My favorite trick to make sure you’re getting the best offer and also to make sure you’re still getting paid at the market rate is to see the current offers other engineers are getting. There are a lot of websites where engineers share the offers they get. Of course, not every input there is the real amounts but from experience, the averages are usually really close to reality. There are quite a few of these but the ones I mainly use are:
- Levels.fyi -> This is my personal favorite. From my research, their numbers seems to be the most accurate.
- indeed.com
- glassdoor.com
- LinkedIn.com Salaries
It’s always a good idea to check multiple sources especially given they change based on location, experience and how many other offers you hold in your hand.
Another great way to use Levels.fyi is to see which level corresponds to which level at other companies. Given every company uses different titles, levels and numbering system, sometimes you can’t predict if you’re joining a company at a more junior or senior level than yours. Nothing is worse than starting at a company to realize you’re hired under your level and need to put the work again to just get to where you’ve been promoted before.
One thing to note though, with the great resignation, I keep hearing offers from friends that are a lot higher than what these websites show. This has been going on for the past year. On levels.fyi, you can see all the data points. Much less reliable than seeing average by many engineers but it still does give you an idea.
One great advance on the Salary Transparency front has come from Washington State. Senate Bill 5761 has been signed by the Gov. Inslee and once it’s in effect, companies with 15 or more employees will need to specify the salary range on the job post itself. I do not know the details of if they’ll publish the real ranges or just the average ones and give exceptional packages behind closed doors but this is a huge win for everyone.