Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Salary Progression in Tech

georgestocker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 631 posts

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#101

Post by DVassallo »

opportune wrote: post #63
DVassallo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a big bump in 2016 because I got a competing offer from Oracle, and Amazon matched it. 2017 and 2018 growth was from stock appreciation. If the stock hadn’t increased so much, the last 2 years would have been at around the 2016 level. AFAIK, people with ~10 years experience commonly get offers at around my 2016 level.

This is less a direct question and more of a discussion: I always thought it was considered a bad move to stick with your old company after receiving a competing offer and negotiating a higher wage at your old company. Conventional wisdom I've read is that your old company will slowly phase you out (thus missing out on promotions/raises). Have other people been so successful using an offer for a raise at your origina…

At big companies I don't think that happens. Everyone understands that everybody is there for a temporary period. In my case, I think only about 3 people knew about this, and I believe they genuinely wanted me to stay.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#102

Post by thundergolfer »

throwaway0906 wrote: post #84

Didn't feel comfortable sharing on my real account, but thought some might find this interesting. Gender: male Location: east coast * 2013 - Graduated without a degree in CS. Worked at small start-up for 55k, no equity. * 2014 - Raise to 75k, 0.5% * 2015 - Raise to 85k, 1% * 2016 - Quit for a FAANG. 220k total comp. * 2017 - After 2 promos at the FAANG, ~330k. * 2018 - After good previous year, received a special sto…

Holy shit you went from $55k to $475k in 5 years with no college degree.

This is a big reason I'm in tech. What a rocketing salary progression.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#103

Post by koolba »

DVassallo wrote: post #47
gok wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many RSUs did you walk away from?

About $650K that were going to vest in 2019 and 2020.

That’s insane. Do you seriously expect in five years to be in better financial shape then you would have been had you stuck it out?

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#104

Post by bane »

I did something like this once, but from a different angle. Since salaries usually trend up, it's interesting to look at each salary bump in terms of how much money it makes for you over your entire working lifetime.

For example, if your first job pays $60k, and your working years are say 52 years total, the payout from sustained employment is $3.12 million dollars (52 years * $65k).

If you then move onto another job 2 years later, and make $70k. The payout for that jump is $500k ($10k * 50 years).

Or another way is to look at how much each pay bump has made for you till now (instead of over your entire potential working lifetime).

This helped put into perspective for me how important certain pay increases were for me and how unimportant others were. For example, big pay increases that occurred recently haven't yet had time to really make me any significant money, but even modest ones from 20 years ago have.

It also really puts into perspective how bad bonuses are vs wage increases. Even a large bonus pales in comparison to decades of small increases.

It also gave me better information when I chose to take a job at lower pay, in terms of how much I was sacrificing, and when I eventually ended back up where I was, how much that choice was actually costing me over my lifetime.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#105

Post by mercutio2 »

jbarberu wrote: post #93
snrji wrote: post #9

As a developer based in Europe looking at these numbers is quite depressing.

One trip home from the ER and you'll be the one laughing.

Look, I agree the US system is inefficient, immoral in the aggregate, and generally a bit of a pain to interact with.

But this idea that highly paid professionals in the US have crappy healthcare experiences is just silly. Anyone earning $100k as an employee in the US will have a good health plan that will provide excellent quality of care for a reasonable out of pocket cost.

In fact, this is kind of the problem with the US system! Rich people have a healthcare system that works well for them, they get lots of choice, very fast access to specialists if they want them, and generally rich people are happy with their health care.

This means there's no electoral coalition strong enough to pursue more egalitarian or more efficient systems, they'd all run the risk of appearing worse to the rich people.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#106

Post by falsedan »

dlivingston wrote: post #8
expertentipp wrote: post #2

This is very American centric. Whites in Europe are lucky to earn half that on architect positions (please don’t come up with „standard of living” and „social services and benefits”).

Why are dev salaries so much lower in Europe than in America?

Very interesting question. Most capital is deployed into fixed assets (like land) which generate regular dependable income. Excess capital is then invested in US companies.l (based on historical performance).

Also: a B2C service startup in the US has a bigger potential market than the same one in Europe (assuming they’re targeting what they know—the local market).

End result: no gigantic piles of cash looking for investment opportunities going to VCs to funnel into 100x success maybe startups, no companies minting money like crazy, no salary inflation

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#107

Post by JSDave »

crummy wrote: post #61
narcindin wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An income over 220k is easily > 90% percentile. I do not know what upper middle class is supposed to mean. Does it mean 90-95 percentile?

I don't have an answer for the question but I remember watching a series of recorded interviews with Americans from all walks of life and all described themselves as middle class, from the poorest to the wealthiest.

I have ~50k/year of passive income. I'm definitely not in the same class as people with ~50mil/year passive income.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#108

Post by aristophenes »

narcindin wrote: post #21
sometechie wrote: post #19

In the spirit of this discussion, I’ll share my journey. In 2015, my base was $95k. Today, it is $150k. Including stocks and bonuses, my total compensation went from ~$140k to $220k. In California, but not the Bay Area. I hold a Bachelor’s from a pretty good university, but by no means an elite institution. White guy from a modest background: grew up lower middle class, single mother who worked in retail, got free lu…

An income over 220k is easily > 90% percentile. I do not know what upper middle class is supposed to mean. Does it mean 90-95 percentile?

I'd guess his idea of upper class is people with mansions and yachts. 220K isn't enough for that in California (but it is in other places in the US). I think in California that gets you a nice house outside of the most expensive areas and whatever kind of car you want to drive, and maybe private schools for your kids if you want that.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#109

Post by vSanjo »

tvphan wrote: post #45

I am Asian but was born and raised in Australia. I have a Bachelor of Science and I work as a web developer, e.g. Spring, ASP.NET, React, WordPress, Drupal, etc. 2013 - 23yo - $45K - First job - Magento developer building eCommerce websites for clients. 2014 - 24yo - $54K 2015 - 25yo - $70K - Second job - Magento / Shopify / WordPress developer, building eCommerce websites for clients. 2016 - 26yo - $75K 2017 - 27yo…

Perth, very similar to your stats.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#110

Post by kthejoker2 »

fma wrote: post #75
kthejoker2 wrote: post #64

Well, yall can have mine. 2005: Graduated with a BA in Political Science and a fairly strong background in SQL. I've stayed in Texas my whole career. 2005: first job, web dev, $34k, govt pension 2006: salary bump to $40k 2007: new role as data analyst, $55k 2008: cola bump, $58k 2009: data warehouse lead at school district, $72k 2010: cola bump plus a raise, $78k 2011: first contracting role, equivalent of $100k 2012…

What's a promotion after BI architect? Manager?

Well I switched to consulting in 2015, but I'm now a pre sales analytics architect serving the Southwest.

So my promotion is more technical scope (BI/DW, ML/AI, IoT, Big Data, "DataOps"), more customers, more leadership, and more commercial responsibility (i.e. I have a quota.)

Post reply on HN