By and large, the majority of the market does not pay this much money, and the majority of software engineers could only dream of $200k base salary for an entry-level position. It’s rich to discuss market economics, because there’s probably fewer than 100 companies, all located in the bay or NYC, and all rather prestigious, that pay the mad money being discussed. It’s ridiculous, especially given all the context. (Mind you, 95% of the time, when people say they could get more, they don’t actually have another offer in hand, they just posit the existence of it based off of what they’ve heard.)īut I’d prefer engineers simply reject the offer as opposed to insinuating they’re somehow being swindled. I don’t think anyone has to settle for less if they have opportunities to get more. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to want to maximize your pay, and I don’t give anyone flak for that. This is just a reality and we shouldn't disparage our fellow engineers for responding to it. There's no room for moral outrage here at the "snooty young devs scoffing at $130k pay", this is just market economics.Īlso, these young engineers are keenly aware of the huge impact that a starting comp of $200k will have on their future comp, career prospects, etc. Why are we implicitly criticizing young engineers for trying to maximize their value in the market? C-level execs reject multi-million offers all the time if they can get a better one. Once enough companies pay $200k for entry-level, then anyone paying $130k is underpaying, regardless of how "big" that number looks to you, or how much lower it was 5-10 years ago. There are no absolute anchors in the compensation market, it's all relative. > After denying that, unfortunately, some candidates insinuate that being offered $1.x * 10^5 for an entry-level position is a shrewd ploy to brazenly take advantage of their valuable skills at low cost. So, the "top-tech or bust" attitude will continue. Non-top companies don't really help the situation much themselves as we all know having FAANG on your resume is the surest way to get interviews, offers, and career upgrades everywhere outside of FAANG as well. However, it is also the reality: most employees do leave for that golden top-tech offer that pays them x2+ their current comp with no risk. For companies below that top, that is horrible situation because it means all their employees (and especially their best) are temps just waiting for their real shot elsewhere. That's the real, no-BS best course for the employees themselves. So the real answer is "keep working at your fallback option until you can finally graduate to one of the lucrative positions at the top of the pyramid".
These top companies that pay very well and offer excellent career growth prospects. The winner-takes-all reality of our current tech business environment means that the job market is:ġ. The number of successful top tech companies keeps growing.