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My Salary Progression in Tech

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Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#591

Post by minhaz23 »

throwaway031419 wrote: post #241
minhaz23 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still in VA? Is it typical for senior SWE to make 1.2 million? How can one reach that point faster?

Staff Engineers at FAANG typically make 400-500k/pa. What made the difference was a retention grant. I got a competing offer and they gave me millions in stock, which I accepted and stayed. After I was fully vested, I basically got lucky and found another big company that had a department that was doing some pretty undisciplined hiring and brought me in at Senior Staff. I'm not really doing the job at that level, but…

Do you think it's possible and that your advice is still applicable if one doesn't have a degree?

Is there a glass ceiling?

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#592

Post by minhaz23 »

fitech wrote: post #256
minhaz23 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate a bit more? It's hard to realize what problems a business faces without being involved intimately in the industry. How can one seek out these problems and begin to work on solutions? Would you mind sharing those posts?

I’m not saying this is something you can change tomorrow. It could be months, could be years. Really depends on how quickly you can learn the business you are involved in and where you are starting from. I don’t know you or your situation so this advice is extremely general. Focus on what the problems are your business/clients have which cost them money or find a way to answer a question like “if we do this it costs…

Wow this is great advice, thank you I appreciate the time and effort you took in writing that.

I have a few follow up questions if you dont mind.

>If your goal is to make more, you need to be aggressive. Invest in yourself in as many ways as you can. Learn more about software. Start by expanding beyond “web developer”. learn back-end programming, databases, etc. Talk to the people in your company that do sales, marketing, operations, HR. Learn as much as you can about your business or one you want to move into. Experience trumps everything. If you aren’t getting experience that makes you more valuable, you need to move on.

Its so easy to learn in isolation, but how can you actually turn it into profit? How can you quantify your skills? How does one get good at tha?

Also, why the call option analogy, do you work in finance (just curious)?

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#593

Post by WA »

philipp-H wrote: post #284

These are unbelievably high salaries. In Germany such salaries are possible only at management positions (not talking about IB) of large companies only. I visited US 3 years back and I found everything better - clothing cheaper, food more delicious, people friendlier and houses bigger. Yes you don't have social security and have poverty issues but I would still be in US than in Europe considering the amount of money…

Salary growth rate hasn’t been that high in Germany for the last 10 years. Also, 85k€ is pretty decent. Way more than the average salary: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/75731/umfrage...

Although compared to tech jobs in the US, it seems pretty low (but the numbers here are also biased).

In Germany, your best bet apparently is a management position or having your own business. This, of course, takes time. But it’s also very rewarding.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#594

Post by wishinghand »

minhaz23 wrote: post #233
wishinghand wrote: post #128

Graduated UC Santa Cruz in 2007, did odd-jobs until 2012. All of the following jobs are in San Diego, CA, USA. 2008-late 2014- Odd jobs and data entry as a temp: ~$28k Oct 2014- 1st developer job, Touch This Media: $50k, no benefits Jan 2016- company was in trouble, $35k July 2016- took 3 months off for a programming bootcamp, took two months after to find a job Jan 2017- The Control Group, $75k plus benefits, 401k,…

With a degree, and dev experience, why did you decide to attend a bootcamp?

My degree was in literature, and my dev experience was very basic. The company I was at before the bootcamp used git, but did not use classes, SOLID, unit tests, some sort of CI/CD pipeline or build tools. My resume was only getting very basic experience, so I decided to speed it up a little, especially since I was starting my dev career at 28 or 29.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#595

Post by scruple »

alexgmcm wrote: post #386
strikelaserclaw wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn dude, what type of learning did you do from 32-42.

Yeah, also what company gives that many raises!? Normally it seems it's 2-3% and if you want more you jump ship...

I've taken > 10% y/y for the past 4 years. I had one year in there where I was being jerked around as a sort of Mr. Fix-It between multiple teams and doing much more than just proving my worth. That year I took about 25% in pay raises _and_ negotiated cash bonuses for myself and two other team members who were carrying that product. I've nearly doubled my salary with my current employer over the past 4 years.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#596

Post by elbear »

mettamage wrote: post #525
elbear wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look for the middle ground. I realized that I want to work on things I like, but I still need to eat, so I've decided to split my time. I want to work at least an hour to something I'm passionate about. That way, even if I spend more of my time working for someone else, I know I still spend some of my time doing something I love. So follow your passion, but also your survival instinct.

> So follow your passion, but also your survival instinct. As far as simple quotes go. This sounds optimistic, yet reasonable. Based on your advice, maybe I should just go to Thailand and freelance as an app/web dev for 3 days per week and play guitar / make electronic music for the rest. I'd wonder how I'd prepare for economic down turns though. I'd make about: 5000 euro's per month (@ 50 euro's per hour as a freela…

If you're making 50 euros per hour, couldn't stay in the Netherlands, so that you get to be with your girlfriend, friends and family and still work 3 days per week? I think 5000 euros per month should be enough even for the Netherlands. It's true that you would save less, but you would get to be with your friends and family.

Or you could just go to Thailand for a few months, so you also scratch the traveling bug. There's nothing stopping you from coming back when you start missing the people close to you. You have options.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#597

Post by mathgeek »

arandr0x wrote: post #549
kevstev wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that fortunately right out of school I was very content- I had roommates, but I enjoyed that lifestyle. I had enough to put away each month into retirement and outside savings accounts and life was good. Then I got a serious girlfriend. We moved in together. We were getting a bit older and eating dinner on the couch because our tiny apartment couldn't fit a table grew old. We got a bigger/nicer place. This wa…

I'm in kinda that position (keeping the condo not having more than 1 kid, though). And honestly the sad thing is the kids don't care. Growing up my parents did the whole, salary treadmill, long hours, 30% travel, Saturday conference call business. The money's gone. The vacations forgotten. It kind of sucks nobody cooked in my home and I had to learn how to boil pasta at 17. I don't have college debt, but it's not lik…

You’re alive, it sounds like your life is pretty stable, and you obviously understand the value of providing for your own kid(s). I’d say your parents spent their time well, even if they (like all of us) made some mistakes along the way.

One of my favorite sayings is that every single new parent, upon arriving home with their first child, immediately realizes that they have no clue what they’re supposed to do now. We’ve all been there, and so were our parents.

Those who choose to try and give their kids a good life at their own expense are always doing something right.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#598

Post by sanderjd »

jrs235 wrote: post #514
iSpiderman wrote: post #353

> It's always been my intention to retire early, > I'm interested in making huge money and retiring early, > I don't begrudge people with their crazy salaries but I do get frustrated that I can't find success myself. I am shocked and surprised at the same time (knowing that I only selected quotes of a few commentators). Shocked to see the same mindset as many managing consultants and investment bankers I have met and…

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, “only a little while. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mex…

I've heard this story before and I love it, but there is an important point missing. The fisherman may one day find that he can no longer catch enough tuna in just a little while to support his family. At that point he may find himself in much worse shape; maybe he has to work a lot more, or commute into town to work at the factory, or even move someplace with more opportunity. The post-retirement banker does not have that problem. I think the banker would say that his over-work earlier in life has bought him optionality that the fisherman doesn't have.

I think about this in my own life. I don't want to be like the banker, deferring my real life into the future while focusing on work. But I also don't want to be like the fisherman. I want to strike a balance that allows me to live a fulfilling life while also using the fact that my skills are currently in high demand to but myself some optionality for a future in which they may not be.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#599

Post by gniv »

gigatexal wrote: post #394
techie128 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not salary. It's total comp. Most of it is stock growth.

Makes sense actually. Still the tax paid on the sale of stock (held for a year or more I think) is taxed under the Bush era cap gains values of only 15% IIRC so that's pretty good.

> is taxed under the Bush era cap gains values of only 15%

Not really. A lot of it is taxed as income when vested, as mrep mentioned. And if you do keep them long term, at that level of income the long-term cap gains tax is 20%. And there is also the Net Investment Income Tax of 3.8%.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#600

Post by sanderjd »

minhaz23 wrote: post #207
fitech wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just my 2 cents...If you want to make significantly more, focus on the business problems you can solve, not the technology you know/use. I’m not an “X” developer. I’m a business person that happens to use code to add value. If this is outside your comfort zone, look for some basic books on business and internalize the fact that until you can tie your knowledge to dollars coming through the door, you likely won’t make…

Could you elaborate a bit more? It's hard to realize what problems a business faces without being involved intimately in the industry. How can one seek out these problems and begin to work on solutions? Would you mind sharing those posts?

In case you happen to see this: The commenter replying to you here is right, but that approach also seems really overwhelming. Something actionable but I think a bit easier along the same lines: take projects or seek opportunities to work closely with your product managers, or whatever your company calls the people whose job is to figure out what the customer / market wants from your product. Basically the people they make the most fun of in Office Space - "I talk to the customer so the developers don't have to" - are really important and great people to learn from.
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