Moving from India to Bay Area with spouse.
I am moving from India to Bay Area on L1 Visa for a SDE 2 role with TC ~ 170k. My husband will be on L2 and plans to apply for EAD. What compensation can he expect with 6.5 YOE with Indian startups. He is working as an Architect / Principal. We are concerned because the companies he worked with were all unicorns but people might not know them in the US. His present compensation is ~ USD 105k ESOPs (120k over 4 years) in India. What is the compensation he should be targeting ? What companies should he be looking at ? Anything other general advice.
Tech companies pay 10,000s of software engineers 200k+ . As long as he’s normal IQ, he’ll be fine. Literally anyone can make 200k right now. What an amazing time to be alive
I am dumbfounded. With that sort of compensation why would you want to move to the Bay Area?
He can get from 170 k to 500 k depends how he does in the interviews and what interview opportunities he gets. He should leetcode and prepare well
Wow why you are moving is beyond me. What do you think you will gain from an experience of working in a tech company in US that you don't gain from working for tech company in India? I mean apart from the work culture, I don't think anything will differ. And in India, software companies already have a good culture (I think).
And ^ that's not a sarcastic question. I genuinely mean to know your reasons and thoughts on that.
It’s the money and the quality of life. I won’t believe anyone who doesn’t list this as one of their motivating factors. Happy to be convinced otherwise
I will try to keep it concrete - your spouse needs to leetcode hard for 3 months. With his experience and EAD, it won't be difficult to get interviews in the bay area. Also, ask him to work on his technical communication, if that may be an issue. Because of cultural difference, the ideas about what a good resume looks like is different in the US. Get him to rewrite the resume if needed. Don't go to startups. Aim for medium and large public companies in tech.
Why no startups?
Startups don’t pay as much as large companies in the US
105k (70L) is a great income in India. I think you might be regressing in terms of standard of living in Bay area. People have already mentioned this above and I seriously think you should reconsider. If you are coming for growth purposes, it's completely hit and miss kind of game. With L1 you won't be able to quit as well. If you are determined to come, I would recommend H1. If you are coming purely to put savings on steroids for some time and then go back, then it's ok.
More than anything else, it is a FOMO. Now is the time for us to move to a new place, and Bay Area is the most logical place if you’re in tech. Few years down the line, we might not be in a situation to do so, given our parents would need our help, and we might also want stability. And we love India. We might be putting the savings at a risk, but other than that we could not see any other reason stopping us. Also, once my husband finds a job, we may be back on track. We can always go back in few years. Is moving out of your comfort zone for some time such an irreversible debacle?
Forget FOMO, JOMO is the new thing! Coming to your point. Thats how everyone starts with this journey. But once you are on it, you evolve, your opinions change and thats when things start getting complicated. To each their own learning curve. Good luck!
From what others have said, your lifestyle will take a hit - that's true for almost anyone moving to the Bay Area. Why not try Seattle too? While it's good to travel the world and live in other places, you will find most of the interesting work and bulk of the workload have moved to India and China. If you move here after becoming a manager, I know that it fast-tracks your residency or green card. You may not grow as fast in the US, even if you're better because you don't have as much leverage that people in India seem to have. You're welcome for the experience but keep your expectations in check. Finding a great manager who'd give you the good assignments isn't something you can control. You should target a base salary in the range of 150-170 at most companies.
Most of the interesting work has moved? Doubt it
Seattle is good for amazon, but isn’t Bay Area a better place to be? For a lot of reasons.
You sound like a fighter. Your husband will get a job in less than two months and all will be great. Keep powering through and you’ll be the next tech Nooyi :)
If you think it’s worth the risk, do it! Who knows? Maybe you guys will crush it here and go back as kings and queens.
Or not go back
Yeah, they don't need to go back if they don't want to and are skilled enough to stay. That's the beauty of their decision. I don't understand why so many people on this thread see this as some kind of risk. For some of us, moving is not a risk. You can always choose to move back if you want or stay if that's what you prefer.
Didn’t know people in India make that much lol
Yes these days they do, not the norm but highly prevalent