The original salary must have been low, no hate.
Different strokes for different folks. If you're working at a company that already pays well and you're not in the Bay Area, then your options for switching are either exciting but very risky startups (< $1 billion) or small satellite offices of big corps that have limited team options and little political influence (bad for advancement in senior positions). These would typically be lateral movements at best.
My new salary is just much higher, I've had several major steps up. I've found salaries in major metro areas to be pretty much the same as a competitive offer in the Bay Area.
> Different strokes for different folks. If you're working at a company that already pays well and you're not in the Bay Area, then your options for switching are either exciting but very risky startups (< $1 billion) or small satellite offices of big corps that have limited team options and little political influence (bad for advancement in senior positions). These would typically be lateral movements at best.
The Bay Area isn't the only place with a tech sector, and there are plenty of companies whose main offices aren't in the Bay Area. Washington DC, Chicago, Austin, Denver, all have tremendous tech industries. I've even had job offers at great places that are further out there.
My "one that got away" was a job offer in Portland I still think about. It was a great opportunity and a fantastic city, but I ultimately went elsewhere primarily based on the desire to bring some of my projects with me.
Let's just talk numbers for a moment, were you earning at least $200k?
I find it very difficult to believe any other metros, especially small cities, could afford to pay a non-senior engineer over $200k in total comp.
Right now I'm head of R&D.
I can tell you starting engineers on my team make about 10% more than their Bay Area counterparts. That's a deliberate decision backed by our Board.
I can respect that.
It sounds like you actually were promoted a couple of times since relocating and now you're in a leadership/director position. I'm not surprised your salary increased.
But honestly, I find it hard to believe you can match a senior level salary here in the Bay Area at a larger company.
A standard offer for someone that is not really "gifted" is $160-$190k base + $100-$150k/yr RSUs.
You're really able to pay people over $250k?
And I'm not even including 401k matching, ESPP, healthcare, discretionary bonuses and annual incentive bonuses.
That's always why I moved in SFO. Wisdom I always received was every 2-3 years it's time to move out and up. It's served me well. I think now I'm "career" as we like where we live and I want to build something in my division.
And yes, we easily offer that. Why is this a surprise? Our costs are lower and our clients are largely the same as they would be in the Bay Area. Our major markets are national and international. We don't discount our enterprise level systems and new tech for having been developed in fly over country, and we have a MUCH lower cost of doing business. Physical plant is CHEAP here as are our taxes. This results in more capital available for HR, and we consider human capital our single most important investment.
Our entire strategy is built on innovation and we do that by hiring the top talent we can. That means offering top tier compensations.
I applaud your approach and would love to one day work for your company as it sounds like a great place to work since you actually appreciate your human capital.
I also agree on the 2-3 years hopping, it's a great strategy.
Side note: SFO is the airport, SF is the city.
I've been looking at sites like weworkremotely.com and remoteok.io.
1) From people I know well who make a solid recommendation.
2) At major tech conferences.
Hiring is a very risky and high stakes proposition. A new hire easily costs us a million or more if it doesn't work out. We are very cautious, and I take our hiring process very seriously.
Junior positions we typically recruit from Univerisities in the region with top CS and ECE programs since they are less likely to be skeptics of fly over country.
It should not surprise anyone that wages in other top-tier cities match the Bay Area.
https://hired.com/blog/candidates/where-engineer-salaries-pa...
Good tech companies know they have to make nationally competitive offers.
You wouldn't guess it if I gave you 20 questions is my bet. When I got the offer for an interview the wife and I almost passed entirely on the opportunity (I didn't apply for it they recruited me) because we thought "We don't want to live there" and I had a solid offer in Seattle and Portland, where we thought we wanted to move.
I flew out anyway as a courtesy to the VP who reached out to me because we had a long history and he told me I needed to come see what they had to offer.
Flew my wife out the next day, she was super skeptical "I'm not going to like it!" (She is also in tech). She fell in love. We bought her dream house a month later. Still in our honeymoon period with this new city, but we have never been in love with a city like this before.
I'd take that bet. ;)
There's only 50 states and we probably can rule out the 15-20 coastal ones and Hawaii and Alaska. If the maize in your name has any relation to your job, we can quickly use five guesses on Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana.
Guessing about your wonderful city aside, one concern I and many here would have about relocating are the job opportunities. In smaller areas, you may be living in company towns, and if you ever want to change jobs, it would involve moving across the state. Of course if you're being paid a handsome amount, you're in a position to negotiate a generous relocation package.
It shouldn't take long to confuse your salary in these circumstances with the salaries of people working for and around you. Your immediate reference is probably that VP who is also VP :D
If it's in his comment history I figure it's fair game to state it here.
I'm big in theater, ballet, and art. San Francisco is way too expensive for artists to live in anymore and the art scene there is very limited, inorganic, and a bit stale. Further the distance to San Francisco means it's a chore (and a drive) to get there from the South Bay where all the jobs are.
Now I can take public transit to cultural institutions, and walk to a lot too. We have organic arts districts with real artists in residency, regular gallery showings and art walks, and some amazing local musicians.
You might get that in Oakland these days, but even Oakland is getting prohibitively expensive.