Comment by a1pulley | Hacker News Reader

Comment by a1pulley | Hacker News Reader

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> "At WilmerHale 1st year counsel makes $350,000. The 24 year old 1st year summer associate still in law school walks into the office in a $1,500 Burberry suit and makes $202,500 that year. Those Amazon workers they swindled out of higher wages make less than $30,000 a year."

The 200k figure is for a first-year associate who has graduated and passed the bar exam [1].

It's interesting to me that you can only hope to crack 300k at a top law firm after working for five years and going to law school for three. I.e., not until you're over 30.

The majority of SWEs at FAANG companies get there in two years. I.e., at age 24 [2]. Some might say the potential upside of becoming a partner outweighs higher early career SWE income, but I would retort that making director or VP are comparable accomplishments; not everyone makes partner.

Social status hasn't caught up to income, though; family and friends outside my tech circle still respect law and medicine more than engineering.

[1] https://www.wilmerhale.com/en/careers/lawyers/entry-level-or...

[2] levels.fyi

The majority of SWEs at FAANG companies do not make that. Depending on company and location, they might get a sign-on stock grant that could theoretically get them approaching that, but that doesn’t take into account vesting schedules and cliffs. It’s assuming a best-case scenario and certainly not “the majority.” And even then, a new hire low level SWE straight out of college isn’t often going to get a $500k stock grant on-hire, no matter what levels says. And certainly no matter what Blind says.

Perhaps "majority" wasn't the right word. Other than Levels (see below), I don't have evidence to back that up.

However, you're not comparing apples to apples. The pools of students who are targeted for FAANG or top law firm recruitment go to the same universities. People who would be able to get through law school and get an offer from a top firm can get a solid FAANG offer. I believe that those students get > $200k total comp offers from FAANG right out of college.

Vesting cliffs have been replaced with immediate monthly vesting at many companies, including at least two FAANGs, making that part of your package as similar to cash as stock compensation can get.

I agree that Levels has a data problem: sometimes people report numbers from W-2s (counting stock appreciation), sometimes they report offer letter numbers. Moreover, the numbers there suffer from selection bias; people with high numbers are more likely to report them.

But let me offer some anecdotal evidence: everyone on my team and sister teams received > 200k offers right out of college; we are generalist SWEs at a FAANG. Same for all my friends at similar companies.

I would bet the per hour compensation is much higher, and general quality of life is much higher across similar age groups. Not to mention avoiding expenses of law school.

Those FAANG are also in HCOL locations. SWE roles in smaller towns and other states then the coasts don't command nearly as high a salary.

Associates at top firms live in HCOL areas at similar rates as SWEs at FAANG companies.

levels.fyi shows 300k+ salaries for senior engineers at FAANG’s. Senior engineers are typically not 2 years out of college. Some exceptions I’m sure, but certainly not the majority.

Not to mention the upside of owning equity in a startup that IPO’s.

Plenty examples of doordash/airbnb/etc. SWE’s with less than 5 YoE making +$1M TC thanks to their equity

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