from Hacker News

Ask HN: How much do you make at Facebook/Amazon/Apple/Netflix/Google/Microsoft?

by 4k on 1/4/18, 1:31 PM with 149 comments

There was a proper discussion on it about two years ago. Recently a similar thread was posted, but not to many response.

I do not work at any of the above. I work at a fintech company and make 80k + Bonus (Europe) with no equity (12 years experience, senior dev).

  • by ixtli on 1/4/18, 2:37 PM

    For anyone reading this: contributing how much you make honestly empowers everyone in our field to bargain for themselves. The ability to bargain is orthogonal to the art of engineering afaict but is whats mostly responsible for how you are compensated for your labor.

  • by rndmswethrwawy on 1/4/18, 2:24 PM

    Staff SWE, Google Seattle.

    Total 2018 comp will be around 550k with a roughly 55/45 equity/cash split if GOOG shares remain constant. Historically they have typically gone up meaningfully over the course of any given year.

    The cash component includes base salary and bonus.

  • by gigatexal on 1/4/18, 3:05 PM

    Everyone needs to quit complaining about the sample size and the like and bringing up things like Glassdoor and just answer the prompt. The lack of transparency in salaries keeps us all at a disadvantage

  • by personatgoogle on 1/4/18, 3:05 PM

    SWE II [1], Google Cambridge, MA. I was hired in 2016 with a little under 2 years of professional experience, with total compensation of about $150k and a roughly 75/25 cash/equity split. The equity has risen in value significantly, the cash only slightly.

    [1]: I believe this is a relatively normal entry point for people either just out of school or with 1-2 years experience.

  • by busterarm on 1/4/18, 3:04 PM

    "Senior Fullstack Dev" in NY at a non-tech company.

    Currently 100k + 5k (bonuses, i've gotten 20k bonuses here in the past but those days are gone). Roughly 35-40 hrs/week with only two week-long crunch times in about 3 years.

    I currently have offers for 135k + worthless equity (startup) and 110k (non tech company). Waiting to hear back about a Systems Engineer role offering in the 100-125k range (hot tech company).

    Part of changing gigs at the moment is to plan to take on additional work on the side to increase my compensation. Not possible in my current role.

    I started off making 60k as a developer and not even that long ago...proving value added 40k on to my salary quickly, but honestly I negotiated poorly. I left at least 25k on the table starting.

  • by mrep on 1/4/18, 3:52 PM

    If you are interested in compensation numbers and have thick skin (its anonymous so there is a lot of racism/sexism/bullshitters/negative hostility and more), I recommend getting the mobile app blind as there is a ton of this information there. I will regurgitate some of that information here for you though.

    For level comparison at different companies, lots of people point to http://levels.fyi

    Here is a compensation poll for amazon employees only based on job title and level with 161 responses: https://goo.gl/V9QKHh

    The total compensation rages I have heard for Amazon are 145k for new grads, 170k-230k for SDE 2, 250k-350k for SDE 3, 400k-600k for principal engineers. There are 2 more levels after that but have not really seen any data for those levels.

    Here are Facebook's total compensation numbers quoted from "fmwf":

    E3: 107K-125 Salary, 40k stocks a year, 10% bonus.

    E4: 140k-160k Salary, 70k stocks a year, 10% bonus.

    E5: 170k-195k Salary, 120k stocks a year, 15% bonus.

    E6: 200k-220k Salary, 200k stocks a year, 20% bonus.

    All Facebook numbers assuming expected performance if you kill expectations you get more (25%-200% more shares).

  • by ApplThwaway100 on 1/4/18, 2:17 PM

    $160k, $105k RSUs over 4 years, $15k signing bonus - started half a year ago, currently have a little more than 5 years of experience as a software engineer.

  • by joatmon-snoo on 1/4/18, 2:10 PM

  • by bootsz on 1/4/18, 2:10 PM

    There's a lot of posts on HN related to this, some with links to spreadsheets of anonymized data:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14538984

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15501158

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11331223

  • by 0xff78d4a4 on 1/4/18, 3:26 PM

    SWE III (One level above new grad) in Boulder, CO with 4 years at Google: ~$225k total comp with 60/40 cash [Salary+Bonus]/equity.

    For reference, Google's ladder goes: SWE II -> SWE III -> Senior SWE -> Staff SWE -> Senior Staff SWE -> Principal -> Distinguished.

  • by busterarm on 1/4/18, 3:17 PM

    One request here, can people include a rough estimate of how many hours they work weekly to add some perspective?

  • by anonymous2018 on 1/4/18, 3:50 PM

    W2 Contractor Senior Software Engineer, $85/hr, REACT/Rails Posting as anonymous. Regular HN user here. I work in Denver, Colorado at a TV company. I am a contractor through a local tech firm. I am making $85 an hour on a W2 open ended contract. Through my contracting company, I get access to 401k (no match), medical/dental/vision (company pays atleast 50%) and they send me to conferences/training.

    I really dig the gig, they treat me like an employee but pay me like a contractor. I tend to take 5-6 weeks of time off (unpaid) so I tend to make $160,000-165,000 at the end of the year.

    My background is about 10 years of tech experience. Working on React currently. CS degree.

  • by goog_new_grad on 1/4/18, 4:25 PM

    Recent new grad that joined Google in the past few months.

    Total comp (base + bonus + stock + signing bonus amortized over 4 years) is 185k. Higher than expected because of recent stock increases & I negotiated with competing offers.

    TC next year will be closer to 200k.

    (throwaway account)

  • by hnthrowawayden on 1/4/18, 3:13 PM

    Denver, CO and not any of the big companies mentioned in the title.

    34 years old, approx 7 years experience. MS stack.

    $125k plus annual bonus of approx $9-10k. 2019 hoping annual salary pushes the $135k mark.

  • by alanmessy on 1/4/18, 2:57 PM

    What about Stack Overflow's yearly survey? That's got a lot of people and has data for salaries by job and geography. It won't tell you where they're working, though. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2017#salary

    ETA: 5yrs exp, Dev III in logistics; $95K/year, ~$6k in stock, insurance fully paid by company.

  • by AndrewDucker on 1/4/18, 1:54 PM

    Glassdoor is the place you want to go for this kind of information. You're not going to get anywhere near a large enough sample from a few comments on HN.

  • by aoeuasdf1 on 1/4/18, 6:04 PM

    I make 290k total comp as a SWE III at Google.

    I would make around 240k if my initial stock grants hadn’t nearly doubled in value since I joined. I will probably actually make less money once my 4 year grant runs out, all things being equal.

    5 years total experience.

  • by southphillyman on 1/4/18, 3:58 PM

    Is there a way for an outsider to figure out which level they would be slotted into if they passed the interview process? For instance if you are a "senior engineer" at an average company, would Google only interview you for Senior+ roles or could you potentially interview for any available job and be evaluated and hired as say SWE II or something?

  • by austinengineer on 1/5/18, 4:26 AM

    IBM, Austin, TX, band 10 (Senior Technical Staff Member)

    Base salary: 190k / yr base salary, ~6k / yr performance bonus

    Equity Grant: ~$125k stock grant, vesting twice in four years, so ~$31k/yr stock presuming I stay for all four years

    So - total annual compensation (excluding healthcare benefits and our 6% 401k match) is about $216k annually.

  • by JofArnold on 1/5/18, 9:50 AM

    Something I’d love someone to explain: in USA as in UK contract developers seem to be paid around $600-1000 a day with a few exceptions. In the UK this is higher than at least 95% of the permanent jobs I see - which is what you’d expect given you’re hiring an expert who is taking on some risk.... But in the USA (if the data in this post is to be believed) I’m seeing even inexperienced graduates earn more than experienced contractor devs. Is that right?

    Also, I’m curious; I read figures like $400-600k... Is that actual salary you see on your wage slip or wrapped up in that are things like healthcare that you never “see” normally?

    I’m curious because these figures are astonishingly high and I’m wondering 1) how on earth do startups find devs 2) how on earth there’s any developers over 30 when you can become a millionaire and retire early.

  • by duckwheat on 1/4/18, 4:04 PM

    I'm at a gigantic (50k+ employees), soul-sucking company that is mostly nontechnical business consulting, working remote as a Software Architect from a borderline-BFE city. $105k + 150%ish 401k match up to 5% of pay + decent benefits. Supposedly some kind of bonus next month.

  • by 317070 on 1/4/18, 3:19 PM

    London, 0 experience, have Phd. Google Research Scientist:90k£ base, 100k£ bonus and stock

  • by newgoogle on 1/4/18, 6:41 PM

    Google, swe 2, 2y prior experience, didn't finish degree, Bay area.

    205k total, 45k from stock

  • by kzisme on 1/4/18, 4:43 PM

    This might sound silly, but to get a position at Google is it mostly experience or just white boarding practice?

    Is it possible to go from new grad -> first job -> Google? By that progression I mean what sort of background is required language/stack/etc aside from studying and practicing?

  • by Mitchhhs on 1/4/18, 2:24 PM

    Check out https://www.transparentcareer.com you can filter by any function in the organization, educational background, years of experience, recency of data, etc. We tried to include as much granularity as possible to avoid the issues with glassdoor. After you sign up, navigate to the career explorer, you should be able to get the information you need without being required to add a ton of personal information. More information is required if you want to get to the highest levels of granularity.

  • by pc86 on 1/4/18, 4:06 PM

    It would be nice if HN had a system to allow new accounts to post in threads like this without getting the "you're posting too fast" message on the first comment.

  • by superkitty on 1/5/18, 3:44 AM

    155K + 15K signing bonus + 25k yearly bonus+ some equity (10% of base salary/4 years = vesting)- Boston, MA Sr SWE

  • by lostmsu on 1/5/18, 2:21 AM

    SDE II Amazon Seattle, ~$200k total/y

  • by kowdermeister on 1/4/18, 2:08 PM

    You probably want to setup a form for this. You would get much more willingness to share anonymously.

    Also, which country in EU?

  • by krapp on 1/4/18, 10:55 PM

    12.50 USD/hr.

    Hi from Amazon's shit tier.

  • by ask066941158 on 1/5/18, 12:41 AM

    FB/Google figures here are mostly from the US, but can someone enlighten me on theirs UK offers? Particularly, Google/Dublin and Facebook/London - are they on the same level? Or 1.x less?

  • by johnvanommen on 1/4/18, 2:12 PM

  • by cottrell on 1/8/18, 11:44 AM

    Anyone know of an open, semi-anonymized data sharing platform? Let's use that if so. If not exist, let's make.

  • by Redoubts on 1/5/18, 3:35 AM

    Making about 320k/yr, with a 47:47:6 split between cash, stock, and bonus. 4 years with the company.

  • by Samaraz on 1/8/18, 7:50 AM

    Is there anyone who wouldn't mind sharing salary from Intel?

  • by lawnchair_larry on 1/4/18, 6:13 PM

    Anyone who is reporting appreciated stock compensation is ruining the thread with inflated numbers. People who join today don't get a retroactive stock grant.

  • by gautam1168 on 1/4/18, 2:24 PM

    Only slightly related. Since many google employees will be here: How can I plan to land a job with google in 2 years if I have a physics masters and 1.5 years of web development + little exp. with other software stacks? I am trying to figure out a strategy to make it happen and I am willing to do anything, even go back to school.

    * How can I get an interview? It seems simply sending my resume through the online portal will not work because I don't have a stellar academic record or much experience.

    * How can I figure out what to apply for? I have experience in UI but does google even do that? I want to work at google because I want to work with the people there who are just the smartest people around. But I don't really care what I work on.

    * How and how long should I prepare for the interview? I am working through the Cormen's algorithms book but I don't really have a solid CS education. And I hear that they just want you to know everything. So should I just go back to school?

    * I have heard that one way is to participate and excel in coding competitions. Should I then focus my entire energy on this front? Or will this be misguided?

  • by mcherm on 1/4/18, 1:54 PM

    I don't feel like discussing my salary publicly. Have you considered checking glassdoor.com or other similar sources?