What’s a good base salary for SF for a single person? I’m being offered $120k from a startup for an entry level position and equity. Does this seem reasonable to survive on? Anyone know good resources for learning about equity? Edit: Thank you for the responses everyone!
$120 entry level? Are you an Engineer?
Yes software engineer, primarily front end
120 plus equity is solid but depends where the office is and if you can access it easily.
Startup equity is worth exactly 0 until they say it's worth more. Can't pay your rent in monopoly money. 120k will be a little tight but assuming you're single and find roommates you should be ok.
You can probably scrape by on that, but don’t expect to be able to live in a desirable part of town (or in SF at all?). At an established company I’d be bringing in junior engineers at 130-140k, depending on skill. I’d second that equity at the vast majority of startups is worth absolutely nothing. Don’t let it sway you at all. Many startups will subdivide their equity into tiny pieces, so that they can say “you’ve got options for 1.5M shares!”
I don’t really understand why it’s only enough to scrape by...? I mean rent for an 1bx1b is 3k so for 12 months that’s 36ish?
Your take home is about 70-80
It’s liveable if you rent a room and have roommates. Not livable at all if you want to rent your own apartment or house. Maybe you can rent your own apartment or small studio in Oakland or somewhere in the east bay though. Rents are cheaper across the bay.
+1 - live in East Bay It's a good deal here
It’s very good and you’ll be able to get a good place with roommates (which has been normal in SF since 1994). The lifestyle is fantastic as surfing, hiking, and mountain biking are free and plentiful. I lived on $30k for my first 5 years in SF and it was fine.
$120k is more than enough to live on, but the question you should actually be asking is if you're getting paid what you're worth. Here's an article about understanding stock options that I like: https://jvns.ca/blog/2015/12/30/do-the-math-on-your-stock-options/