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My progression: 2008: Graduated with a BS in CS from University of London. I grew up in Europe. 2008: €30K - Joined a small company in Europe as their only programmer doing vehicle GPS tracking. 2009: €30K - Still there. 2010: €50K - Joined Amazon in Dublin, Ireland as an SDE-1 (entry level) in the AWS CloudWatch team. 2011: €75K - Still at Amazon, same team. 2012: $120K - Moved to Seattle with the same team. Promote…
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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…
A trip to the ER might cost your health insurer $50,000, it costs you a $1,000 deductible, and almost nothing for any follow up visits.
Salary progression, no college degree. Cash only comp, no RSUs or anything like that. 20 - $65k (Office Rural NY, SE) 21 - $65k (Remote, 10 Person Startup, SE) 22 - $75k (Remote, 10 Person Startup, SE) 23 - $85k (Remote, 10 Person Startup, SE) 24 - $85k (Remote, 10 Person Startup, SE) 25 - $225k (Remote, SF Series B Startup, Lead SE) 26 - $225k (Remote, SF Series B Startup, Lead SE) 27 - $393k (Office, SF Series C/D…
My progression: 2008: Graduated with a BS in CS from University of London. I grew up in Europe. 2008: €30K - Joined a small company in Europe as their only programmer doing vehicle GPS tracking. 2009: €30K - Still there. 2010: €50K - Joined Amazon in Dublin, Ireland as an SDE-1 (entry level) in the AWS CloudWatch team. 2011: €75K - Still at Amazon, same team. 2012: $120K - Moved to Seattle with the same team. Promote…
How did you make SDE-3?
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?
Even if you’re making 500k a year, depending on the part of the country, it may take a fair few years before you make that jump.
I think it’s the difference between having _wealth_ and having a lot of disposable income. There’s a fairly big difference. You can convert the latter to the former but not everyone does.
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.
I stumbled upon programming as a senior and loved it. While at the start up, it was easy for me to spend hours a day outside of work learning because I loved every minute of of it. But it came at the cost of hobbies and a friendship. I wouldn't describe myself as motivated by money and don't tell my family and close friends how much I make.
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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?
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”).
Don't forget that this is before taxes, retirement savings, healthcare and other deductions. You can't just hand-wave away "standard of living" and "social services and benefits". These may be things you take for granted but a large majority of the population has to have a large emergency refund in case they get severed from their company without any notice for any reason (Compare that with job security in France or…
As a developer based in Europe looking at these numbers is quite depressing.
Can we really compare them, though? I live in France, where €90k/y puts you in the top 1% salaries. In the US, you’d need to earn $400k/y to be in the same position. Standard of living and other social benefits come to mind.
In most of the USA, not only do you make more than you would in France, but things are actually cheaper, not more expensive. Imagine you make $150,000/year, a really nice house cost $300,000 (think $2,000 monthly mortgage/taxes/insurance payment), groceries, electricity, internet, car for a small family is $2,000 month. And that is with a very high quality of life. If you want to live frugally cut all the expenses in half. The company provides health insurance.
I think the biggest difference might be that Americans report their salary before taxes, and I think Europeans tend to do it after taxes. $150,000/year with a small family is probably $110,000-$120,000 after taxes in most states. €90k after taxes is comparable. Just need to consider quality of life differences.