I ran across this statement today
Everybody in town is competing for developer talent. The market price for a proven developer working at a startup in a talent acquisition by Zynga, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, RIM, etc... is roughly $1M to $1.5M with a 3 to 4 year lock in.
Reminded me of pre-IPO Google. The mid-level developer was brought in with promises of 4 yrs = $1m (cash + stock). At an IPO of roughly $80 and a high of $700, people did better than $1m, if they sold at the right time.
Google had about a 9x increase in market value from IPO to peak stock price. Is it reasonable to think that Zynga, Facebook etc will do the same? Far fetched? Hard to know if LinkedIn will do something equivalent and go from $18 to $162 (9x).
If this is all true/likely, it is quite a contrast to other areas of the economy. This chart illustrates the divide
In 2010, the median household income by state ranged from $35,693 in Mississippi to $65,028 in New Hampshire. California, with the highest median home price in the nation and home prices that far outpaced incomes only ranked ninth with a median household income of $61,021.
What ever happened to all that chatter that we didn't need more CS grads?