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Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

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Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#101

Post by paul7986 »

thrwunderpaid wrote: post #48
devilmoon wrote: post #27

Question from someone not living in the US: How come you guys have such high salaries compared to ROW? Is the cost of life that much higher than other countries, or is your income simply taxed less / companies have generally more money to spend on employees? I am currently working in one of the highest paying (if not the highest) consultancy firms in my country, and my salary is probably lower than your minimum wage.…

Cost of living in the US gets ridiculous. Healthcare is expensive and gets more expensive the more you make. As much as I make I'm probably one bad accident away from being wiped out financially When you add a family, child care is super expensive; think $350/week for two kids Not to say we aren't hyper-consuming gluttons, but I think that's only about one third of the picture

Don’t forget the govt takes over 40 percent when your making upper class to higher level salaries especially if your single.

That 300k is really only 180k annually. So the govt takes the salary of a lower level upper class person for taxes.

When u make the jump from 50k to a higher tax bracket, taxes will shock u!

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#102

Post by faangthrow »

* What do you do?

"Internal Tools & Automation". String together data pipelines (source and sink), write system tools, rapid app development for small and time limited tasks, review and optimize code for the team at large, public API reviews for usability / sanity.

* What is your job title?

Whatever I want :^). But my card currently says Lead Automation Engineer

* What is your total comp?

Amortizing my RSUs, it's about 300K/Y, with about 50% stock in a public company.

* Who do you work for?

FAANG

* Where do you live (assuming you don't work from home)?

Moved around the Bay Area a bit

* How long did it take you to get here?

2 years at a low volume / high value / esoteric material semiconductor foundry 4 years here.

* How did you get here (networking/raw technical skill/job board/dumb luck, etc.)?

Cold call from recruiter after passively posting my resume on a job board (never asked which one). Once here, just through performing well and getting exposure to other teams and how the OS works through experience.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#103

Post by devilmoon »

Blackstone4 wrote: post #62
devilmoon wrote: post #27

Question from someone not living in the US: How come you guys have such high salaries compared to ROW? Is the cost of life that much higher than other countries, or is your income simply taxed less / companies have generally more money to spend on employees? I am currently working in one of the highest paying (if not the highest) consultancy firms in my country, and my salary is probably lower than your minimum wage.…

The large software groups i.e. FAANG have very high margins and are very profitable. This means they can afford to pay their staff very well. I live in the UK and the cost of living in London is roughly the same as NYC but salaries are lower for the same job. Certain companies and countries (Luxembourg, Switzerland, UAE) have structural advantages which means staff get paid more. It is not always merit based. So you…

What really pisses me off about FAANG branches in EU is that they will pay you way less than what they're paying for the same role in the US, which feels like an insult. London I believe is the best market in the EU for cost of living/salary tech-wise - luxembourg, switzerland, UAE have a cost of living which is off the charts, i.e. yes in switzerland you can get 5k€/mo for an entry level job but having breakfast outside will probably cost you in the 10€-20€ range, which is madness compared to the rest of EU

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#104

Post by tsunamifury »

ng12 wrote: post #82
thrwunderpaid wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost of living in the US gets ridiculous. Healthcare is expensive and gets more expensive the more you make. As much as I make I'm probably one bad accident away from being wiped out financially When you add a family, child care is super expensive; think $350/week for two kids Not to say we aren't hyper-consuming gluttons, but I think that's only about one third of the picture

> Healthcare is expensive and gets more expensive the more you make Huh? Are you self employed? I don't understand this.

The hospitals regularly write off bills for lower income individuals, while better paid patients are stuck with the insurance-inflated bill if they aren't covered.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#105

Post by solarkraft »

alangibson wrote: post #22
adamnemecek wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber stock has more promise of growth. Also there are private markets (idk to what extent one can participate tho).

And more risk that they will never even go public. I've had options for more than one company that no longer exists.

Can't you sell the stake privately? Does it have to be approved by some higher up? I'm guessing it depends on the company.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#107

Post by dboreham »

Lordarminius wrote: post #83
toomuchtodo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a geographic disparity in how tech workers are valued. Might consider working remote for a US company that'll bring your wage up above what your local tech economy will provide for. As a sibling comment points out, health insurance and child care consume quite a bit of a wage in the US (our employer portion is $20k/year alone for a family of four; childcare is easily $1k/per child/per month for 2 days a week…

> [You]Might consider working remote for a US company that'll bring your wage up... How do you even get to do that ? Most of the time companies that advertise 'remote' mean 'we need a remote worker who resides in the US'

I’ve worked at many US companies where we had remote workers in other countries. In fact I’d say it was more common than not. Typically they were employees of the local country or region office though from a legal perspective so I doubt they were able to pull a “domestic” salary.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#108

Post by borkt »

slantedview wrote: post #39
devilmoon wrote: post #27

Question from someone not living in the US: How come you guys have such high salaries compared to ROW? Is the cost of life that much higher than other countries, or is your income simply taxed less / companies have generally more money to spend on employees? I am currently working in one of the highest paying (if not the highest) consultancy firms in my country, and my salary is probably lower than your minimum wage.…

Mostly cost of living. The locations where these jobs are tend to be very expensive to live (which is why the location part of this question will be interesting).

I work in Civil Engineering for a municipality in the bay area. We are having an incredibly difficult time getting any qualified applicants because it is not enjoyable to live in the bay area on the salary we offer compared to the cost of living. I'm pretty sure the salary for tech workers is not to compensate for cost of living, especially when I look at what my parents could afford on a blue collar salary in the North Bay when I was growing up. It is the wages paid that are raising the cost of living, not the cost of living raising the wages.

Re: Ask HN: Those making over $300k/year, how did you achieve it?

#109

Post by reacharavindh »

Reading such a post on HN is only fanning my financial insecurity.

I'm a Comp. Engineer in early 30, who used to draw approx. 130K (105 + 25K RSUs) from a major company in the south east USA. Moved to Europe(Denmark) for personal reasons, and have been essentially working for less than half that money I used to make. ($96K after taxes in US vs $48K after taxes in Denmark) - 10 years of experience.

Before you ask, that 130K job was not hell, it was a great experience. Nice people, great working hours/culture/balance. I keep telling myself that the quality of life after I moved here has improved in everything else except money. But, it's not completely true. Yes, I don't need to worry about * healthcare, * gun violence, * fear of being kicked out due to the 10+ year wait for Green card (Indian on H1B), * Childcare when I need for kids in future.

But, I question whether I'm wasting my prime earning years (comp.Engineer) at a place that does not pay well when compared to the US for superficial benefits. I'm not comparing Silicon valley standards..

Any HNers reading my rant from outside USA, care to share your thoughts?

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