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Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

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Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#91

Post by wallflower »

patio11 wrote: post #43
goldenkey wrote: post #14

This is a fucking joke guys. Programming is not the career job that will get you those kind of figures, if it does it sure as fuck will be more of a management position. Look guys, salaried work will never make you 'rich.' Believing it will is the same belief that a startup will succeed. You need to get out of the salary game and work for yourself or do consultantcy if you want big bucks

There are many people on HN who agree with you on this. It has a certain appeal to it; I know folks whose sense of justice is offended that some programmers make $30k while other programmers make $300k, even programmers living in the same city. There exist tens of thousands of engineers at AppAmaGooBookSoft who have pay packages which top $300k. There exist thousands whose pay package approaches $1 million. These are…

> You need to get out of the salary game and work for yourself or do consultantcy if you want big bucks

This. Trading time for money does not scale. To belabor the analogy, vertical scaling (e.g. getting higher and higher positions in a company, climbing the ladder, high-end office politics) as opposed to horizontal scaling (multiple income streams, multiple revenue-generating disciplines, building your network) gives you no ownership.

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#92

Post by wallflower »

solutionyogi wrote: post #61
SecConsult wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say even with a PhD you can't make 300k/yr for web or any other development. Top notch developer's salary won't exceed 220k/yr

I am really happy that you make 420k but I guarantee you that there are plenty of developers who make more than 220k. (I make more than that and in my know plenty of folks personally who make that amount) One easy to way more money than this is to work in finance space in NYC.

Silly question. If you are making that much in NYC, how much are you paying for rent?

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#93

Post by ThePawnBreak »

pyb wrote: post #83
krschultz wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check Glassdoor, Payscale, etc for better data than that.

FWIW, Glassdoor mostly matches the 1 datapoint above (which was £45-65k) https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salary/Google-London-Salaries-EI... The averages being, in my area: SDE £61,668 SDE III £64,190 Senior SDE £84,307

The salaries discussed in these comments are only valid for San Francisco / Seattle / New York. London has incredibly bad compensation for programmers, relative to the cost of living.

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#94

Post by akulbe »

eranation wrote: post #7

I have a friend who is a cloud architect at a big-4, he is making a little more than $300k in total comp in NY (base is lower, a lot of RSUs etc), but he is more than just an engineer. He has a friend at another big-4 in NY, also a cloud architect, he is making $400k I think that the $1 million package is incorrectly calculated. This is perhaps the total package for 2-3 years, including signing bonus (vested over a c…

Who are the "big-4" that you're referring to?

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#96

Post by sailfast »

sailfast wrote: post #25
eranation wrote: post #7

I have a friend who is a cloud architect at a big-4, he is making a little more than $300k in total comp in NY (base is lower, a lot of RSUs etc), but he is more than just an engineer. He has a friend at another big-4 in NY, also a cloud architect, he is making $400k I think that the $1 million package is incorrectly calculated. This is perhaps the total package for 2-3 years, including signing bonus (vested over a c…

I'm not sure you can equate "Big 4" compensation (especially at senior level given responsibilities for sales, market offerings, etc) with engineering roles at software / product companies. The comp structure is much different, and there are a lot of differences in expectations.

Interesting downvote. Having worked in software development at a Big 4 I can say there is a great deal of difference between the roles. Senior engineers will either move into direct management of teams and accounts or will have some sort of sales target for their core skills area. At a product company I would expect that while comp is tied to sales number they are not directly responsible for those numbers, and they may or may not be managing teams depending on their role in the company.

Re: Ask HN: Who's making $300k to $1m as a cloud engineer?

#98

Post by goldenkey »

rch wrote: post #40
goldenkey wrote: post #14

This is a fucking joke guys. Programming is not the career job that will get you those kind of figures, if it does it sure as fuck will be more of a management position. Look guys, salaried work will never make you 'rich.' Believing it will is the same belief that a startup will succeed. You need to get out of the salary game and work for yourself or do consultantcy if you want big bucks

> Programming is not the career job that will get you those kind of figures This is not universally true, but you're correct that merely accepting an advertised programming job expecting to move up to those levels naturally would be naive. One problem to overcome is the proliferation of irrelevant job titles... IIRC John Carmack kept the title of 'programmer' for quite a while.

Very true. Big difference between a "design agency" and a graphic designer. Big difference between a "Solutions Architect" or "Technological Consultant" and "coder"/"programmer." Unfortunately, half the battle is dealing with this contrived bullshit. Which is why I seek to remove myself from this industry.
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