In NYC, Boston, Chicago, SF, and possibly Seattle, there is a definite trend toward standardized offers in the range of $150k-$160k, if you have ~3+ years of experience and do well in interviews.
At bigger companies, it comes with annual RSU awards or bonuses, worth between maybe another $50k-$150k depending on your particular skill set or seniority. At start-ups, they try to sell you on an equity package that would work out to something close to the same annual dollar value under the assumption of a mildly positive exit or IPO.
This cookie-cutter package has seemingly stagnated since maybe ~2014, at least in lots of interviews since then, I haven’t seen the offers going up much over time.
But for many fields, $150k is not competitive with what the top end employers pay for a base salary, and the equity or bonus part would need to be in the $100k range to be competitive in total compensation. If you believe you’re a top developer and you can prove it during interviews, you absolutely should be targeting closer to $190k and substantial equity/bonus. If you also have 6+ years of experience or a PhD or something, you should be well over $200k on base salary alone, in major US cities.
You should also be negotiating severance packages, sponsored attendance at conferences, customized equipment for your workspace, possibly negotiating improved expiration or acceleration terms in equity documents, a sign-on bonus in addition to relocation (which should be covered entirely by the company, including dealing with most of the arrangement making).
Just say no (unless you’re in dire straits) if a company won’t negotiate all these things. Get good at talking about it, introducing the HR contact or recruiter to the idea that you expect a real, grown-up job offer covering a wide range of compensation and benefits.
Otherwise it contributes to wage stagnation when employers believe they can keep making the same $150k offer and banking on new grads or people desperate to relocate to X or whatever, and not knowing what they are actually worth.
> In NYC, Boston, Chicago, SF, and possibly Seattle
Unrelated to your bigger point, but I'd put Seattle in second place after SF for the high offers. And for tech jobs, Chicago wouldn't feature on my list at all.
I think you're focusing too much on base salary. Past a certain point, companies flatten out their base and only start upping the equity. Amazon actually has strict rules about it - they cap out their max base salary at 170 and there on it's all equity + sign-on bonus. People should look at the total comp - RSUs are reported on the W-2 anyway. And they can be sold immediately upon vesting (usually the vesting periods overlap with trading windows), so it's really no different than a salary.
Yeah, I live in Chicago. I don't see anywhere near those offers anywhere, in job postings or what recruiters offer when they try to contact me. Most I usually see is $120k base + 5% annual bonus, zero equity or stock options, no sign-on bonus. I think I saw a 130k once. For senior developers or team leads, not just 3 years of experience.
Job postings, and especially recruiters, are about the worst way to get information about salary. Recruiters in particular are not at all incentivized to help you get a competitive offer and sometimes are paid a higher commission if they get you to accept a salary under a certain threshold. If working with a recruiter, you have to take a really hard line with them, and tell them you absolutely will not reveal salary specifics until after you’ve had a few interviews with a company where it might work out, and repeatedly remind them that you are looking for top-end market compensation, so they understand you’re cognizant of what you are worth and care about being paid well.
In Chicago specifically, GrubHub, Teza, Google, Salesforce, DRW, IMC Trading, Akuna Capital, and Citadel are companies I’ve directly spoken with about Chicago-based position salary over the years, and all of them have positions for people around ~3-5 years of experience but above average expertise with base salaries in the range of $180k-$210k. If you naively go into negotiations at these places and openly state low six figure salary numbers or just take a recruiters word for it, then yes, of course they will try to pitch you everything in the $120k-$140k range. You have to do well in interviews and then tell them, no, that kind of below-market nonsense isn’t going to work, and really walk away if they won’t pay more competitively.
Good to know. I haven't really been in a position to walk away for most of my career, so I've accepted a few too many lowball offers. This might be the first time where I can afford to walk away.
> But for many fields, $150k is not competitive with what the top end employers pay for a base salary
> If you also have [...] a PhD or something, you should be well over $200k on base salary alone, in major US cities.
I have a PhD + 1 year exp. and recently accepted a data scientist offer at a F/N/G company for around $200k total. If these companies are really top of market, then I either did poorly at the interview (in which case why would they make an offer at all?) or I just suck at negotiating.
If this was in SF, NYC, Chicago, Boston or Seattle, then yes, they probably got you very cheaply because you did not know the range to negotiate. If you got an offer, you surely did well in the interview. Chalk it up to negotiatiom experience, and next time you’ll know. I’d generally expect the total comp to be closer to $300k for your profile, but it obviously depends. Also, in some companies, like Google, they really will give you substantial increases in equity each year if you’re doing well. So be sure to bring up your desire to earn more in the annual review.
Yeah, I’m in the Bay Area. My guess is that I didn’t have any leverage. The company I was coming from was a no-name company in the southeast. Also, I believe data scientists receive less stock than software engineers at the top companies. Does that match your observations?
At bigger companies, it comes with annual RSU awards or bonuses, worth between maybe another $50k-$150k depending on your particular skill set or seniority. At start-ups, they try to sell you on an equity package that would work out to something close to the same annual dollar value under the assumption of a mildly positive exit or IPO.
This cookie-cutter package has seemingly stagnated since maybe ~2014, at least in lots of interviews since then, I haven’t seen the offers going up much over time.
But for many fields, $150k is not competitive with what the top end employers pay for a base salary, and the equity or bonus part would need to be in the $100k range to be competitive in total compensation. If you believe you’re a top developer and you can prove it during interviews, you absolutely should be targeting closer to $190k and substantial equity/bonus. If you also have 6+ years of experience or a PhD or something, you should be well over $200k on base salary alone, in major US cities.
You should also be negotiating severance packages, sponsored attendance at conferences, customized equipment for your workspace, possibly negotiating improved expiration or acceleration terms in equity documents, a sign-on bonus in addition to relocation (which should be covered entirely by the company, including dealing with most of the arrangement making).
Just say no (unless you’re in dire straits) if a company won’t negotiate all these things. Get good at talking about it, introducing the HR contact or recruiter to the idea that you expect a real, grown-up job offer covering a wide range of compensation and benefits.
Otherwise it contributes to wage stagnation when employers believe they can keep making the same $150k offer and banking on new grads or people desperate to relocate to X or whatever, and not knowing what they are actually worth.