Late to comment, but thanks for sharing this anecdote.
I've done some mentoring of junior developers in the past. Many of them get hyperfocused on levels.fyi and HN comments talking about $400K salaries from FAANG companies. This leads a lot of them to become permanently disgruntled, convinced they're being severely underpaid.
When I started mentoring, I never thought I'd have to cheer people up about $150-200K offers in medium cost-of-living cities. Too many people are convinced that $400-500K is an easy-button. This is especially true for people who coasted by at the top of their classes at average universities who aren't used to being anywhere other than the absolute top of their local community.
I would not consider myself a junior developer, or even mid-level at this point, but an offer letter with $110K salary (which I assume was total comp because there was nothing else mentioned in there) is less than what I was making 20 years ago.
I've done some mentoring of junior developers in the past. Many of them get hyperfocused on levels.fyi and HN comments talking about $400K salaries from FAANG companies. This leads a lot of them to become permanently disgruntled, convinced they're being severely underpaid.
When I started mentoring, I never thought I'd have to cheer people up about $150-200K offers in medium cost-of-living cities. Too many people are convinced that $400-500K is an easy-button. This is especially true for people who coasted by at the top of their classes at average universities who aren't used to being anywhere other than the absolute top of their local community.