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Comment by GnomeSaiyan | Hacker News Reader

Nobody is making $300k as a junior engineer. And certainly not getting promoted to senior engineer within a year on top of that. Stop talking out of your ass.

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Well I do know someone who pulls that as a junior but he also has a PhD in inverse kinematics simulation and that job was really needed.

Great I also know Elon

> Nobody is making $300k as a junior engineer. And certainly not getting promoted to senior engineer within a year on top of that. Stop talking out of your ass.

>>Well I do know someone who pulls that as a junior but he also has a PhD in inverse kinematics simulation and that job was really needed.

This is the problem with using words like nobody, always, etc. Someone will usually (see what I did there?) come along with one single piece of anecdata and think the original statement is invalid.

This ~always happens.

you're taking me too seriously. I'm sardonically pointing out that the parameters for the original statement to be possible exist, but they are at least two standard deviations over the median reader of HN, even, thereby supporting the sentiment of the parent post (if not the letter of the parent post), not undermining it.

I think the point is you're being taken too seriously here because someone almost always comes into these types of discussion and makes the same point you did in a serious way, then claims victory for refuting the original claim.

Your post does nothing but make noise and clutter the discussion. It's frustrating when someone points out a fact that is overwhelmingly true and someone else jumps in with some ridiculous counterexample, even if your intention is to do it sarcastically.

That's like pointing out the secretary of defense is a rich secretary.. He didn't get the job for his typing skills.

The poster above is inflating by about 15-25%. The “junior”/L4/E4 , level (one above entry level and one below senior) makes ~$270k at Google/Facebook according to levels.fyi [0]. Senior comp can vary more because the band is wide but $500k year would be possible with some stock appreciation.

0 - https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook&track=Softwa...

E4/L4 is SDE2 (intermediate).

https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Google,Facebook,Microsoft&tr...

Explore this site, it'll open up a whole new world of SDE pay at unicorns / startups / FANGMULA. I'd look at the entry level positions for maybe ... Dropbox or something, or Stripe. Those two off the top of my head get pretty close to 300k for "junior" engineer - SWE I.

Stripe is still private company: the SDE1 "my stock > FAANG" folks shouldn't consider that yet until they're fully vested.

The rest tier-1, tier-2 are on avg below 200k. Some get closer to 200k but majority are not. Facebook would be the "gold standard" for now.

> Stripe is still private company: the SDE1 "my stock > FAANG" folks shouldn't consider that yet until they're fully vested.

Fully vested and liquid and have taken the tax hit one often gets in IPO situations (if applicable).

I'm just saying, the claim is that no "junior engineer" can make 300k. That's pretty false. You can also look into HFT "junior engineers" like at Citadel which will clear 300k easily. Facebook return offers for new grad can hit very close to 300k, and there are definitely other companies that pay just as much, if not more. Of course, it's rare, and these people are in elite air.

I would categorized HFT eng on a different category (they, historically, always are outside of the typical SWE)

They make 200k base but have 0.5M bonuses (or more depending on the HF perf).

That FB eng that got return offer for 300k? Most likely just the only one. Probably not because of elite but because of niche skill (SME/PhD in a specific field that happened to be relevant). Probably skipped I3 to I4. Majority (95%) of FB I3 won't get close to 300k.

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