salta2019

Blind is an anonymous messaging app where people talk about their salaries, employers, and other topics. It’s somewhat toxic.

$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.

Says he moved to NorCal in 2005. I’d wager this is not typical, even for the Bay Area.

I was hired by a professor who I’d worked with before. He’d just landed a very large grant, so he had some flexibility with the funding.

Some context: PhD in EE, but spend most of my time coding.

    2011: $100k, industry R&D lab, VA
    2012: $150k, “”, “”
    2013: $150k, “”, “”
    2014: $0, self-employed and didn’t turn a profit
    2015: $100k, academic researcher, Midwest 
    2016: $160k, industry R&D, SV
    2017: $165k, “”, “”
    2018: $170k, “”, “”

Since 2016, I’ve been working in SV for a company that pays engineers all cash, a modest bonus, and no stock. I like the work and people, but I feel like I’m leaving a lot of money on the table.

Almost anywhere else in the country, I’d be making a considerable amount of money. In SV, it doesn’t feel that way. Myself and most of my (unmarried) coworkers are in our 30s-40s and living in studio apartments. I couldn’t provide a family with the same lifestyle my parents gave me (a house, two cars, safe neighborhood, good school district, mother could stop working for several years to raise me), and they managed without college educations.

I’ve recently tried making the jump into a FAANG company or unicorn, but so far no luck. One company was willing to give feedback: I don’t have enough experience with large scale systems. It’s tough, because I’ve aged out of junior positions, but I guess I lack the right experience for experienced positions. Still have a couple irons in the fire though.