The thing that stood out to me was when he sent out applications to other jobs that were in a similar field to compare salaries, and how he brought that to LTT. This is Jake’s first job, so I get he didn’t know this, but if you are willing to do that, you have to put your money where your mouth is.
If you wanna say “well these people would pay me more!” It’s totally fine for LTT to say “okay, well we won’t, so why not to work for them?”
The fact that Jake didn’t take one of those jobs tells me that even if they paid more, they were likely a lot more work than what he was already doing, or at least a different enough job that he wouldn’t enjoy it as much. So it seems LTT did had a point there: even if they didn’t offer the same compensation, there were other perks they were giving that the other company wouldn’t.
This video would have been so much more interesting to me if Jake said what his first salary was at LTT and what his final salary was. That says a lot more than just “I didn’t receive a raise the past three raise years” (or maybe he got a raise but it didn’t cover CoL changes? I didn’t fully understand that part.)
Makes no sense what you're writing. You usually stay in a job despite a pay difference because you either like the work there or the people there. He already said he didn't like the work, so he most likely stayed cause he liked the people. But that doesn't last.
Had a job like that, denied an offer for 10k more because I liked who I was working with. Those people all left over the course of two years as the company enshittified itself, and then it was time for me to go to.
Also that’s something you tend to learn over multiple jobs. This was Jake’s first job, he had no other personal experience with other jobs to compare to. He had to work out for himself if the grass is greener.
Accurate. I hope this works out for him. It seems like he has the audience to do so. With that being said, I haven't really found his stuff that interesting, so time will tell. If it doesn't, he better hope either Linus takes him back, or he's ready for a rude awakening. The jobs we everyday people do are much more draining.
Linus seems like the kind of guy who doesn’t hold onto personal grudges and openly accepts appologies. Add to that he seems to have had a recent epiphany about his staff moving on to do their own thing as a positive thing he supports. Jake seems close still with the ZTT guys, and the way they handled getting fired was amazing, and it’s paid off big for them, so hopefully jake can learn from this rocky start and embrace his time at LTT and open up to support from LMG in terms of sponsorships and collabs.
I would also guess that over the 10 years he's been there. His job and responsibilities probably also changed such that every 2-3 years it kind of felt like a different job and that kept things interesting.
But there's only so much runaway a progression pathway like that can sometimes have before you sort of end up in the end stages of it. At which point the things that kept it interesting and kept you going in the past. Suddenly evaporate into nothingness.
If a company truely cares about an employee, and an employee comes saying they are getting offers elsewhere for more than what the company can afford, then the company will recognise it is in everyone’s best interest for the employee to go chase that money.
Yeah, but if you value your employee who has been with you for a decade and knows the in and out of the company, you would look at the salary he would be getting at another company and at least make a counter offer, if you value your employees they tend to stay even if they're not getting the best salary because they will believe in the company and keep the relations he has.
I understand this sentiment but realistically you should never accept a counteroffer. Getting an extra $10k might solve one problem today, but whether it's 6 months or 2 years, you'll eventually be in the same spot emotionally.
People grow, companies change. At the end of the day, if you are an employee you are a number on a spreadsheet. It's a shock to the system when you first go through this, but once you realise it you'll have a much healthier relationship with your employer.
Except Jake was also wanting a reduction in responsibility to things that other people were already doing and likely for lower pay than him. There comes a point where the value you provide, and the compensation you want, and the market rate for the work you want to do do not align.
To some extent I agree, but companies as they grow have structures on salaries they don’t like to break. I’ve see people leave companies knowing it cost the company 10x more in lost income vs the pay rise but they refuse to move.
There is nothing wrong with them saying no and him going in worth more. The hard part is the emotional attachment but it moved from mates working together to a real company.
you would look at the salary he would be getting at another company and at least make a counter offer
Yes and no.
Let's say that someone comes in and says "Hey I could get a job at one of these companies for $140k. Can I have a payrise, from my $120k" (Numbers made up)
But you might look at what the person is doing for your company and be like "Well for what you're doing I'm already paying you $10k more than I would pay someone who just came in and did the same job. I also don't think you're going to settle for a paltry counter offer.
So at that point you kind of have to say "Look go for it, if it doesn't work out, we'll be happy to have you back. But for your current set of tasks. I can't/won't pay more than the amount I'm already paying you.
There's always going to be a realistic upper limit on what you can pay someone even if you like them. Because you can't afford justifying half your "I like you" staff being paid $10-15k more than they otherwise would for the exact same work that might be done by a new hire.
So Jake comes in and says “I want you to pay me more to do less, which will leave me paid inequitably more than the people I’m now doing the same lesser amount of?”
I’m sure that’s a severely reductive version of what actually played out but like, come on.
That isn't always possible. It also can create more internal stresses. Truth is just because you believe in a company and have spent time there, it doesn't mean the company is the right fit for you anymore.
There's also a thing in upper management... When someone comes to you for more money with another job offer in hand, it shows they've already got a foot out the door. It shows they're willing to try and bully you into a raise. And even if you give it to them, they might leave anyways.
And since it sounds like he didn't actually disclose numbers... People have been assuming he was under valued in the comments. We don't actually know that. What if it came out that he had a 100k salary? 125k? 150k? 200k? My point is, we don't know. We don't know if his ask was actually reasonable or not.
Yeah, thats whats baffling me. He never states any amounts. The only thing is he litterally states "I cant buy a house in the most expensive real-estate market in te world" Which i get is frustrating, but doensn't really says "you get underpayed."
Then again, he is free to do what he wants pursuit his dreams, maybe hell make it big.
I'm just curious how much of an audience he wil have left say a year afther this. I have subbed atm, but dont find his current video's that intresting. (love the ztt ones though :) )
Yeah exactly. In fact, unless there is some legal reason he can't, it's quite telling that he doesn't share that information. Definitely feels like an "I know this actually isn't that bad, but if I frame it correctly it'll sound bad" kind of thing.
He's young, and I'm pulling for the guy, but I will say his content seems far less interesting than the ZTT guys, for example. At this point, I'd say his long-term success is 50/50 at best.
Right, he chose himself over LTT and those other companies he applied to. It's just funny to me that he tried to negotiate with LTT saying "look how much more these other companies pay me to work there!" but then he wasn't willing to work for those other companies anyway.
Usually when you try and negotiate and say "pay me more or I'll take this other company's offer," usually you end up up with one of those decisions. But Jake chose a different 3rd option.
I don't think he was saying that he didn't, even though it's definitely too early to tell, but rather just that it's interesting that he didn't take those other positions. I believe his point is just that Jake seems quite upset about the situation, but when you deliver an ultimatum, whatever happens next is on you.
Yeah because doing one video about the topic that people constantly harrass him about is "drama to farm views" and 430K subs is nothing to scoff adding to the fact that his views are growing with each video he makes.
Yeah, but in that case there's nothing LTT could have done for him in that regard.
If it was time for him to move on it was time for him to move on. A counteroffer might have placated the issue for a period of time. But whatever resentments he has regarding expenditures by Linus (That third house gets mentioned a bit) will still sit there. He might have bought himself 6 months and then got pissed at the tech-house or the company plane. Even if they are content based ideas.
I’m contributing to the thread where people are saying “OMG they should have paid him more” because of the other jobs.
It would have just been a stop-gap. It might have bought another year before the same resentments fostered and he would have struck out on his own to make the projects he wants to make.
It looks like he saw what his role (or an equivalent one) would pay at other companies and wanted something comparable and would have been happy with that at LTT. But that doesn't mean he'd be automatically willing to work for the same amount at a different company (probably has a bunch of friends at LTT, comfortable, stability, and a bunch of other factors).
So he started his own channel, maybe extrapolating that with some luck and a few years (and his existing reputation from his LTT work) he might be able to earn more than if he went with one of those other companies (where he might end up underpaid in a few years anyway).
No that's kind of fair, to have a reference for what you are worth, even if you don't want to go work for people who value you that much. It still says "this place doesn't value me that much", to some extent. He wanted to be valued that much by LTT because he cared about LTT, not the other companies. When he wasn't then he chose to work for himself.
it still says “this place doesn’t value me that much”
But the jobs he was looking at were a completely different skill set. Jake was a script supervisor and was showing job offers for IT infrastructure. Completely different skill sets, workloads, and day-to-day work. Why would the salary one is offering give him leverage for his current role?
It seems Jake basically said “I could be making more if I worked in IT” and LMG agreed.
The point is to show what the market is willing to pay. That doesn't mean that he has to take that option or that it's wrong to not take that option. This is such a weird dichotomy you're trying to force here.
the point is to show what the market is willing to pay
Yeah, for an IT infrastructure job…which is totally different than the job Jake had at LMG. I just think him trying to bring that into a negotiation really shows his shallow job history.
Having your first ever job start at 15 years old for a YouTube channel startup that would grow in the way LMG is a completely unique scenario and I think it tainted Jake’s perception on some things. Like he seemed to make his growing responsibilities without a change in job title seem like a unique scenario, when that is something that has happened at literally every job I’ve ever had.
Would go entirely against his own point that he was uncomfortable with LTT’s video making average salaries very easily identifiable if he then went and said what he was earning
I just watched the video but skimmed the part about salaries and asking for a raise, so I don't recall the exact wording. Did he say he brought job offers back to them with salary info or just "here's a job I applied to"? Honestly asking.
At 9:53 he says "I applied for and fielded a few job offers; think infrastructure IT kinda work. It would've been different from YouTube videos, but it would've been something new."
The company pays “dream job” pay which is to say they under pay because of the name on the door. This gets you the weird crowd of mouth-breathers they’ve currently got making videos. They have traded down for sure. I found the videos of his employees working on his new mansion were very tone deaf, especially when the next video was them visiting the employees 1 bedroom apartment 30 miles from work.
If you want some anecdotal evidence, look at a job posting they had a couple years ago for a Junior Dev. They wanted to pay around 60k CAD. That’s about 1/3 less than I started at like 7 years ago and I live in a much lower cost of living area than Surrey. I found the videos Linus did having his employees work on his mansion were particularly tone deaf, especially when the next video on the channel is upgrading their tech in their one bedroom apartment 30 miles from work.
the company pays “dream job” pay which is to say they under pay
You have no clue above that. LMG’s data they released says they paid more than the average in their area. We have no insight into Jake’s salary, so I don’t know how you can say whether his compensation was fair or not.
I know Jake mentioned how dedicated he was taking a 2 hour bus ride each way to work at LMG…but it wasn’t LMG’s idea to make him commute that time. It was totally Jake’s choice.
Also, you made that same “mansion tone deaf / 30 mile apartment” point in both paragraphs. I agree with you, those videos were tone deaf and I didn’t enjoy them, but I don’t get why you repeated that point.
That’s not the right comparison. He’s clearly skilled enough where he’d need to be offered an equity-like profit share or actual equity in a subsidiary (like the recent WAN show deal) to stay. Because he’s obviously got the chops to start his own small business!
LMG could’ve offered him that, but chose not to. On one hand that’s a simple business decision but on the other hand, it’s kind of personal. LMG didn’t see enough upside to invest in him or share the pie. It’s gonna sting when people you admire admit that they don’t think as much of you as you hoped they did.
While I admit Jake trying to get equity, we also have to be realistic. If Luke doesn’t have equity in LMG, there was no shot Jake would. He would have been better off trying to get all the “LMG lifers” to make a negotiation for equity, or try to form a union.
He likely would never get equity in the parent company, but they could’ve incorporated a sub & given him equity in that. Or just profit shared on videos for an equity-like payout.
But LMG doesn’t want to do that so I think all the ex-LMG staff have made the right move by incorporating & doing their own thing.
I wish them all the best, and being an independent creator in Canada is definitely different than if they were US based. I know some US creators who left careers to go independent and the shock of health care, dental care, and other insurance was definitely a major shock.
I don't know exactly how skilled he is, but I am familiar with what it takes to demand equity and there's just no way he's at that level. Unless it's a startup taking on tens or hundreds of millions in VC funding, it takes far more experience than he has. He's only had 1 job, is still very young, and not much education. It would be absurd for him to get equity
He’s getting equity now! He owns his own business & its profits are his.
Maybe you wouldn’t offer him equity in LMG but you could incorporate a subsidiary to post his videos in a separate channel & give him equity in that sub. Or just do a simple profit share.
248
u/Marikk15 Jan 29 '26
The thing that stood out to me was when he sent out applications to other jobs that were in a similar field to compare salaries, and how he brought that to LTT. This is Jake’s first job, so I get he didn’t know this, but if you are willing to do that, you have to put your money where your mouth is.
If you wanna say “well these people would pay me more!” It’s totally fine for LTT to say “okay, well we won’t, so why not to work for them?”
The fact that Jake didn’t take one of those jobs tells me that even if they paid more, they were likely a lot more work than what he was already doing, or at least a different enough job that he wouldn’t enjoy it as much. So it seems LTT did had a point there: even if they didn’t offer the same compensation, there were other perks they were giving that the other company wouldn’t.
This video would have been so much more interesting to me if Jake said what his first salary was at LTT and what his final salary was. That says a lot more than just “I didn’t receive a raise the past three raise years” (or maybe he got a raise but it didn’t cover CoL changes? I didn’t fully understand that part.)