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Comment by xaybey | Hacker News Reader

I make significantly more at GS than I did at google. The difference is that the majority of my compensation comes from the yearly bonus - a quirk in finance.

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As a regular engineer? Or is there a math heavy component?

My understanding is that I could get about 200k base at goldman and maybe a 20% bonus, this is for working in a high in demand field. Google/FB/Other job I can get 300k+ while working less hours, paid for lunch, better treatment, more respect.

That's a realistic compensation package for a normal Sr engineer role at a big bank ime. No, it's not Goog/FB pay but a lot of the jobs are available in LCOL areas like Delaware and the Triangle fwiw.

That's the biggest thing some people don't take into account when it comes to salaries: cost of living. $300k is not always more money than $200k.

Google / Facebook / Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have equivalent grades and conditions. Employees regularly goes back and forth between them.

More important than the company name, you should make sure to join the right role for you in the right group.

Interesting. I work for a direct GS competitor and compensation is nowhere near FANG level, not even with bonus accounted for

This would imply you're at the Director level or above at GS. I expect you were L5 or less at Google, so this would make sense, but I'd expect Director at a big bank to be equivalent to an L6+ role at a Google or FB, or am I totally off base somewhere. (that is, you aren't really expected to make director)

I've seen non director (pres) level offer packages up to $300k including guaranteed bonus minimum.

Those are well within what an L5 could get at Google. Unless you mean 300K base and a significant (ie 30-50% bonus).

That's non-director level, upper end of the vp level.

I'm not quite sure what your point is. Mine was that their bonus being > salary implied a role/level at a bank that was higher than what they likely had at Google, so a commensurate salary increase would make sense.

Could you explain what you're getting at?

Just that pay is high for basically a sr engineer at the right location (close to the money).

The fact that bonus is 50+% of base is normal for those roles, more normal than faang comp. Compensation is just structured differently, so it isn't useful to use it as a measure of seniority between the two industries.

Right, and my point is 300K all in is not more than senior comp at a FAANG.

Oh I misunderstood the first time reading this comment. Bonus > salary pretty much never ever happens in Tech, until you're in an executive role.

It happens earlier in banks, but for most banks, it still happens at the level of Director (as opposed to Partner), not VP. I wasn't comparing comp structure to compare seniority. I was using comp structure to guess at seniority within the ladder of BB Banks and then comparing roles.

It depends. In a back office role, you will have a more traditional salary plus 20% bonus. Infrastructure at a bank might be have a higher bonus component even at pres level.

On the trading desk, your bonus is often often open ended, or if you are doing strategy work then a percent of pnl.

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