all the hassle. Since I’m senior enough to have that option, the companies who make you solve stupid puzzles in real-time will simply never attract me. To me it’s also a signal that they are an “insert cog here” style of company which isn’t a fit for me.

"Dug its own grave" how? You make it seem like big tech companies are on their last legs or something.

One potentially interesting place to begin investigating this assertion is with a search using the string "tech companies desperate for talent".

What happens when you're let go due to downsizing or just straight up fired?