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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?

#221

Post by tcrow »

machinemob wrote: post #191
tcrow wrote: post #182

From my experience, one of the best (and relatively easiest) ways to reach higher salary levels over a relatively small time frame is to, at some point, go to work as a short term consultant through a consulting agency for a little while. If you have any decent skills, getting in will be no problem. The benefits of this approach is 2 fold; 1) you will obtain a broad and diverse set of skills due to traversing many di…

tcrow what are some real-world examples of "consulting agencies?" I'm a technologist but examples in any industry would give me a feeling for what kind of company you're referring to. Thanks in advance.

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IT_consulting_firms for a list of some large scale firms. I'm sure there are also plenty of local agencies in your area that you could tap into.

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

#222

Post by conanbatt »

wyldfire wrote: post #173
conanbatt wrote: post #126

Its noticeable to me that FAANG companies get to this heights because of their stock compensation. An economic downturn or hit to the tech sector will immediately drop the compensation for its worker significantly. (Not to say that they are still noticeable salaries). I wonder outside of FAANG how easy it is to get 300k salaries.

Does it normalize -- will you get granted more shares at the lower share price? In which case the only risk is when the share price drops during the time it takes to vest. Certainly a bummer for that year (or years) they're in a down trend, but seems less likely that a "plummet" kind of slope would happen year over year.

If the company gets a 30-40% stock hit, its not going to still be generous, and of course salaries across the board will drop. Netflix has the most solid business model that could keep up the salaries (they give little to no stock i hear), but the rest would take a hit before anything can be thought of.

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

#223

Post by passiveincomelg »

jabgrabdthrow wrote: post #44
Apreche wrote: post #33

Here's the real question. If you are pulling that much, why are you still working? Why not head straight to the beach and live a wonderful life of idle luxury?

Not everyone is depressed or parasitic by nature

How is that "parasitic"? Participating in investment banking, surveillance capitalism, weapons manufacturing and lots of other fields where these salaries are payed are much worse for society than sitting on the beach (IMHO obv).

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

#224

Post by thrwwyphdsalary »

default-kramer wrote: post #216
enothereska wrote: post #14

https://www.financialsamurai.com/living-a-middle-class-lifes...

Food for three is $2100 per month? That's ridiculous. I spend less than $5000 per year on myself. Probably right around $10/day, and that's with at least 80% of my meals coming from restaurants. I'm working on doing more home cooking for various reasons.

> Food for three is $2100 per month? That's ridiculous. I spend less than $5000 per year on myself.

That is ridiculous, but $5000/yr is also pretty low. Remember that this is a budget for 2 people working full-time and also raising (perhaps multiple) children. That means purchasing time wherever you can. Food prep is labor intensive.

Unless you have a stay-at-home or part-time parent, the first child is NOT a linear progression in life costs!

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

#225

Post by zimpenfish »

Blackstone4 wrote: post #193
zimpenfish wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can easily make £400+ a day with tech contracting in London, yep. I've been doing it for years and I'm defiantly middle of the road. If you're a niche expert (MUMPS, KDB, etc.), you can probably make double that.

@zimpenfish do you have any advice on contracting? I was thinking about going into one day. I have a diverse background and have been a quantitative analyst, software engineer, and investment analyst. I have a MEng in Mathematical modelling (from a good UK uni) and a CFA Charterholder. My current tech stack (about 1 year experience) is React, JS/Typescript, GraphQL, Apollo Server all on AWS (AWS Lambda, AWS RDS and D…

> do you have any advice on contracting?

If you're ok with employment gaps and the consequent lack of income, go for it. But if you have dependents and/or mortage and/or other constraints, I'd definitely put a whole lot of thought and financial planning into it first.

With that list of skills, I reckon you should be able to find some interest in London, yeah. Might have to lowball the daily rate to start with just to get going but people are definitely hiring those skills.

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

#226

Post by samfisher83 »

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…

Netflix and Amazon's margins aren't that great. How are they able to afford these salaries?

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

#227

Post by Lordarminius »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #96
Lordarminius wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [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'

To your question: "How do you even get to do that?" You ask. My current enterprise job was not offered as remote. It was advertised as an in-office job. When the job was offered to me, I asked if I could work remote. Due to how hard hiring is for my role, I was told it'd be no problem (and I had other offers; lesson for another thread, "always negotiate from a position of power"). The below resources come to mind as…

great resources. I'll check them out.

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

#229

Post by neopanz »

devy wrote: post #12
adamnemecek wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It depends on position. Total compensations for AI positions in top tier technology firms are well beyond $1M mark, some go as high as $3M annually.

Do you have data/sources?
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