Paid like an entry-level when they want principal-level output
Pros
The technical work itself was interesting, which honestly gets old pretty fast when your comp doesn't reflect the bar you're being held to.
Cons
Look, I knew SF wasn't cheap, but what they were offering for a senior role was just insulting — like, meaningfully below market. The gap between what they said the position was worth and what they actually paid for it never made sense, and it didn't get better. You're managing critical systems, on-call rotations, mentoring junior folks, the whole thing, but the salary bracket says "mid-level at a different company." Talking to other engineers in the city just made it worse because everyone else was getting paid substantially more for comparable work. I tried to make it work because the product was solid and the team wasn't dysfunctional, which I know sounds like a low bar, but after month six or seven of carrying a workload that didn't match the paycheck, it just started to feel resentful. The raises never came close to catching up to what you'd actually expect for the role.
