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Comment by corporateslave2 | Hacker News Reader

compensation for engineers is still lower at Goldman than at tech firms, nice try Goldman.

Maybe a minority view but, pay me a suit salary because I actually want to wear a suit. I'm a professional, not your friend's tech-savvy kid.

I think this is a minority view, I used to have to wear suits for work and its a pain making considerations for them.

I've only ever done tshirt and jeans stuff. I couldn't imagine wearing a suit every day, but it might be fun to have a "dress up Fridays".

Ideally, anyone could wear whatever they want whenever they want. In practice, it doesn't seem to work out this way, even at the tshirts and jeans companies.

Bunch of the teams I've worked with over the years have had "formal fridays". I can confirm it was a fun tradition.

I thought I was the only one!

What kind of company did you work for where this happened?

In this case a "suit salary" would be lower than a non-suit salary, so I don't get it.

That pendulum swings back and forth. Currently AI/tech is on top but I would not bet it will stay like this forever

How far back do you have to go for finance to beat tech in pay?

Yesterday? When has tech ever beat finance in pay?

For engineers it almost always does, unless you are the top .001% of talent.

In London at least this was not the case. Startup salaries today are often at the same level as bank internships. The US (particularly SF) is a very different market.

SF has no finance companies.

You are comparing a bank to a startup which is an absurd comparison. Compare Goldman to Google and guess what Google wins (even in London).

Banking salaries have been static for 10+ years. Bank internship salaries are designed to allure and impress but 5+ years in and the salary does not change.

On another note there are some startups who can pay very very well in London but they do not advertise these salaries.

Finance already beats tech, apart from that small handful of ultra high paying roles in that handful of companies like Google.

Only if you are a Trader or an Investment Banker (note not the other 98% of people working at the firm i.e. Tech, Quant, Operations, Finance, HR) in which case you are already the handful of people such as the ultra high paid at Google as either your career is going to be very short once they find out you can't make money or you are very good (very few people) and you will make a fortune.

What is your view (or anyone else reading this) on software dev QoL in the tech industry vs. non-tech firms in finance or energy/O&G?

Are tech companies open to hiring from different industries, like the ones listed above?

I honestly think finance is overall a worse deal, I used to think it was the panacea of making money. There is the chance that you can make 600 - 800k in finance as a senior developer, but you need to either be incredibly intelligent or incredibly hard working, generally you need an ivy league degree.

A year or so ago I received an offer from a well known quant hedge fund, I spoke to a google recruiter to see if they could match, to my surprise right there on the phone he told me they never get beat out and that they would beat the offer by 50k.

The hours are much better in tech, you get treated better, and at Facebook/Google/Amazon/other big tech firm you have less variance in pay.

That recruiter must have been pretty inexperienced to talk like that.

You should seriously question your compensation if a recruiter is willing to top you up 50k without a second thought. Chances are you are severely underpaid.

It was a google in house recruiter. The firm I had an offer from was known to hire highly vetted people

When you have another offer on the table the best move for the recruiter is to make the serious offer then and there and try take care of the situation to avoid any further bidding.

They want you for as cheap as they can get you but if someone else is willing to pay more then almost always they can afford it.

There are also a lot of fintech firms which pay more, and specifically advertise themselves as more 'hip' (e.g. Jane Street et al). Though I would imagine the good jobs are very hard to come by these days.

source?

Worked there for 7 years, can confirm.

Can if I ask what makes you stay there? Also for perspective what type of role do you have their.

> worked

Started family, needed stable income and insurance, salary was still plenty to finance savings and a comfortable life in NYC. They also let me go remote without a second thought when I asked.

I quit last year to look after my kids and do my own thing, although the decision was driven more by boredom than any desire for more pay.

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