Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 303 posts

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

#111

Post by ojbyrne »

mtw wrote: post #69
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.…

Other western governments take care of healthcare costs, unemployment benefits, maternity/paternity leave, holidays, education costs and retirement. For example, in France or Germany, tuition fees for your kids are minimal while it's a fortune in the US. Or the governments in Europe mandate companies to pay 4 or 5 weeks of holidays. If an employee in the US wants to take 5 weeks, he/she has to pay 3 weeks out of thei…

I’ve been in the US for 10+ years, 4 or 5 jobs and have never had less than 3 weeks. Last two jobs have been 4 weeks right from the start.

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

#112

Post by ryandrake »

adamnemecek wrote: post #3
0xB31B1B wrote: post #2

300 tc is pretty standard for FAANG and the big unicorns. I pull down 330k w 5 years experience at a Uber. 180 cash, 150k equity. I’m incredibly average, 5 years exp.

It’s definitely not standard. Esp at say amazon.

You forget: Everyone on HN makes $300k, drives a Porsche and has a supermodel as a significant other. I’d regard the self-reported anecdotes as outliers. $300k (total including equity) is at least one, possibly two standard deviations above the mean for software professionals. I’ve been in the industry for 20 years and work at one of these ‘top’ places and don’t make anything even close to that. These threads are always good for a morning laugh though.

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

#113

Post by 0wl3x »

0xB31B1B wrote: post #73
0wl3x wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was your salary trajectory? Where did you start and at what point did you start reaching the 200k+ to 300k+ range?

200k range is L4 at most big cos and mega unicorns. So 2.5 - 5 years exp. I studied chemical engineering in school, started at a bigger company, then small start up, then to Uber. Reached 300k this year w promo from L4 to L5.

cool! then there's some hope yet!

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

#114

Post by [deleted] »

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.…

[deleted]

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

#115

Post by solarkraft »

The0racle wrote: post #76

Currently earning $300k base with 100k in RSUs annually at Oracle as an engineer, though my title is different (director title). All they've asked from me so far is engineering IC work. I had to negotiate hard for it, and my expertise spans multiple currently hot tech domains. Also a former founder of my own startup. I'll also say that despite the common hater mentality against Oracle, it's been a nice place to work…

This makes me wonder whether Oracle's unpopularity raises the wages they pay.

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

#116

Post by madeofpalk »

devilmoon wrote: post #85
mabbo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Competition, and value. At the height of Microsoft's days, the average employee generated something like $2m in value. Take a dozen companies like that, where the income of the company divided by the number of employees is still in the millions, and have them fight for the best talent. Lately, tech is especially special for this because a good employee is so much more valuable than a bad one. Some developers honestly…

There's still the question of FAANG branches in other parts of the world not paying nearly as much as they do in the US, which is bullshit to me - if an employee generates value while working in the US, it does so outside of it as well. Companies this big shouldn't lower their compensation to match the country they operate in, I feel like it's an insult to employees who simply were born/decided to live in a different…

But 'value contributed' is only a part of the equation that goes into how salaries are calculated.

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

#117

Post by jimmydddd »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #18

> Associate; a generic corporate title in banking To be highly paid, get a job at a company run by (former) software engineers who see software as the profit engine of their company. Not a bank that sees software as an IT cost center. In general, you make the most money at a company where the founder or senior management have the same background as you and are biased to think your job role is the most important one i…

Great advice. My father always says that you should go to a company where you work in a profit center, not a cost center. A lawyer at a law firm, instead of the legal dept. at a corp.; a coder at a software company, instead of part of the IT dept.; a marketer at a marketing company, instead of part of the marketing dept. at a corp., etc.

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

#118

Post by friedman23 »

devilmoon wrote: post #103
Blackstone4 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 out…

It's definitely not fair to you that you get paid less because you were born in a different country but that's just how it works. The rest of the world simply doesn't have the demand for tech talent that the US does.

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

#119

Post by dx034 »

mabbo wrote: post #35

I've been reached out to before by recruiters for High Freq trading companies and other financial groups, offering 300-500k starting. A friend of mine worked at one of them and basically said that yeah you do make that kind of money but you work 70-80hrs/week and if anything is ever determined to be a crime, you'll be the one who gets thrown under the bus.

I think this applies to many jobs in Investment Banking as well. Salaries are great but you won't have much time to spend it.

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

#120

Post by solarkraft »

eXpl0it3r wrote: post #106
trendia wrote: post #19

FAANG is Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet’s Google.

Thanks! Not even a quick Google search could tell me the meaning.

The acronym seems to change every few weeks. I saw another one all over the comments a while ago.
Post reply on HN