Why Tech Workers Get Paid SO MUCH -- General Motors vs Google Example

Hi! I’m Rahul, a software engineer and founder with a passion for teaching.

#TechCareerGrowth

[RahulPandeyrkp]

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[neutralsportsfan]

Geography crime. You cant compare the pay of software engineers in Silicon Valley to executives at GM in Detroit. Google pays their Detroit employees significantly lower than the figures you showed which would be a legitimate comparison.

[ShorlanTanzo]

The big difference is in work productivity. It takes hundreds of engineers putting the car together, hundreds more on logistics, procurement management etc. That's a lot of dividing the profits. Google makes oogles of money on fewer people getting a lot more done per revenue. So they can afford to pay top dollar for the best talent. It's not a skill issue, it's an applicability issue. You need a skillset that solves the problem that gets the company paid big bucks to let the company pay you big bucks. Starting from anywhere else besides revenue is working the problem backwards and introduces a framing issue.

[mostpassiveuser]

It's the difference between UFC and boxing fighter pay. Someone is getting rich, it's just not you in traditional companies.

[rohansingh]

As soneone who grew up around Detroit and moved to a Tech area. 250 in Detroit would be like 400+ here 😂

[tigerrx]

Besides the most obvious which is geography, the gross margin of the company is a major factor. GROSS MARGIN!! Google it’s like >50%, at GM it’s <10% on a phenomenal year.

[tarquinnehutchinson]

True. Getting into Google or Meta is the hard part.

[projectsnik]

I think situation will take U turn as each and everyone are coming in Tech now and its supply will reach peak and gradually demand will decrease.

[sefalibhakat]

How can general motors not be a tech company

[Sushi-Katana]

Made $210K in a non-tech role at a tech company. Not in leadership either.

I'll never work for an enterprise.

[TheCrusaderRabbits]

How about comparing work life balance?

[homersimpson]

Also they hire the best and ask leetcode hards whereas gms interview will have a lower bar

[hills]

A lot of it comes down to luck of the draw - not to take away from this Dude going to an elite college. I went to an elite college on the east coast and worked on the east coast - the equity comp is not a thing on the east coast. Hence we did not make the same kind of $s for similar or harder work!!!

[jokersmith]

The city where the job is located makes a huge difference in salary.

[bestquotes]

Currently working with AWS bedrock (AWS version of generative AI) . I'm expecting soon it's gonna replace developers, devops, solution architect etc.

[ashleyspianoprogress]

Are both of these positions located in Silicon Valley though? Otherwise you're missing the key part of the equation.

[guillermozapata]

That's just how they are paid, but why?? Not awsered

[anthonygriffin]

You can buy a house for $14 in Detroit

[kaz]

That's is the reason why people glorify cs too much. We live in a world where physics, Aerospace and mechanical engineering graduates earns like half of software engineering graduates while computer science is easy compared to those courses. A chemical engineer should get double the salary of a comp science graduate. Too many IT bros on the streets

[Leo-btmz]

Basically as long as stocks are worth a lot, they get paid a lot. When that no longer holds true, the pay ain't amazing anymore.