Recruiters offer too low
Coming out of college with less than 1 year work experience, I got a job at Amazon that paid about 130k salary, 160k total compensation. If you add in health insurance, Amazon stock (which has been doing well), and bonus, it's quiet a lot for an entry level Java programming position. I got the extra pay by getting multiple offers and getting the different companies to bid for me (the initial offer was 100k). Anyway, pay is pretty good. That being said, I don't like it that much. The work is really frustrating - horrible desktop configuration, stuff breaks constantly, lots of manual shit (I work on the core AWS platform so I can't use Amazon Web Services because it would create a circular dependency). I really would like to focus more on the code and getting shit done and I especially prefer functional programming languages like Scala, F#, and Haskell because the code is robust and maintainable (I can do in about 60 lines of Scala what would have taken 100 lines of Java and it's a shit-ton easier to maintain than say Ruby). Anyway, I listed that I was looking for a Scala role and I see some recruiters hiring for backend Scala positions offering 160k for roles that say "senior", 4+ years professional functional programming experience, 6+ years professional experience and that to me seems rediculous. First off, if you include stocks, bonus, and benefits, the pay isn't any more, but it's much harder to find those kind of programmers than it is to find entry level Java programmers. Second, six years experience? People who work at Amazon, Facebook, or Google with that much experience make more than that. These recruiters aren't even offering stock and if you include Amazon stock, a job at Amazon with 6 years of experience has way more total compensation. I don't know how the hell these other companies are managing to fill such positions. Are recruiters (for these positions that are not full-time) offering competitive compensation packages?
FANG pay way more in general. You can’t compare most of industry to them. Btw, there is some Haskell and Scala in Amazon.
Yes, there are several factors when it comes to evaluating offers at various companies. First, a Series A company that is limited on cash will offer significant equity to compensate. A later Series company (think close to IPO) will have more funds to offer a higher base, plus bonus and RSU. Public companies offer a great base, bonus and stock. The main difference here is how you view compensation and what sort of skill set you want to develop. You’ll get ownership from taking a product from 0-100 with a start up but with later stage companies you’ll find yourself to be more of a cog in the wheel.
Idk about compensation and all. Pm me if you are interested in a Haskell roles. I work closely with a team here which is heavy on Haskell. I am not a recruiter just helping out.