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Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

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Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#101

Post by mypalmike »

nickjj wrote: post #60
k__ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Freelancing is a good option. 250k a year is 20k a month, for 12 months a year. 20k a month is 1k a day, for 20 work days a month. How to make 1k a day? Write 2 technical articles. Btw. as a freelancer you could end up paying less taxes, because more things are deductible. This could mean, you can end up with the same money after taxes without making 250k a year.

> Btw. as a freelancer you could end up paying less taxes, because more things are deductible. But you're also paying a lot more in base taxes and lose out on a bunch of bottom line income. I've been a freelance worker for ~20 years and recently switched to a full time position to mix it up. Your employer pays half of your social security taxes but as a contractor worker you need to pay both ends, that translates to…

One way to reduce your tax load is to contract through your LLC, pay yourself a salary from that, and get taxed as an S Corp. It helps to hire an accountant who knows how to handle most of this for you.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#102

Post by mustyoshi »

yob28 wrote: post #83
cushychicken wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run a job board for FPGA people and hoo WEE do the HFT firms compensate amply. Talking two to three times the salary of a comparable position at a defense or chip company. That's not to say you won't be earning it. The corporate culture sounds absolutely savage: https://www.reddit.com/r/FPGA/comments/pj43ar/my_experience_...

Not to mention the fact that your job would be less than meaningless

What kind of meaningful job produces enough value to justify making 7x what the median US worker makes?

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#103

Post by randomopining »

vadym909 wrote: post #91

Almost every large tech company now has fully remote tech roles for senior developers. $250k total comp is average for someone w 4-8 years experience. You just need to be good in coding, data structures and system design - and be able to show this in the interview - achievable with some practice.

You mean FAANG or just general “tech” companies that are working on user software stuff?

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#104

Post by nnoitra »

tyingq wrote: post #86
cj wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently fired an engineer who was working 3 full time jobs all paying $130k+. He ended up getting busted by all 3 companies at once, and all 3 fired him. Hopefully he can find a new job that doesn’t check references. If you care about your reputation, or if you have the slightest moral compass, don’t do this.

Three jobs is definitely pushing past what's realistic. 120 of 168 available hours in a week, hah! But, the sort of industry pearl-clutching about holding 2 jobs is interesting, when employers think nothing of making you work extra hours without comp, or be "on call" without comp, intellectual property clauses for stuff done on personal time, non-compete clauses, etc.

The employee has to be a saint but the employer can be Satan himself but they are excused.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#105

Post by k__ »

ayewo wrote: post #58
Lordarminius wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Write 2 technical articles. How do you monetize technical articles at the rate of $1k / article ? Most firms wont pay that much.

The technical articles can serve as highly effective ads to lure your potential customers. The kind of technical writing that will leave no doubt in the minds of your readers that you demonstrate deep expertise in the technologies you are an expert in. Here's an example https://burke.services/segment.html taken from https://burke.services/

This.

If I write an article that shows how your SaaS integrates with then this is worth much more than $500.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#106

Post by z3t4 »

There is only one thing that will affect your salary - it's what you are able to get at other companies. So the best strategy is to have several companies outbid each other. When you search for jobs, don't just get an offer from one job, try to get an offer from at least 10 jobs.

You can compare the company with yourself trying to buy an house: The house is on sale for $140 (the seller is the developer). If there is only one bidder, you could even buy the house for $130 (you are the only company to give an offer to the developer), but if there are 10 bidders, you will probably end up buying (hiring) the house (developer) for $250.

It's a matter of how desperate the employer are. If they already have many developers - lookup their salary and if it's low they are not desperate enough, eg. they already have a stream of cheap talent.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#107

Post by randomopining »

throwawaywork14 wrote: post #43

The easiest way to make a lot more money… Get a job making 120-180 but 4 days a week. It is possible to do this. Make sure it is not an exciting company, but rather a corporate, slow moving one. Now you can pick up a contract making 100+ per hour. 15-20 hours a week. Do 4 hours of the main job. Do 4 hours of the freelance work. You’ll easily be making 250k. Another thing to note, as a developer you can solve a proble…

What’s your strategy if the 2nd job is more time-consuming than you hoped for? Quit within a month?

Or do you only go for part-time contracted stuff, so you can prioritize your original job and then fill in the gaps with paid productivity at the part time gig?

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#108

Post by Benjamin_Dobell »

fxtentacle wrote: post #11

Leverage. If your work improves the productivity of 100+ other people, you're surely worth the price. If your work saves $500k+ in annual costs, you're surely worth the price. If hiring you cripples key competitors, you're surely worth the price. If you can enable new revenues streams through knowledge that only you have, you're surely worth the price. If hiring you does not increase productivity, reduce costs, fend…

> if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business. That'll make it much easier to hire you across borders. And at that price, you can surely afford the $1000 annually for a tax advisor retainer.

In my experience you shouldn't need to do this. In fact, I suspect doing this creates both a taxation and legal nightmare.

You should have a registered company (or any other trading entity) so you can bill as an independent contractor. However, it should be registered in your country of residence. Services like Deel exist specifically to facilitate this sort of arrangement, it's a breeze.

If you register a company in the US, you can't just arbitrarily transfer the money to yourself internationally. You'd need to pay yourself as an international independent contractor anyway. Except then you create legal issues, since there are likely legal issues with a company you run hiring another company you run. Additionally, by operating two companies, you're presumably filing two company tax returns, and paying yearly registration fees for two companies.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#109

Post by smoe »

iandanforth wrote: post #16
xwdv wrote: post #4

Here’s a cheap and easier trick: find two easy remote jobs each paying $125k. There’s your $250k a year. You don’t need any particularly distinguished resume. With the right job responsibilities, this is doable for a software engineer. If you can offset the two jobs a bit by time zone it’s even better. But you better hurry, once people catch on that this is possible the supply of developers can quickly increase overn…

Note sure why this is getting down voted. Freelancers and contractors work multiple client jobs all the time. Low wage workers work multiple 'full time' jobs all the time. Are FT software engineers special?

Don't those workers working multiple 'full time' jobs usually have temp contracts paid by hour or service?

I haven't seen a full-time contract that would allow me to take other such commitments from other companies. Whereas when I was a freelancer I had to demonstrate that I have at least 3 roughly equal sized clients to be legally recognized as such.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#110

Post by btheshoe »

moreira wrote: post #17
sgt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MANGA companies. It didn't take HN long, did it.

What I will never understand is how harmless old Netflix found its way into an acronym for the big beasts of tech. Not even Microsoft gets that privilege (for some reason).

I've heard it as MAGMA recently
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