Comment by mgkimsal | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mgkimsal | Hacker News Reader

"That $6 million offer isn't something that Google would give everyone. It would have to be a really elite employee, although rumors say that this time it has to do with the employee being a female engineer. Even if her gender was the catalyst for such a high offer, we can safely presume that if she weren't worth it, she wouldn't be getting the money."

------------

How do you determine "if she weren't worth it"? Assuming this person has been at the company for a while, she's now only worth something like this relative to the value of Facebook having her on staff. The value the person is bringing to Google was never close to $6m, otherwise she would have already been getting that (or close to it). The $6m value to Google is in keeping whatever she knows away from Facebook.

Also, FWIW, these huge payouts to a few Googlers are primarily stock payouts, not cash. Is this $6m deal just a cash payment? $6m/year salary? This person probably has some very strategic knowledge which Google simply doesn't want Facebook to have.

"The value the person is bringing to Google was never close to $6m, otherwise she would have already been getting that (or close to it)."

This is rarely true, unfortunately. Salaries are determined when you join a company, before you've had a chance to bring any value to it. After you've joined there's usually just the annual increment to look forward to and maybe some once-off bonuses for exceptional achievements. It's very unusual for salaries to be adjusted otherwise, no matter how much value you've been bringing to a company... unless you indicate that you might be leaving - which is what seems to have happened in this case.

Probably true, a huge amount of game theory there that no doubt contributed to the scenario. But just because she wasn't worth $6m when she joined, it doesn't mean that she's not worth $6m now. Almost nobody (maybe 1 in a billion, and that's if you include professional athletes) is worth $6 million if they're only just starting out. But after establishing an amazing track record, that's when a lot of people are able to cash in. I think it may be naive if we attribute the dollar amount to only what knowledge she can bring to Facebook, and disregard whatever merit she can bring herself to the table. When was the last time you heard of someone being paid millions to just shut up and do paperwork in the basement mail room? I think that stuff is just for spy novels, no?

I know of a few cases(I can think of 3 off the top of my head) where people are paid a few million to "shut up and do paperwork"(or not do so). All involving very high level people who are planning on leaving a company and that company not wanting them to go work for a competitor so they get a fat cheque and a contract saying they won't work for a year or 2.

An executive, OK. But a non-senior engineer?

Having assisted in negotiating a couple of those multi-million dollar offers, that is absolutely correct. Most of those offers aren't going to "successful senior people." They're going to people who were repeatedly passed over for promotions despite doing great work (i.e., people who fail to manage their careers properly).

I've read this a few times and am trying to parse exactly what you mean.

The million dollar offers tend to go to people who keep their head down and quietly work hard, possibly doing less-than-glamorous work (As opposed to the big-shot high flying 'executive' who get their photo in the company newsletter)?

That seems counter-intuitive to me - but - maybe it's because the "company newsletter types" are already getting the recognition and compensation they deserve? Or at the very least get the opportunity to discuss those factors more often?

That's because those are the people most likely to apply to another job! The people I know getting the big packages aren't waiting to be "noticed." That's not likely to happen since they weren't recognized where they were. They took a proactive approach and shopped around for a new job.

Only then were their contributions recognized internally and the big offers were required to keep them as they were already pissed off.

Trust me, it's not the fast track people who are getting the giant paydays right now. Those people are sitting pretty and already have substantial awards and wouldn't bother interviewing elsewhere.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com