These "salary" threads of the past week have been a bit depressing to me. Like you, most of the salaries discussed in these threads make me feel like I've been and am still underpaid.
And this one is no other. And I live in the Bay Area… my internship was nowhere the $8k mentioned at some point for Google and my first salary was pretty far from the $100k that are floating around here once again.
That being said, I actually checked salaries of H1b (I was one too) at my current and previous companies and mine looked decent in comparison. So, I'm not sure if it's matter of me picking the wrong/cheap companies (and being bad at negotiating, but I know that) or that there is some selection bias going on.
Salaries in the Bay Area remind me of sushi restaurants in Tokyo. The vast majority are in a fairly normal band that we can all relate to. Then there are the upper echelon which make a very sudden and alarming jump in price. Much like how Chowhound focuses on the creme de la creme and its commensurate pricing, HN focuses on the top 1-5% of tech jobs.
Everybody is hiring. Brush up your resume, go to networking events, and start handing out business cards. You'll have an idea of your fair market value if you're checking the market to see what your time is worth.
And this one is no other. And I live in the Bay Area… my internship was nowhere the $8k mentioned at some point for Google and my first salary was pretty far from the $100k that are floating around here once again.
That being said, I actually checked salaries of H1b (I was one too) at my current and previous companies and mine looked decent in comparison. So, I'm not sure if it's matter of me picking the wrong/cheap companies (and being bad at negotiating, but I know that) or that there is some selection bias going on.