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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?

#71

Post by cpncrunch »

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?

A lot of them do, eventually. Most of these positions are high pressure with a lot of hours. A lot of these people leave this kind of work after 5-10 years and do something more rewarding and less stressful. A guy I know used to be an investment banker but now runs a tea farm on Vancouver Island. There's a lot of those type of people about.

If you've never experienced burnout: it's not pretty, and can easily destroy your mental and physical health. At the first hints of burnout, you should get the fuck out!

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

#72

Post by devilmoon »

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).

what would rent+bills cost in SF, for example?

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

#73

Post by 0xB31B1B »

0wl3x wrote: post #45
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.

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.

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

#74

Post by akhilcacharya »

CryoLogic wrote: post #4
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.

Amazon comp is below 300 until probably principal level. Maybe a few seniors have it.

An L6/SDE3 that started a few years ago might do it with stock appreciation

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

#75

Post by fjsolwmv »

aantix wrote: post #6
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.

Shouldn’t there be a distinction made between public and private company equity? 150k of Facebook stock seems much more desirable vs 150k of Uber stock because at least with Facebook stock you could liquidate it on the public market? Or am I missing something? Paysa puts Uber at #1 for compensation, but their stock isn't liquidatable like a public company. Doesn't make sense. https://www.paysa.com/company-rank

The secondary market used to be an easy way to liquidate, back before FB IPO. Is it still ok?

https://sharespost.com/companies/uber/

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

#76

Post by The0racle »

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 in my experience. As long as your boss and team are a good fit, you can have a good life, interesting work and good balance.

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

#77

Post by throwaway713 »

0xB31B1B wrote: post #10
throwaway713 wrote: post #5

Also, not to hijack your question, but is it true that data scientists at FAANG companies earn significantly less in stock than software engineers?

Yes, but some Algo and AI researchers earn way way more.

What would an example of one of these people’s background be? And what job title? Individual contributor or director?

“Research Scientist” perhaps, with a PhD from Stanford in NLP would be my best guess, but I have no clue.

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

#78

Post by toomuchtodo »

devilmoon wrote: post #65
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…

I've thought about working remote but I've heard that unless the company is geared towards making the playing field even for remote/onsite workers you'll be having an hard time getting noticed/pulled into projects. Might be something I'll look into if nothing I can find in the EU satisfies me.

Don't give up! There are opportunities out there. Contact companies you're interested in who don't have open positions listed and communicate your interest. Despite what the echo chamber will tell you, it's still all about networking and who you know that gets you the job, rarely merit.

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

#79

Post by FilterSweep »

FloayYerBoat wrote: post #55
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?

...for a few years until the money runs out and your skills have atrophied.

It goes away extremely fast.

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

#80

Post by wpietri »

eugeniub wrote: post #42
devy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook, Apple, Aamzon, Netflix, Google https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/faang-stocks.asp

Why is Netflix in there? Seems like an unusual addition to the other four?

I'm guessing it's from the financial perspective, not a technical one. Netflix is a reasonably stable, well-known brand worth over $100bn and that has 100m+ subscribers.

From a salary perspective, I'd suspect they have to be competitive with the other companies for tech talent, so it's reasonable to include them here.

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