I'm on ~$192K USD in the UK, but I mostly do WFH.. If I was willing to commute every day, it could be more.
10 years experience. Cloud / Security background. Finance Infra job.
Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
51–60 of 95 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Now I don't believe you :) 6 years of experience pulling $500k at google/fb? I've worked for these kind of companies, there is no such things. Unless you're one of these isolated rats who don't communicate to anyone. There are some at google but not a lot..
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Now I don't believe you :) 6 years of experience pulling $500k at google/fb? I've worked for these kind of companies, there is no such things. Unless you're one of these isolated rats who don't communicate to anyone. There are some at google but not a lot..
Well, that's simply true. Two close acquaintances go like this:
- age: 29 base: ~150k, RSU package: 1.8M negotiated upon joining (4y vesting)
- age: 34 base: ~250k, RSU package: 3M, same terms
Both are very solid individual contributors, smartest guys in my personal network for sure.
It's really not hard to believe. Another acquaintance of mine works at a very big Hadoop startup here in the bay (guess name) as a product manager, and her total compensation is around 350k a year. It's not surprising to have a very solid engineer get some multiple of that.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Now I don't believe you :) 6 years of experience pulling $500k at google/fb? I've worked for these kind of companies, there is no such things. Unless you're one of these isolated rats who don't communicate to anyone. There are some at google but not a lot..
Well, that's simply true. Two close acquaintances go like this: - age: 29 base: ~150k, RSU package: 1.8M negotiated upon joining (4y vesting) - age: 34 base: ~250k, RSU package: 3M, same terms Both are very solid individual contributors, smartest guys in my personal network for sure. It's really not hard to believe. Another acquaintance of mine works at a very big Hadoop startup here in the bay (guess name) as a prod…
what do you mean by 1.8M and 3M? if you get 150k RSU and $200/base salary per year, how do you end up with 1.8 million?
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, that's simply true. Two close acquaintances go like this: - age: 29 base: ~150k, RSU package: 1.8M negotiated upon joining (4y vesting) - age: 34 base: ~250k, RSU package: 3M, same terms Both are very solid individual contributors, smartest guys in my personal network for sure. It's really not hard to believe. Another acquaintance of mine works at a very big Hadoop startup here in the bay (guess name) as a prod…
what do you mean by 1.8M and 3M? if you get 150k RSU and $200/base salary per year, how do you end up with 1.8 million?
Poor formatting (editing from mobile). $150k is base salary. $1.8M is the additional RSU grant with 4 year vesting schedule heavily negotiated prior to joining (in these examples, with a bidding war between google, fb and another very big company).
Also, I can personally testify how important negotiating the offer is. I routinely (every ~2y) interview to discover my market value and, from a position of power (e.g. "Well I'm happily employed at the moment so the incentive has to be good" or "I have a higher offer"), is very easy to negotiate additional stocks. I've been able to improve the offer by a good $100k yearly RSUs (!!) just by negotiating with HR. It also helps that I kind of like the process (I'm that weird person who gets thrilled by buying a new car and making a car salesman lose his patience by constantly asking a better offer and absolutely be ready to leave if it doesn't happen)
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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).
Isn't that just a 'regular employee'? Maybe I'm missing something here (or differences in work culture from US to AUS) but since when isn't everyone evaluated by their own work output?
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
$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 Independe…
I think that you grossly overestimate what a $200k income actually gets you in terms of ability to aggregate wealth. If you're hoping to work until you're 65 and live off of a meager 401(k), then sure. Have at it. If you want an early and fat retirement, you'll need at least $300k salary. Large annual bonuses ($100k-$250k range) with a $200k salary would also be sufficient.
$200k salary alone is solidly middle class.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#58Yes, it is possible. When you are offered $200K base at FB, Apple, google, etc, expect that your bonus and RSU gonna add another $200K a year on top of your base.
Experience is necessary for that base, but not sufficient though. Have you built a good product? Are you a top notch engineer? Can you pass a facebook/google type interview? If yes, you can demand. In the worst case, you can get a fat RSU package, and a fat sign on bonus, even if you are offered $170K base.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#59Make $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?
Five years of sustained effort is far from easy...
You could create mobile apps, informational web sites that generate Google traffic, niche SaaS services, a YouTube channel in a popular topic, sell physical goods on Amazon, open an Etsy store.
Ideas are the easy part, especially if you already have an expertise in some area. The hard part is the five years of building.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to make $200K/year base salary?
#60Make $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.
Why are people downvoting this? It may not be as easy as it sounds, at the same time, it's not as hard as everyone in comments below are making it out to be.
Full of profitable side-projects => https://www.indiehackers.com/
You need
1) Discipline
2) A side-project that solves a "pain point" or atleast alleviates some of the pain in "pain point", so you can monetize from day 1
3) Ship, and refine.