Just saw a post on here with a guy that claims to be 25 years old with a TC of 400k at LinkedIn. Is this remotely possible? This seems to be a staff level TC, and assuming he started working at 21/22, that gives at best 3-4 YOE total?? Do people just lie on this app? TC: lower than his YOE: I’m just a kid
He probably included signon when telling u his TC
i know a guy like this. joined at $100 right out of college
I’m 4 years Yoe with 430k TC
At sofi???
No, at Sansa
RULE # 1 = NEVER BLINDLY TRUST BLIND RULE #2 = NEVER FORGET RULE # 1 I can say any amount as my salary over Blind... No one can verify it.. While most of the community members in blind try to help each other by being honest, there are always few sneaky ones... So use your judgement always...
I’ll say this… while it’s possible generally there’s a difference between holding a staff title at a company and being able to hop to another company at the same level (the current down market notwithstanding). It’s much much harder for someone like that to get the same level elsewhere. Usually staff expects around 10 YOE minimum and major complex projects involving multiple teams. It’s extremely obvious during experience interviews whether someone is not really at that level in my experience. Obviously some extreme exceptions exist. Or some people are great at bullshitting. Some of them go on to do very well in management. Staff isn’t so much about technical knowledge but also leadership. Can you solve a broadly defined business problem and navigate organizational BS to convince tons of people to get there? Can you identify the major problems to solve in the next 2-3 years? L5 is a terminal level at most companies for a reason. You can be a great IC and contribute a lot to your team and make really solid TC. Most engineers either lack the motivation, soft skills, deep technical skills, or a combination of these to progress to staff. With that said, I’ve met some people that got overleveled for sure. I work with some LOL. But they tend to not get great reviews if they really don’t work out.
I read staff promo packets at LinkedIn. They’re all involved in broad, 3-5 technical-team projects per year, from ideation to execution, write a bit of code, but focus a lot more on design, code review, leadership, guiding. LinkedIn does promote quickly. There are some staff engineers less impressive than others. Staff at LinkedIn is level 5.5 equivalent; both in terms of pay and scope, IMO The shitty staffs got there by inserting themselves into the right projects, owning a small portion of it, and slapping their name on it. The great staffs are truly influential leaders; I want to ride into battle for them. They have vision, direction, and inspire excellence. I guess from this stance, I agree that some (maybe 30%?) are over leveled at LinkedIn. What I started seeing at LinkedIn that I never saw at Google were over-leveled engineers; both staff and Sr. Staff. Most of them are great. Truly brilliant, I just want to be like them. But to see 30% of them just coasting, no idea how they got there, transferred from Amazon/Meta to retire at LinkedIn… that shouldn’t be happening. Those are a real PITA and LI doesn’t fire them. You have a bunch of Staffs looking for Sr. Staffs to mentor them, and a few checked-out Sr. Staffs that want to contribute the bare minimum for the next 10 years until they retire.
It all depends honestly how many years of experience they have. I know engineers who started in the field at 15/16 (freelance) by the age of 25 of course it’s possible
Yeah but that’s probably super, super rare. Most of us at least need a 4 year college degree to work in big tech
Totally agree. 👌
LinkedIn staff is senior elsewhere. They also don't have refreshers so the initial grant tends to be higher. Very much possible.
Did not realize that. That makes a lot of sense, ty
We do get refreshers at LI, not sure where you heard that. Initial grant for Senior is about $250k. If you got that 3 years ago, your TC would be 400k now. Base for Senior is about 190k. Bonus is 10%. Annual stock is 62k, up 2.5x is 150k. If they’re counting an amortized signing bonus in that number, they’re scratching $400k on senior salary. Welcome to stock appreciation in tech.