Anyone else feel like a loser for living in the area and not working for a lucrative tech company? (Seattle: 2014, school)

[BATCAT]

Another point to make is that for someone like the OP- who I am assuming is single and without kids- you don't need a six-figure salary to live comfortably in Seattle in 2015. Seattle is expensive, but not so much so that you can't enjoy what it has to offer on an income that's significantly shy of six figures, provided you are sensible with your budget and make a few concessions to frugality.

Starting a family... that's another matter and I'm not envious of those trying to do so here with more limited incomes.

[thedonwind]

Originally Posted by BATCAT

Another point to make is that for someone like the OP- who I am assuming is single and without kids- you don't need a six-figure salary to live comfortably in Seattle in 2015. Seattle is expensive, but not so much so that you can't enjoy what it has to offer on an income that's significantly shy of six figures, provided you are sensible with your budget and make a few concessions to frugality.

Starting a family... that's another matter and I'm not envious of those trying to do so here with more limited incomes.

Amen!

[seattlecoming]

Originally Posted by MicroOptimizer

Anyone else feel like you're not part of the "in crowd" because you don't have a 6-figure job at a brand-name company? I go to lunch in Redmond town center and see all guys eating together with Microsoft badges visibly hanging off their belts and I feel inferior for not being able to get a job at Microsoft. Then I go hang out in Seattle and feel the same way when I see all the Amazon folks in groups. Do you feel that there is a social pecking order that is developing out of the competitive tech environment of the Seattle are? Or that if you're not one of the ones making 6 figures, that you're being priced out of the city -- nature's way of telling you that you're not good enough to make it here?

Lots of folks in the Seattle area are high-wage earners and don't work for Amazon or Microsoft. I'm a financial manager for a catering firm and have an accounting business on the side. Though I don't earn a 6-figure salary I'm doing well enough to afford a nice condo in a great part of town and I dine at some of the nicer restaurants on occasion. At the end of this month I'm taking an Alaskan cruise. So it's pretty obvious I'm not being priced out of the city despite the high COL. My advice to you is don't worry about who works where and the social pecking order. If you're unhappy with your life, spare us the pity party and work to change it. That's what I did- I was miserable living in Phoenix and I moved to Seattle over 4 years ago on a job offer. I didn't regret it. Seattle isn't perfect but it has a lot to offer even if you're not employed at a brand-name company.

[mhuynh10]

Is this thread a joke?

Starbucks
Continental Mills
Oberto
Costco
REI
Eddie Bauer
Nordstrom
Slalom
Sur La Table (this one maybe not quite there, but close)

All pay managers in multiple functions six figure salaries and offer good work-life balance. And, most of these companies have more "cool factor" than any tech company, IMHO.

[Xanathos]

Originally Posted by mhuynh10

Is this thread a joke?

Starbucks
Continental Mills
Oberto
Costco
REI
Eddie Bauer
Nordstrom
Slalom
Sur La Table (this one maybe not quite there, but close)

All pay managers in multiple functions six figure salaries and offer good work-life balance. And, most of these companies have more "cool factor" than any tech company, IMHO.

First, Starbuck's is a tech company that happens to sell coffee. You would not believe the things they have going on there.

Next, Oberto, Costco, Eddie Bauer, and Sur La Table don't pay nearly as well as you think they do. Costco makes news for paying its warehouse workers so well, but it comes at the cost of its back-office talent. Eddie Bauer tries to pay 65 cents on the dollar. Sur La Table is a small company that pays small wages. Oberto? Come on, man...

I don't know anything about Con Mills or Slalom, so can't comment.

[mhuynh10]

Originally Posted by Xanathos

First, Starbuck's is a tech company that happens to sell coffee. You would not believe the things they have going on there.

Next, Oberto, Costco, Eddie Bauer, and Sur La Table don't pay nearly as well as you think they do. Costco makes news for paying its warehouse workers so well, but it comes at the cost of its back-office talent. Eddie Bauer tries to pay 65 cents on the dollar. Sur La Table is a small company that pays small wages. Oberto? Come on, man...

I don't know anything about Con Mills or Slalom, so can't comment.

I work for Starbucks, and while our technology is ahead of other retailers and food companies, describing us the way you did is pretty misguided.

I know for a fact that Oberto and Eddie pay competitive, six figure salaries for mid-level marketing/finance/supply chain people (6-10 years into one's career) because (1) recruiters/headhunters from those companies contacted me for similar jobs and (2) I know people that used to work there. Glassdoor confirms this.

As for Costco, they pay their buyers six figures easily, and Directors their make more than Directors at similar companies (although they are also in their positions a lot longer than at most big companies, which is one of the drivers). Glassdoor also confirms this. They are leaner in headcount at their central/regional offices, which helps explain why their SGA is a reasonable ~10% of revenue.

[mspkiddo]

This thread is a bit short-sighted. Living in Seattle is frigging expensive.

I paid $2000 in rent uptil last year, had to move to Bellevue, and am paying $1750 now. It's quite insane.

My monthly real expense is around ~3,000 -- that's me and my wife. 1750+400 = 2150 + utilities + phone + internet, car insurance, etc.

That means $36K goes just for living a life in the area. Given 30% tax rate, back of the envelope, if you want to max out your 401k, you need to make 90K minimum.

If you're making less than this, you're not putting enough for retirement.

[Xanathos]

Originally Posted by mhuynh10

I work for Starbucks, and while our technology is ahead of other retailers and food companies, describing us the way you did is pretty misguided.

I know for a fact that Oberto and Eddie pay competitive, six figure salaries for mid-level marketing/finance/supply chain people (6-10 years into one's career) because (1) recruiters/headhunters from those companies contacted me for similar jobs and (2) I know people that used to work there. Glassdoor confirms this.

As for Costco, they pay their buyers six figures easily, and Directors their make more than Directors at similar companies (although they are also in their positions a lot longer than at most big companies, which is one of the drivers). Glassdoor also confirms this. They are leaner in headcount at their central/regional offices, which helps explain why their SGA is a reasonable ~10% of revenue.

Your reliance on Glassdoor exposes 2 problems:

First, Glassdoor encourages people to list their total comp, not their base salary.
Second, Glassdoor is notorious for people inflating their salaries for the purposes of seeming more wealthy than they are. I've seen it time and again at my company, where people post their salaries and I look at their job title and know *exactly* what they're making...and know they added 20 grand to the number.

The average Eddie B salary for a manager is 73K a year. It's easy to find this number. It's a far cry from 100K+. Oberto is a small company. Costco attempts to recruit me pretty regularly, and their salary range not only isn't in line of being interesting to me, it's not even in line with the region.

Lastly, if you work for Starbuck's, I'd highly recommend you actually go down and spend some time with your IT/operations people. How it is that I know more about how advanced your org is in terms of technology and what you're doing than you do when you actually work there is pretty sad. Starbuck's gets *all* the cool toys before they even come out.

[RVD90277]

In my limited experience, the numbers in glassdoor are basically spot on. I gave our at least one job offer/month during my time so I knew the exact numbers, etc. The numbers are broken up with base + bonus + stock and those numbers are all accurate as well.

RVD.

[Jadisssss]

Originally Posted by Xanathos

I say this as someone who is *firmly* entrenched in tech.

Trust me, the vast majority of them (particularly the 'softies) aren't making 6 figures. Your 2 biggest tech companies in the area (Microsoft and Amazon) each have their own demons. At Amazon yes, you'll make a fortune, but you will never be able to spend it because you'll be working all the time. Microsoft is filled with H1-b visa workers who make 30-40 cents on the dollar. Most of them are making 70K a year....if that. There are programme managers that are bringing in the bank, but Microsoft isn't the great shakes it used to be.

The truth is, there aren't that many companies that offer the big wages and some semblance of life balance in the area. F5, EMC, Google, Facebook, Starbuck's, Tableau...it's not as many as you might think.

I work at MSFT and can tell you that entry level engineers straight out of school are easily offered $100k base salary last I checked (over 1.5 years ago, probably closer to $110k now), never mind stock grants, benefits, and all that. You are quoting salaries (70k) from like a decade+ ago.