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Comment by bradleyjg | Hacker News Reader

levels.fyi is currently showing $466k median offer total comp for L6 (staff SWE) at google. Who is paying $395k-$420k to IC hires without FAANG style interviews? The only other companies paying that to IC hires that I know of are in the financial industry and that interview process is even worse.

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What is a L6 in real world terms? where would they fit on the GS scale (I may or may not) be applying for a GS15 equivalent in the UK Grade 7 or maybe 6

It would be interesting to see where that fits in a FANG context

It’s above the level that enterprises have historically promoted ICs. Thirty years ago at Oracle or HP the position wouldn’t have existed—-you’d either have to go into management or you’d be stuck at senior engineer.

In government terms the closest thing I’m familiar with is the assistant US attorney chart which does extend reasonably far without needing to hit the supervisory level.

Salary wise GS-15 would be around L3 (junior).

Responsibility wise GS-15 looks to be around L5 based on how many engineers have achieved it (I assume those earning $140k+ are GS-15):

https://www.federalpay.org/employees/occupations/computer-sc...

https://www.federalpay.org/employees/occupations/general-eng...

Interesting I was thinking in terms of responsibility / social status not purely salary :-) GS 15 is a full colonel

I'm more mid-level in my career, but this a great point. Maybe my strategy in my parent comment, only works to a certain level. Beyond that, perhaps you do have to move into FANG's. There very well could be limits I haven't reached yet.

You normally don't move into a L6 position from the outside either.

My understanding is that it is rare as compared to lower levels but far from impossible. The data points at levels seem to bear that out.

Whereas in some other, smaller companies there are perhaps one or two ICs at that pay level, they have been at the company for a decade, and hold all the tribal knowledge. No one ever gets hired into that type of position.

I know some at Staff SWE, Amazon PE, etc who came from outside. In specialist groups it feels pretty common.

Once you're at level at one of the heavies, it feels like people move at level, too.

> Who is paying $395k-$420k to IC hires without FAANG style interviews?

No one. I hate ppl here asserting that they landed FAANG like comps without leetcoding.

> The only other companies paying that to IC hires that I know of are in the financial industry and that interview process is even worse.

OpenAI is paying way more than 420K for ICs [1].

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/technology/artificial-int...

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