Bay Area HNers would be wise to remember this line. The number of times I see comments stating that it's easy or typical to make $175-200k/yr just a few years out of school is far too high.
The way I see it, he's already better off than a vast majority of people. Good pay, interesting work, professional validation. Why he's willing to risk it for a job he might hate for more money I can't figure out.
Fallacy of relative privation. If you can be making more, by all means move, and make more. This is healthy process in the industry where it's not uncommon to see 20-30% net margins. This cow has plenty of milk in it.
And it's possible to leave a kickass, satisfying job that pays well and end up at a job that pays better but isn't as satisfying, or has unforeseen tradeoffs. My point isn't that it's an either/or proposition -- it's that there are other things to consider besides money, and the culture around here doesn't seem to value that. Leaving one job for the next one is a calculated risk. The more times you do it, the more chances you end up in a place that doesn't hit all the sweet spots.
Absolutely. But you've changed the premise to fit your argument. Recall:
>He likes what he does, has no commute and practically sets his own hours.
In this case, a move after <1 year at BigCo is optimizing only for money. I'm starting to get the impression that there's something in Silicon Valley's fog that suppresses risk aversion -- or maybe it causes FOMO?
But it's always relative. If someone who does the same thing as you at a similar competence level, and they make 2-3X what you make, naturally you're going to feel agitated.
2. To some, yes, because BART is getting crowded so many end up standing in a wall to wall claustrophobic space.
3. They are climbing higher, especially since Uber is moving to there, and they're only the vanguard. It's also been discussed as a cheaper alternative to SF for at least two or three years now.
I managed to make do with 50K a year, but I lived in San Jose and didn't have the expenses of car ownership.
Living in SJ required a 20 minute walk to CalTrain and then a 45 minute ride to the city by CalTrain (if I caught the express) and then another 15 minute walk to work.
Even though 90k is ~3x the average personal income for the US, when you're living in one of the most expensive cities in the country, you can absolutely be broke on that.
You can argue it effectively pushes down the size of the offers people get, but you don't have to worry about it when you calculate your net take home.
My point was that on $90k in SF proper, if you want a "nice" place, even a 1BR or studio you're going to be spending a huge percentage of your income on rent and basic necessities.
For reference, with the cost of living being where it is, I'd say anything < $200k in the bay area is not enough to live on and save comfortably, but that's just my opinion. As far as I know, there aren't any startups offering $200k or above (or even close) for engineering jobs in the bay area.
When I was interviewing in San Francisco and Seattle at big companies (Zynga and Disney) a couple of years ago, they were wanting to pay me around $130k for a senior position, which didn't seem worth the move.
I also interviewed at Google and while I didn't get as far as salary negotiations, I was lead to believe by the recruiter, I think, that it would start around $110k-ish, although it also wasn't for a senior role.
I don't see how Dan Luu is thinking $200k+ salary is on the low end out there. If I could expect to get that I might actually consider moving to the west coast.
In my case at Goog, I started off with a small equity grant, vesting over 4 years. So after the first year, I had equity vesting every quarter.
Assuming you do ok/well, you'll get refresher grants every single year after that.
Fast forward 3 or 4 years, and you have 4 separate grants vesting every single quarter.
This quickly adds up to 50+K a year, and that's where these numbers come from, even if they're not reflected in your base pay.
By then, most people I assume have to much into a management track to see larger numbers (more responsibilities and the like with come with it).
Says: $94,803 or $116,175