Episode 258: Addicted to scrolling and underpaid with equity

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

Questions

1. Listener “Scrolly McScroll-Face” asks,

   Hi Team! Love the show. Keep up the great work and congrats on 256 episodes!

   I think I’m addicted to my phone? Every time my code goes to build, or something I know I need to wait on, I open my phone and start scrolling. 40 seconds later when the build is done, I’m still scrolling. In between thoughts, I also open youtube in new tab fairly regularly.

   It’s definitely gotten worse while working at home during these times. I’m surely not alone in this slipping of discipline….

   I’ve tried to put my phone in the next room and that has some success, but I don’t always remember to do that. Do you have any tips? Anything you’ve seen while managing folks?

   I love my job and I love the work, so I dont think I’m not engaged enough, and I struggle to see how a different job would engage me more.

2. Hi I am the under-leveled engineer from episode 240, and I want to provide an update and ask a follow up question.

   I was promoted in this cycle, and because of my shyness I used Jamison’s favorite problem solving technique of doing nothing prior to my review, my compensation in the new level is also underwhelming. Or is it?

   Comparing my pay with some data point on levels.fyi, my salary is slightly below average. As part of my promotion, I have another equity award, and that is also slightly below average compared to the data points on the site. However, I already have an existing equity award granted to me when I started at my previous level. It is unclear to me if the data points on the site have taken into account for an internal promotion vs an offer extended to an external candidate. If I add in the previous equity awards and my compensation in this new level, then my total seems too be way out of band, on the good side.

   Digging into it more, there are other sites and blog posts that talk about things like refreshers and bonuses. These are brand new concepts to me since my previous jobs only pay salary, event the tech jobs in middle America. Could you talk about how compensation is structured in the big leagues?