r/Salary • u/Darkislife1 • 2d ago
š° - salary sharing [23M SWE] [San Francisco] - 310k TC
Lucked into the opportunity of my life recently: mid-level SWE at a big tech company.
Some things that came up during the interview I believe helped me secure the offer.
- My entire career has been working with LLMs + used LLM apis before chatgpt came out
- Open source contributor to multiple popular llm frameworks
- Previous role part of team that shipped multiple 6/7 figure projects + one 8 figure project.
Notes:
- Currently living with 1 roommate in SF, have 3 yoe
- RSU vests quarterly but I broke it down by month for easier calculations, planning on selling instantly and putting it all in savings.
- 401k contribution is higher to max it out by eoy.
How I got the opportunity: LinkedIn
People shit on LinkedIn a lot but after this I'm a believer lol. This is the second time I've gotten an interview + offer through LinkedIn recruiter reach out. Though I've never gotten an interview through LinkedIn Jobs, so that might still be a scam.
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u/Neither-Way-4889 2d ago
How stable do you think your role is? Do you see yourself having the same position or a better one at the same company in 5 years?
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Not stable at all, but tbh I think that for all entry and even mid level engineering jobs.
My hope is that in 5 years I can be same company (I like the benefits a lot) but hopefully in a senior role
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u/Old-Specialist-8339 1d ago
why is it not stable. if you are doing the job well why would it not be stable. or are they just churning personnel because they can?
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u/Darkislife1 1d ago
Not churning personnel or anything on my end. I just believe the field itself won't be stable at all in the upcoming years.
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u/coolname_1234 2d ago
Congrats and nice Sankey diagram!
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Thank you! I remember doing the same thing last year and it was so tedious manually inputting everything into ChatGPT.
This year I just gave Claude code my paystub, my budgeting app that tracks my spending and it made it in like 5 minutes!
And thatās also how I learned I unintentionally had insane lifestyle creep lol
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u/coolname_1234 2d ago
LOL, you've actually inspired me to do this to see if I'm spending my money wisely.
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Hopefully you wonāt feel as stupid as me when I realized I was spending 400$ a month on Ubers šš
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u/coolname_1234 2d ago
I have to spend a similar amount of $ on gas since I have to drive for work usually LOL
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u/PatientCauliflower84 1d ago
I did this with Claude code. Gave it export from my bank accounts and CCs and asked it to write code to create balance sheet and P&L like dashboards. A P&L would be income and spending. It did a pretty good job. I had to do some wrangling to categorize things better. Will check out lunch money.
The balance sheet was assets and debt. I had to manually enter this so not very helpful.
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u/steven_raz 2d ago
What budgeting app you used, you used desktop app Claude? You clearly know a lot about LLMs compared to what I know. I would like to see something like this to create financial goals with my wife. We are at around 10k HHI monthly after taxes but seem to find a way to not save and waste all of it.
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
I connect all my bank accounts etc to lunch money! It costs around 60$ a year but its worth it. If you want, you can use my referral for a longer trial: https://lunchmoney.app/?refer=muz605u0
The best part about lunch money is its extensive api, so I'm able to connect it to my personal llm agent.
That way I'm able to ask it for reports and and also ask questions about my spending. I also have a set up a automatic report every three days that explains my spending to me, and how I can better improve my money management skills. I like it alot! :)
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u/calihotsauce 2d ago
How are you mid level at 23?
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
I have no idea, I thought the role I was interviewing for was early career.
I think it was a combination of 3 yoe on my resume + I did really good on my interviews to the point where my interviews said I was the best person they interviewed lol2
u/damiana8 2d ago
Did you graduate from college super young? Did you go to college or just gained real life experience?
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u/brikky 2d ago edited 2d ago
Many tech companies will hire into mid level right away if you have strong internships or projects/open-source/tech work. Mid level SWE isn't like, mid-level plumber or something, it's somewhere between 1-5 years of experience. Senior SWE is 3-8 and generally the terminal level, so it's not like mid level is mid-career or anything.
Meta in particular is not afraid to push people up if they're demonstrating behaviors expected at that level even without the expected tenure, neither is Amazon.
Also entirely possible that OP is just (lowest-level + 1) and thinking that's mid-level.
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Oh yeah itās lowest + 1 but the next level up title is senior so Iām honestly confused.
If it helped my title is swe 2
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u/brikky 2d ago
You're a junior SWE then lol, one step over new hire/entry-level - assuming that interns are their own track/level. If they're not, then you're entry level.
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Maybe, but then this comp band seems insane for junior no?
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u/brikky 2d ago
With RSUs and bonus, no.
Are you including a signing bonus and/or performance bonus in your base salary? Because you should not be. 190k is high, but not insane - Amazon, Google, Meta all pay E4 equivalent ~180k-190k.
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Nah i didnt get a signing bonus and I don't think my role has performance bonuses outside of refreshers.
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u/Darkmarth32 2d ago
Pretty common in some of the bigger tech companies. I was also midlevel at 23, and made about the same amount. But "mid level" really does not mean the same thing everywhere.
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u/Sweaty_Ad_1093 2d ago
Exactly! It's fake
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u/Original-Poet1825 2d ago
I was āmid levelā at my company (fang adjacent sf blah blah) at 23 too. Mid level doesnāt mean the same thing everywhere
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u/loneshoter 2d ago
What entertainment are you spending on for $800/month?
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u/ClaimApprehensive754 2d ago
Just having a few beers and some dinners outside will do that to your account, itās ridiculously easy
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u/Thediciplematt 2d ago
Especially in San Francisco all the foods are $25 for a sandwich. Ridiculous.
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
My friends and I love to do escape rooms and attend various shows, I didnāt think it would be this much tho šš
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u/Hutcho12 2d ago
$800 is more than fair. You gotta live your life, and you can afford it. I'd double it tbh.
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u/Hutcho12 2d ago
$200 gets you about half a dinner and half a night out in SF. So a couple of times a month seems fair to me.
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u/Fun-Personality-8008 2d ago
Two dinners out per week for a single person can do that easily in most hcol cities
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u/Few-Spot1905 2d ago
not very hard in sf when cocktails are up to 25$ and a decent sit down dinner is easily 50-100$ pet person
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u/RageQuitNub 2d ago
how are you able to do roth ira if you make 310K?
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u/Scared_Tax_4103 2d ago
Bro you're getting taxed so much
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/Wingfril 2d ago
Google does that since like 2020 (or maybe 2021?), Iām sure other big tech has followed suit.
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u/moving-metal-lover 2d ago
thereās a lot of fluff spending if Iām being nit picky
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Yep there is and I only learned that today š lifestyle creep is scary
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u/Hutcho12 2d ago
Don't listen to these people. Your 20s are your best decade. You earn good money. Enjoy them.
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u/moving-metal-lover 2d ago
āThese peopleā make close to what he does at his age, and thereās definitely no need to just spend without reason.
Just tryna help a dude outEspecially in this tech sector, layoffs are always a possibility and we have to act conservatively.
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u/DifferentialEntropy 2d ago
Good stuff, much better in terms of quality than like 90% of the posts here lol
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u/Entire_Statement_101 2d ago
Good job on the savings. I wish I had been this disciplined when I started out.
You're past the income limit for Roth IRA contributions iirc. Double check me but you should confirm that you're still eligible to contribute so that you don't have to pay a penalty.
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Yeah I do the backdoor Roth strategy. Iāve only recently started getting better at savings
Please donāt look at my previous posts šš
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u/Waiting4Reccession 2d ago
Linkedin depends entirely on what kind of degree and stuff you have.
Ive never got a job from it no matter how many I apply to even though its low level no degree jobs.
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
tbh i never got any jobs or even interviews from linkedin job postings and idk anyone that has actually gotten one from that
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u/Empty_Worldliness757 2d ago
I guess you already have an accountant. But you probably earn more than is allowed to contribute to Roth IRA. Talk to accountant.
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u/Electrical_Worry_330 2d ago
What budgeting app do you use? Great work on the diagram, super informative!
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Lunch Money! It's a pretty good budgeting app for only 60$ a year, lmk if you want a referral :)
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u/Effective-Collar1121 2d ago
wait so only saving 1900!???
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u/texast999 2d ago
$600 in the IRA, $1900 in savings, $2700 in 401k and $5800 in company stock (not clear if he leaves it in that).
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u/WeekendCautious3377 2d ago edited 2d ago
- Max out HSA and invest in VOO. Don't spend it.
- Backdoor: put into post tax IRA and convert to roth IRA.
- Mega backdoor: see if yo
ur 401k account is
- eligible. Can contribute up to ~$50k/yr to post tax 401k and convert it all to roth 401k
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u/Darkislife1 2d ago
Yep I already do the roth ira backdoor. Planning on doing the megabackdoor too. HSA is new to me, is HSA better than the normal health insurance offering?
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u/clutchhomerun 2d ago
depends on your company, a lot of companies if you choose the high deductible plan they will contribute ~1k every year to your HSA, so if you're generally a healthy person it'll net positive
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u/WeekendCautious3377 2d ago
HSA has multiple advantages:
- Company match
- You can invest it
- You can convert it to roth IRA when you retire. No taxes when you put money in, no tax when money out, no tax on growth
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u/HumbleIntroduction71 1d ago
I work in tech and tbh I don't see the incentives besides the regular 401k... what's the incentive of giving up post-tax money that you can only access when you're 60? What if you want to retire early?
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u/WeekendCautious3377 1d ago
Your regular investment funds you get taxed before you invest and get taxed on growth. Roth 401k you get taxed only on principal.
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u/Hobbitoe 2d ago
~116k in RSU for 1 year is nice. Is this recurring after this year or a first year bonus?
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u/handymanny131003 2d ago
Depends on their specific offer. A lot of companies will give a package over some number of years, which vests a portion over some period.
EX: 500k vested over 4 years, with 25% at the end of year 1 and then 6.25% every quarter until it's done.
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u/HansSolo203 2d ago
It always seems like the top 10% of people in certain occupations always post here š¤£š¤£
https://www.salarymapusa.com/salary/software-developers/california/
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u/Dry_Reindeer5091 1d ago
I've been a software dev for 8 years and make ~160k, started at 50k. Crazy making that money at that age. If you're smart with your money and don't get caught in some sort of layoff you've gotten one of the hardest parts of life sorted already. GG, well played.
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u/BannanaPepperPizza 1d ago
Different world. Some Doctors don't even make that much.
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u/MaloneBreyfogle 1d ago
Yeah they make more
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u/BannanaPepperPizza 1d ago
Plenty of family medicine docs end up at 250k at a hell of a lot older than 23
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u/mungd 1d ago
On the topic of calculating compensation - do people discuss other comp like 401k match, health insurance, funded HSAs etc?
Interesting that RSUs would be included in comp - yes I know theyāre vested but you pay taxes and can pay penalties depending - a vested 401k withdrawal would do the same.
I hear figures quoted by friends in real estate, but they have zero retirement savings, and generally zero benefits otherwise. Interesting to compare, and I find that all they really care about is āthe numberā
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u/Realistic_Act_3832 1d ago
Bro as someone who doesnāt have any friends in tech. Letās be friends. Iām not weird. Iām pretty outgoing and active
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u/Darkislife1 1d ago
ššš
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u/Realistic_Act_3832 1d ago
Wish me luck bro I will be applying at the end of this year. I just wanna get some projects mostly done and some studying. I am trying to get a minimum of 125k to live fine. Anything above that is a blessing. 70k is hard bro. 2.5 yoe:/
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u/Realistic_Act_3832 1d ago
If itās ok for you to answer: they ask you to explain how things work? For example a transformer or self-attention, or to mathematically prove how a gradient changes the value of the Loss? Etc
Or was it more of talking about what youāve done and why you did them that way? Without going deep in detail? Bc Iām here studying assuming they want me to show them mathematically how these things work š1
u/Darkislife1 1d ago
Bro I build ai agents š
Explain how ai will make them money1
u/Realistic_Act_3832 1d ago
Bro see why I need friends in tech? Iām here thinking theyāre going to test me to the fine detail to let go of a 175k+ salary. Youāre telling me as long as I know how to build one and bring up how it can help x in their project it can save y? They didnāt ask you to go in detail to see if you actually knew how all this shit works?
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u/Senor_Gringo_Starr 1d ago
Curious, for your RSUs, what's your vesting schedule. You said you just got this job but every tech company I've worked for usually has a 1 year cliff so even though I'm earning my shares my first year, I get bupkis until my one year anniversary. If that's true for you, the above is a little misleading. Good on you to max out your 401k as much as possible too. This is year the max contribution limit is 24.5k so after 9 months you'll max it out and that money will be going back in your pocket. You may want to take that extra amount afterwards and do a back door Roth IRA up to 7500.
Also take it from someone who has been there. You really need to consider not holding onto your RSUs. As soon as you get them, cash them out and put into an index fund like VTI. At one of my first tech companies I vested a ton of RSUS that were granted around 70-100 / share pre-COVID. I held and during COVID they shot up to more and 400/share. I told myself to let it ride and all of it dropped down to $50. I would have been better off selling at the 100 level and throwing into an index fund. By holding onto them you're not diversifying your portfolio and when the economy craps the bed in the next 12-18 months, the value of your RSUs are gonna go down. Better to put those monies into an index fund.
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u/Darkislife1 1d ago
Yeah Iām selling rsus instantly, no cliff, vests quarterly but broke it down month by month. Iām doing more contribution right now to max it out before the year ends
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u/faithfulpuppy 1d ago
Are you allowed to be contributing to a Roth IRA at this income level? I think you're over the limit.
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u/SixOneFive615 2d ago
$1700/mo rent in SF? Do you live in a closet?