DC area compensation?

Which suburbs? The suburbs of DC extend to Baltimore these days and half way to Richmond. The TC seems a little low comparing it to my friends in the area about the same TC but at 6-8 YOE

McLean area.. what should be the average ask?

Get as much as you can. The cost of living is just like SF

I disagree about cost of living like SF as mentioned above. You can afford a brand new single family 4000 sq ft home for 750k in ashburn. And that will be a 40 minute commute to McLean during peak time and without taking the expensive toll road.

You can comfortably live there with that amount. As long as you don’t want to live in the city, which i wouldn’t recommend based on where your job is. Tysons Corner is a nice area with restaurant and shops.

Yea COL is nowhere near that of SF and if you are on the VA side taxes are a fair bit less too (just don’t get pulled over). I would say look at getting that base to 200; that’s a nice bonus target so I would make sure you understand whether or not that is your target bonus or your max bonus or guaranteed

Always push for more, but that's pretty good. The COL in DC is pretty bad. Yes, you can get decent houses for 600k plus in the suburbs but your commute in rush hour will likely be an hour each way. Definitely search commute times before choosing a location. If you want to be in Arlington it's a million plus, your money will go further than in SF, as in your house will be nicer and bigger but there's not a ton of cost savings and not nearly as much competition for devs so salary growth is not nearly as extreme as these 5 yoe kids with 300k

Out of curiosity, what are the best paying companies in DC area?

I would push for 190 but that is definitely livable for the DC suburbs, not in DC itself.

Hi what is the name of the company