I am hearing several senior engineers in hot fields in the EU getting +50-100% in compensation offers from US startups and tech companies... and many of their current employers matching, or partially matching them as counter-offers.
My theory on what's happening (cont'd):
My theory on what's happening (cont'd):
1. COVID made remote work an everyday thing
2. Funding for certain startups is very strong in the US
3. These startups struggle to hire anyone good for $200-250K/year in the US
4. But they can hire *amazing* people in the EU, who are just as good professionally
(cont'd)
2. Funding for certain startups is very strong in the US
3. These startups struggle to hire anyone good for $200-250K/year in the US
4. But they can hire *amazing* people in the EU, who are just as good professionally
(cont'd)
5. These EU companies are doing the math & realize it will be a lot more expensive to backfill the person leaving, as the market for sr engineers is moving up (see #2 & #4)
6. They make a counter to not lose the institutional know-how
7. Many of these people actually stay!
6. They make a counter to not lose the institutional know-how
7. Many of these people actually stay!
It might be surprising to hear people take counter offer when if you google "counter offer", everyone says not to take it.
But what if you already love what you do, WLB is good, you're the most senior person at the company
... and you get to do the same for 50-100% more?
But what if you already love what you do, WLB is good, you're the most senior person at the company
... and you get to do the same for 50-100% more?
The people getting "hunted down" are often industry-known. Examples:
- Mobile engineer with a very popular in-depth blog
- Distributed systems engineer, creator of a popular open-source framework
- Mobile engineer, contributor to a popular cross-platform framework
- Mobile engineer with a very popular in-depth blog
- Distributed systems engineer, creator of a popular open-source framework
- Mobile engineer, contributor to a popular cross-platform framework
Offers I'm hearing are €110-150K base + $100-120K/year stock + €15-25K bonus.
This is still considered big money in the EU. But try getting a solid senior/staff engineer who's built systems at scale, or is at the cutting edge of the industry for $250-300K. Hard to do.
This is still considered big money in the EU. But try getting a solid senior/staff engineer who's built systems at scale, or is at the cutting edge of the industry for $250-300K. Hard to do.
Correction: I did not mean to write "struggle to hire anyone good", but "struggle to hire people with specific expertise they're looking for (e.g. in a domain, with X YOE, having scaled to X M of users) for $200-250K in the US"
Observing hiring for senior engineers in niches.
Observing hiring for senior engineers in niches.
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