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

Ask HN: How to make more than $1mn+/yr as a software engineer?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 82 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to make more than $1mn+/yr as a software engineer?

#41

Post by patio11 »

zump wrote: post #9
patio11 wrote: post #4

Most of the more straightforward answers to this question end up with you making the majority of that million from your entrepreneurial skills rather than software development skills. (For example, "Found a software development consultancy and grow it to 8~12 employees.") In terms of straight up W-2ing without taking entrepreneurial levels of risk, I think you're looking at either finance or (restricting 25% to ~10%)…

I doubt top 10% at Big 4 are getting $1mn/yr in wages.

Pay packages are structured as base salary, bonus, and RSU grant. The RSU grants can be almost arbitrarily generous. Google paid out ~$6.7 billion in them last year.

You're welcome to your own estimate as to the percentage -- I suppose it's quite sensitive as to whether you're thinking "percentage of engineering staff at AppAmaGooBookSoft" (which is weighted towards < 5 years of professional experience) or "my percentage odds of reaching that level mid-career given 5 years of competent execution at one of AppAmaGooBookSoft."

Re: Ask HN: How to make more than $1mn+/yr as a software engineer?

#42

Post by nvarsj »

Don't be an engineer? If you're purely in it for the money, I would suggest the way to get 1mn/year is to join a hedge fund or prop trading firm as a trader. Steps: 1. Graduate from an ivy league school with a good GPA so it's easy to get in the door 2. Pass rigorous math based interviews - lots of guides on studying for these 3. Make money on your desk, which requires the ability to learn financial concepts, and quick thinking on the job - if you can play Starcraft well, or multi task online poker, you can do this. You don't need social skills or anything for this, apart from the interview process, it's almost purely analytical.

Making that kind of money as an engineer is much more of a crap shoot. Just be the best engineer you can and have big influence wherever you work. Then get very lucky and work on the right project at the right time at the right company.

On a more philosophical note - if you spend your life chasing money, odds are you're going to end up pretty unhappy. Try not to succumb to the capitalist rat race - I know it's hard, but it will make you happier :).

edit: Updated to be less hyperbolic. It's still tough to make a lot of money even going the trader route.

Re: Ask HN: How to make more than $1mn+/yr as a software engineer?

#43

Post by myrandomcomment »

zump wrote: post #27
Tharkun wrote: post #23

Start by learning SI units. Then social skills. Then realism. There is no realistic way for a "25%" software engineer to net 1M. Many don't even net a tenth of that.

Let's say if I was top 1%, what companies would pay me 1M?

Base salary as a software engineer? None. Top 1% that has made a name for themselves, complete package, a few.

Re: Ask HN: How to make more than $1mn+/yr as a software engineer?

#46

Post by zump »

karyon wrote: post #34
zump wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's real talk partly fueled by the anonymity HN offers. Some people, like me, may find themselves wanting to maximize their pay. Period. I don't believe people making this money are one-in-a-kind super geniuses, our system doesn't optimize for that. They are people who made a series of decisions, I want to know what they could be.

Well, "real talk" doesn't contradict "full of arrogance". In my opinion, maximizing pay just for the sake of accumulating/spending a lot of money is quite unsympathetic, and indeed to some extend arrogant. Unless of course you plan to make a positive impact on others or our planet with that money, but to me your posts don't make that impression.

> Unless of course you plan to make a positive impact on others or our planet with that money, but to me your posts don't make that impression.

I consider this a non-sequitur. Making a lot of money is considered the primary goal in our capitalist society and the sheer mechanics of our economy would guarantee it to be a net positive in all but 99% of cases (i.e burning the pile of money).

Re: Ask HN: How to make more than $1mn+/yr as a software engineer?

#47

Post by vostok »

jdoliner wrote: post #38
gigatexal wrote: post #8

Doesn't anyone else think this post is full of arrogance? Sure you don't have to be the best programmer in the world to earn millions but this just screams "I want to be mediocre and make much, much more than others." But yes, the quickest way to millions is starting a company as others have said.

Brimming with arrogance and a complete lack of self awareness. There are a lot of programmers in the top 25% that are willing to work for a lot less than 1 million a year. Why would anyone hire this guy who has no social skills, is arrogant and expects to be paid more than everyone else who brings the same value as him? There isn't some magic set of decisions you can make which will circumvent the rules of supply and…

> Why would anyone hire this guy who has no social skills, is arrogant and expects to be paid more than everyone else who brings the same value as him?

I think OP is asking how to add enough value as a top 25% programmer to justify getting paid this amount. That strikes me as a very fair question.

Re: Ask HN: How to make more than $1mn+/yr as a software engineer?

#49

Post by zump »

nvarsj wrote: post #42

Don't be an engineer? If you're purely in it for the money, I would suggest the way to get 1mn/year is to join a hedge fund or prop trading firm as a trader. Steps: 1. Graduate from an ivy league school with a good GPA so it's easy to get in the door 2. Pass rigorous math based interviews - lots of guides on studying for these 3. Make money on your desk, which requires the ability to learn financial concepts, and qui…

I was waiting for this post... are you saying traders at hedge funds can make this money... but engineers don't? I thought algo traders required engineers, or is there a systematic split from the pure traders who look at funky graphs and the engineers who work on the backend systems?
Post reply on HN