For experienced engineers, these numbers are realistic when considering salary, stock, and bonuses. I'm more skeptical of the numbers for entry level. levels.fyi/2018/
In this area, right now, yes.
There are multiple factors driving compensation upwards in the bay area right now. It's not sustainable, but it'll stay like this for a while longer.
I've been taking to lots of people about compensation lately. Based on that and the responses here, it seems like a topic that could use lots of illuminating and education.
Yeah, the bay area is implied, but that probably only makes sense if you have a Silicon Valley centric view. (I’m guilty at this point) The article doesn’t do enough to make it clear in which region the numbers are based.
The context matters for folks reading this. I think the goal of the post is to illuminate the top of the compensation scale for professional salaried engineers in the US. Those roles are mostly centered in the bay area right now.
For what it’s worth, many people would find it better to make $150K in a place like Philly or Houston than to make $300K here in the bay right now. The cost of living is more than twice as high.
Some people might be asking why move to the bay at all. Only one reason. There is an order of magnitude greater job opportunity for tech professionals. Once you get some solid experience, you can be reasonably sure you can get a job here. Not so in many other regions.
This is a fantastic question. One of the factors is that these numbers actually plateau at some point. You do *not* keep going up as you gain 10, 15, 20 years of experience. Instead you can reach peak comp quickly, and then you start to feel stuck.
