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Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

danielvassallo.com

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Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#51

Post by notjustanymike »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".

It's really hard to have exactly nothing. You can have much less than nothing, through student debt, and slightly more through and savings. Even then, a college education has worth (excluding philosophy) so no money might not mean no things. In the the end, nothing is as complicated as nothing.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#53

Post by max_ »

drugme wrote: post #5
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".

Yeah - if anything it's another indication of the huge bubble many of us in the tech community live in.

Sounds very "American" if you ask me

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#54

Post by emilfihlman »

Most of the comments seem to not understand that he wasn't developing per se anymore. He was managing, which explains the larger payout.

In addition, I greatly dislike how the top post is negative on the story: it disregards the idea behind the post and instead replicates the typical "you have things good so fuck you" response.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#56

Post by akhilcacharya »

crescentfresh wrote: post #41
tyler- wrote: post #15

What kind of companies pay software engineers 300k+? Is it realistic to make 500k-1 million+ at these companies as a developer? What sort of title/level are these developers at? How much is it in stocks/rsus vs salary at that point? Can someone lay out a traditional example at this level? What skillsets do these people have?

Also, this was in Seattle location, can anyone shed some light on cost-of-living there compared to say Bay Area developers?

I don't work in Seattle but I was about to, it's 10% cheaper off the bat because of WA's lack of income tax (of course, Amazon also increases base salary in SFBA by about the same amount so it's a wash).

Luxury apartments are much cheaper than SF and South Bay in my experience, and I wouldn't have needed a car. Weather isn't as nice as SFBA probably, but I enjoy the weather around there. Commuting is also pretty straightforward into the suburbs.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#57

Post by bquinlan »

The declining motivation with increasing scope really resonates with me. I often feel the same.

And I feel that his career trajectory is pretty typical - you start building cool stuff in a small team and you end up trying to coordinate large groups of people (who a typically the managers of the people who will build the cool stuff).

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#58

Post by cpursley »

blaisio wrote: post #45
Dayshine wrote: post #6

> When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. >What is out there that I could do that would make me excited waking up every day for the next 45 years that could also earn me enough mone…

$1m is not enough for most people in the US to never work again, unless they are quite frugal. It's barely enough to retire with.

What bubble/ivory tower part of the country are you in? $1m is enough. Especially with a paid-off mortgage. Most people get by for way, way less than that.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#59

Post by DVassallo »

todd3834 wrote: post #38
tyler- wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of skill sets do you have to warrant Amazon paying you that much? What kind of skill sets do developers have at this level that differentiates them from everyone else?

Amazon’s stock has gone up a lot. Likely that has a lot to do with it but if this is all base salary that’s awesome. Usually big stock grants go out to those who have shown themselves to be force multipliers. If you can make everyone around you more productive than you’re contributing in ways that make companies like to put golden handcuffs on you.

My base was $160K, and the rest stock. If the stock didn't increase so much since 2016 I would have made around $380K each year in the last 3 years.

Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself

#60

Post by DougN7 »

DVassallo wrote: post #7
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

I’m going all in on independence, and I’m going to try to make a living with my own bare hands starting from nothing. 500k/year in your last year is "nothing", huh? It really undercuts the entire thrust of the post, because you're starting with a nice big war chest and a hell of a safety net, not "nothing".

Yes, I saved a lot. About $1M in liquid assets. But I meant that I'll start with no income, no product, no business. I'll write another post about how I set up my safety net.

Good luck. Cautionary tale: I have a buddy that was in a similar situation (more than $1M actually). He started a business, was careful, and after a few years went bankrupt because the business never gained traction. He sure wishes he hadn’t gone down that path. He’ll probably never get back to where he was. Just a regular developer now. If you ask him if the experience was worth it, he’d tell you no. So be careful.
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