Holy crap, I didn't realize that starting salary at Google was $175K. That seems a bit high for new college hires, but I suppose I'm comparing that to my salary as a freshie sdet.
No, $172,000 is the median for year 1. Even $200k+ total comp at year 1 is typical for Google in the bay.
The significant increases in bonus pay for higher levels reflect stock vesting for year 2/3/4/5 employees.
Edit: "Google" in the bay
At any rate, I've received more than my fair share of $200k+ 1st year total comp offers for _start ups_ in SF for positions that only wanted 2-3 years experience. So, I wouldn't be so surprised.
Myself, I make $160k base salary at a small company in Palo Alto (was offered that at 2.5 years of experience), and know I could've gotten a lot more elsewhere.
I'm going to say that's a huge stretch.
With insane variances between the teams offcourse.
It's harder to see who will be amongst the best engineers early on in someone's career. Each person develops their abilities at different speeds & times in their lives.