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Ask HN: Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?

#61

Post by bsvalley »

toephu2 wrote: post #21
throwaway198511 wrote: post #14

Currently making ~$300k/year in total comp. 31 years old. 5 years of experience as a hardware engineer, and 2 years as a software engineer (back-end). Master's degree from Stanford. Practice hackerrank, cracking-the-coding-interview, read a programming/architecture book every few months, till you can ace programming interviews and understand your field really well. Living in NYC, where the financial companies have dr…

what's your base salary?

probably $150k like everyone else :) If you're base salary is $200k and you only have $100k stock/RSU's, then there's a problem somewhere...

Re: Ask HN: Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?

#63

Post by et-al »

DDerTyp wrote: post #38
adventurer wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I assume we are talking about gross earnings before taxes.

Thank God, already thought about moving to the USA

In California, after taxes, you take home about 60-70% of your gross income depending on deductions. It's a lot of money, but property in San Francisco is going for at least $800k right now.

If you want a further breakdown on numbers, linkregister and I came up with a fairly solid breakdown a while back for a new grad in SF: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13009702

Note that $1200 gets you a room in a shared flat. If you want your own one-bedroom apartment, it's probably averaging $2500/mo right now.

The US is still the one of the best places to make a filthy amount of money. For that, we trade job security, healthcare, and decently-priced universities.

Re: Ask HN: Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?

#64

Post by happyhummus »

oblio wrote: post #33

I have the opposite question for people here: what drives you to more money? A very expensive house costs a few million dollars, which you should afford quite easily, especially if you have a partner making a decent amount of money. Children and their education cost quite a bit in the US, but even that shouldn't cost a lot. A few expensive holidays per year plus retirement money should be easily doable. So, basically…

Why not?

Say your job requires a certain level of effort and pays 100k. An offer comes your way from a similar employer, requiring the same level of effort, but pays 120k. All else being equal, why would you stay and miss the 20% bump?

Even if you have no debt, significant retirement/future-life savings, are living comfortably/within your means, what rationale would drive you to avoid earning more?

Ultimately, you're still investing a minimum of 8 hours a day working on something. You may as well drive up the ROI on those 8 hours as quickly as you can while you still can.

Re: Ask HN: Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?

#65

Post by VSPrw3C1yK »

tsunamifury wrote: post #26

I make about $275k (145 base, 35 bonus, 90+RSUs) as a designer with strong technical and product management skills. For example I can write you a basic Android front end and also a PRD while tangling through legal and security. I am an individual contributor and just about to begin managing. However I unofficially lead a team of 20. There are still 4 levels above me that can be paid upwards of low millions dollars be…

> I am an individual contributor and just about to begin managing. However I unofficially lead a team of 20.

How common is this? I'm in a similar position, albeit a smaller group. I've gotten pushback on a management title, but I think I've largely negotiated the unofficial duties into my salary, so I don't mind much. I make $250K (base and total) at a non-profit.

Re: Ask HN: Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?

#66

Post by salaryrevealer »

IC full stack 180k(base)+40k(bonus)+50k(rsu). Did not switch a lot of jobs. This is not the highest salary offer I received, but I liked the tech stack so chose this one.

Didn't negotiate or didn't get them into bidding war to get this salary. I thought I'd maintain good terms when joining them so didn't share my other better offers.

But in bay area, these numbers don't make any sense. I pay about $3000 in rent and $2000 in tuition fee as the school district sucks. So in reality my salary might be equivalent to about $100k in any other places.

Re: Ask HN: Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?

#67

Post by et-al »

oblio wrote: post #33

I have the opposite question for people here: what drives you to more money? A very expensive house costs a few million dollars, which you should afford quite easily, especially if you have a partner making a decent amount of money. Children and their education cost quite a bit in the US, but even that shouldn't cost a lot. A few expensive holidays per year plus retirement money should be easily doable. So, basically…

Are you American? Speaking for myself, I don't have a safety net aside from my family. So I need to be responsible for my own healthcare, potential children's education, and retirement.

Some people are born under lucky stars, or believe that life will provide, I'm unfortunately am not of that camp, so I want more money for the unpredictable future.

Re: Ask HN: Do you make more than $200K? What did you have to do?

#70

Post by scarface74 »

Let me ask the same question a different way. How do you make more than $150K outside of California or New York in another (cheaper) city that is known for good tech jobs?

I'm thinking about a city on this list that is not on the West Coast?

https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/25-best-paying-cities-softwar...

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