Maybe, but there are a lot of Bay Area companies, and almost all of them are hiring right now. Basically if you’re a good SWE in US you should have no problem getting $300k total comp. Just make sure to warm up your leetcode skills.
Sure, it might be hard to believe people who are just like me make this much for the same type of work, but just 3 years ago I didn't believe people made as much as I do now (in a small startup).
As for the "leveled employees" thing, being at terminal level in any FAANG or similar company isn't exactly rocket science. Do you think these people are working on rocket trajectories all day? Nope, they're copy/pasting protobuf specifications and writing a few test suites. Just like working for Verizon or another non-FAANG.
https://www.levels.fyi/offer.html?id=b5f5f5ac-9949-516b-bae1...
https://www.levels.fyi/offer.html?id=b0d24426-d95b-57c8-a0f8...
>real maximum
Clearly the real maximum isn't the real maximum if $300k offers are possible. In Arizona, no less.
It’s not for AmEx either: https://www.levels.fyi/company/American-Express/salaries/Sof...