alt Hacker NewsThat’s fair.
First I’m going to make an argument and then immediately refute it before someone else makes the argument. That $235K is still lower than what mid level developers make at any of the BigTech companies.
Yes, that’s true. But they are all toxic hellholes where everyone is jockeying for position, making sure they show “impact” that looks good on promo docs and they all have RTO mandates even for positions that were formally “field by design”.
$235K and the ability to work remotely is something I would definitely think is fair (and a little more than I make now that I’m outside of Bigtech working remotely) as long as you give cost of living increases and is more than most developers will ever make inflation adjusted.
The other point you make is that performance is just a form of stack ranking and even hard work is usually just awarded with a 1-2% raise more than someone else gets. Why not separate it from comp?
I also like sales having variable compensation that is based on performance. I work somewhat as a post sales architect and I have an appreciation for the sales side more than most engineers.
Big tech companies have mostly figured out some kind of infinite money glitch. I don't think comparing compensation at them to startups makes a huge amount of sense. (It makes some sense from the perspective of how much money's coming into your bank account—just not a huge amount.)
Being a prominent face at a startup can also set you up for greater success in your career than being one of a hundred thousand at a bigco.
And as you touched on already, the environment at Oxide is a million times better than the toxicity and empire building that happens at bigcos.