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Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

#41

Post by iplaw »

micahbright wrote: post #23
gizmo wrote: post #6

I'm not sure why you wouldn't care about stocks or bonuses, but 200k base salary is entirely possible at Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Oracle, most hedge funds, and so on. 200k per year doesn't even put you in the 1%. 200k per year isn't even an infinite amount of money -- larger house and nicer car and poof it's gone. Right now software engineers with AI and Deep Learning experience or Big Data experie…

"larger house and nicer car and poof it's gone." I guess you could spend your money that way. $200k is considered affluent, at least around Texas. I imagine it's not really a lot if you live out on the west coast.

$200k is far from affluent in Texas, unless you're in a small town in BFE. $200k is solidly middle class in Dallas.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

#42

Post by bsvalley »

madeofpalk wrote: post #32
bsvalley wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this base salary? What is your profile? 10 years of exp. at FB? Individual Contributor? Are you specialized in AI or something else?

> Individual Contributor? Would you mind explaining what this is? You've mentioned that twice in this thread and it's something I've never heard before.

an individual Contributor is an employee who doesn't have any direct reports.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

#43

Post by memmove33 »

bsvalley wrote: post #33
memmove33 wrote: post #30

I make that much: Senior Software Engineer at a startup (joined among the first 3 hires), Bay Area. About 6 years of experience. 200k$ base salary 50k$ performance bonus 1% ISOs (after considering dilutions. Company is ~1y post Series B)

That is pretty impressive I have to say...

As a further data point, some people in my personal network of comparable experience and age are pulling 500-700k a year from Google/fb. That of course includes RSUs, but that's literally the total compensation they are able to translate into hard cash every single year.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

#45

Post by JamesVI »

bsvalley wrote: post #20
gizmo wrote: post #6

I'm not sure why you wouldn't care about stocks or bonuses, but 200k base salary is entirely possible at Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Oracle, most hedge funds, and so on. 200k per year doesn't even put you in the 1%. 200k per year isn't even an infinite amount of money -- larger house and nicer car and poof it's gone. Right now software engineers with AI and Deep Learning experience or Big Data experie…

I've been there, there is not such things for an individual contributor unless you're an old employee (10 years at the same company). I'm talking about +200K/y base salary, no stocks, bonuses etc.

I have personally hired ICs at $200k base plus 10% bonus target plus RSUs.

Typically 10+ years experience and a some specific experience we felt was relevant to the team.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

#46

Post by adamesque »

madeofpalk wrote: post #32
bsvalley wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this base salary? What is your profile? 10 years of exp. at FB? Individual Contributor? Are you specialized in AI or something else?

> Individual Contributor? Would you mind explaining what this is? You've mentioned that twice in this thread and it's something I've never heard before.

An individual contributor is just someone who doesn't directly manage other people.

I think you're supposed to use it to refer to people who are evaluated by their own work output as opposed to measuring the output of a team (even though I think for senior engineers it's totally valid to evaluate whether they're boosting the team and nudging them towards better solutions).

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

#47

Post by iplaw »

truftruf wrote: post #35

Make $140k/yr, be happy, and make a side project that brings in passive income. Build it up over 5 years until it makes $200k/yr reliably..now you're doing better than anyone who has to have a real job.

You make this sound easy and guaranteed. Perhaps give a few examples of side projects that will generate $200k in ARR within 5 years?

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

#49

Post by erubin »

bsvalley wrote: post #21
danial wrote: post #11

AmaGooFaceSoftApple will pay senior developers in excess of 200k per year. You can't ignore stocks because they will often cap your base salary and pay the rest in stocks. For example, a VP at one of these may have their annual compensation at $X,XXX,XXX per year but only receive $1XX,XXX in base salary. This is true for developers as well, but the ratio of base to total compensation is skewed more towards base compa…

Rarely, if you join as a senior engineer at AmaGooFaceSoftApple you won't make 200k base salary. This will be mostly stocks.

I'm not sure why you don't consider stock in a public company that you can immediately sell every monthly vesting period liquid.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?

#50

Post by dlp211 »

iplaw wrote: post #41
micahbright wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"larger house and nicer car and poof it's gone." I guess you could spend your money that way. $200k is considered affluent, at least around Texas. I imagine it's not really a lot if you live out on the west coast.

$200k is far from affluent in Texas, unless you're in a small town in BFE. $200k is solidly middle class in Dallas.

$200k/year is well above solidly middle class anywhere in the world including Vancouver, London, NYC, San Francisco, or any other place you could dream up. $200k/year being middle class is so incredibly out of touch of what it means to be solidly middle class.

This does not mean that you are jet setting around the world either or that you can quit your job tomorrow, but you are well on your way to Financial Independence/Retire Early, and probably a fat one at that.

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