Comment by Muromec
1 day ago
>A decent engineer in the US could make 5x their equivalent in most European nations. Staff+ engineers at FAANG could make 5x that. People in a good position tend to not like rocking the boat.
So... 500k is the normal pay and 2.5mil is the staff+ pay, right? How many people you know actually make that?
SWE rarely earn $100k gross/yr TC in Western European nations. It's closer to $50k~$80k in many cases.
I rounded up a bit for nicer numbers, but it's more like 75-95 than 50-80 this year.
For good companies; there are _quite_ a few companies that underpay and not as many interesting job opportunities. Let's just say "at least 2x~2.5" and move on.
Also, even if you did not mention it, UK is a bit of a special case (English-speaking countries that has thus been attracting quite a lot of international talent (and companies) at least until recently), I wouldn't put it in the same bucket as EU countries.
1 reply →
It's higher in Poland lol.
Source?
Levels.fyi puts it at $67k median.
Glassdoor puts it at closer to $40k.
Neither of these are above the levels given above.
I was talking about the good days over the last decade and not now. As someone noted Europe made $50-80k. So around $250-400k. I knew a ton that made that. Basically anyone above junior at a tech company including late stage startups and second tier tech companies. Fully remote in many cases. At Staff+ FAANG if you were there a couple years then your RSUs would very likely push you above $1m and possibly above $2m. I think the most I heard of was someone making $10m/year and being deathly afraid of a layoff. Nowadays its AI companies which if you're lucky enough to get into and know ML will pay $2m+/year as your comp even at merely staff levels. If the bubble doesn't burst before IPOs then I know ICs whose next few generations won't need to work.
If you talk about before AI bullshit started, the numbers kinda make sense actually.
>I think the most I heard of was someone making $10m/year and being deathly afraid of a layoff.
Jeez, some people.