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Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

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Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#21

Post by baddox »

loboman wrote: post #12

How much is 100k a year in the US? I thought it wasn't so much for good programmers, at least in SV. Is a 100k programmer something unheard of in the US?

I believe that 100k a year, even in the most expensive and well-paying cities (e.g. New York City, San Francisco) is rare for entry-level, 4-year CS degree programming jobs.

When you get to 5 years experience, then I'm guessing 100k is much more common. That said, the mean yearly income for a software engineer in the USA appears to be somewhere between 75k and 90k (according to a couple of online sources I quickly found).

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#22

Post by bane »

baddox wrote: post #18
feverishaaron wrote: post #9

Be careful about chasing a dollar amount. $100K is pretty baseline for someone who has technical/design etc. skills. Moving into the $200K+ salary range often means working a lot of overtime, which leaves little time for enjoyable pursuits, or side projects which may eventually earn far more than that extra $100K a year.

$100K baseline? That sounds like you're talking about entry-level, which can't be right regardless of where you live. I believe that the mean annual income for a software developer in the USA is about USD 75k. I found one estimate as high as 90k. In non-coastal areas (even big cities in the Midwest, Texas, etc.), entry level positions requiring a 4-year CS degree are commonly 45k-60k.

Career baseline, not entry-level. Making 100k these days with 5-7 years of experience is not all that unusual.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#24

Post by flyosity »

One thing I've noticed (throughout my career, and by talking to friends in the software industry) is that there seems to be a ceiling on how much you can make as a software engineer at "a company". The exact amount really isn't important, but if you're relying on one company to pay you a higher and higher salary every year, at some point they'll probably stop jumping you up the salary ladder. Or you'll be forced into management to get the bump you want.

On the other hand, if you're a consultant/contractor, you're spreading the money across a number of companies. A company might not want to pay a full-time employee $200k/year, but they won't fret over paying a contractor $150/hr for a few weeks/months of work. The company is happy because, on paper, the one-time payment to a contractor is a lower number, and the contractor is happy because they can jump to the next company after this contract is up. My friends in the software industry who make the most money tend to follow this route. Or, they wrote a Top 10 Paid App in the App Store and got rich that way, but that's a little tougher :)

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#25

Post by [deleted] »

baddox wrote: post #18
feverishaaron wrote: post #9

Be careful about chasing a dollar amount. $100K is pretty baseline for someone who has technical/design etc. skills. Moving into the $200K+ salary range often means working a lot of overtime, which leaves little time for enjoyable pursuits, or side projects which may eventually earn far more than that extra $100K a year.

$100K baseline? That sounds like you're talking about entry-level, which can't be right regardless of where you live. I believe that the mean annual income for a software developer in the USA is about USD 75k. I found one estimate as high as 90k. In non-coastal areas (even big cities in the Midwest, Texas, etc.), entry level positions requiring a 4-year CS degree are commonly 45k-60k.

[deleted]

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#26

Post by acangiano »

flyosity wrote: post #24

One thing I've noticed (throughout my career, and by talking to friends in the software industry) is that there seems to be a ceiling on how much you can make as a software engineer at "a company". The exact amount really isn't important, but if you're relying on one company to pay you a higher and higher salary every year, at some point they'll probably stop jumping you up the salary ladder. Or you'll be forced into…

> there seems to be a ceiling on how much you can make as a software engineer at "a company".

There is. I like to think of this in terms of income scalability. At a company, you are limited to scaling your income vertically, unless you have equity. Owning a company, or part of it, your income can scale horizontally as well.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#27

Post by Joakal »

smanek wrote: post #7
Tyrant505 wrote: post #2

From someone who's been failing startups since 2000, I can't imagine what I would do with that much money... It's really baffling..

It's funny how quickly you get used to the mindset that it's a good decision to trade money for time. If I value my marginal time at $50/hr, and unconsciously always choose to pay to save time, the mindset becomes ingrained and is hard to reverse. Little things that you quickly grow accustomed to like taxis, dry cleaners, restaurants (plus a few big things like a mortgage or high rent from living alone in a decent ap…

Warren Buffet is one of the top 10 richest people in the world and he's pretty frugal.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#28

Post by dev_jim »

loboman wrote: post #12

How much is 100k a year in the US? I thought it wasn't so much for good programmers, at least in SV. Is a 100k programmer something unheard of in the US?

100k is pretty standard for good programmers in coastal cities right out of or within a few years of college. Salary increases pretty quickly at the entry level because your opportunities multiply with just a little bit of experience.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#29

Post by Terry_B »

I'm surprised by the lack of answers talking about market forces.

I know many people who think that doing a job that is complex and hard automatically entitles you to money and complain about people with much easier jobs, who aren't as smart, making more than them.

Re: Redditors earning $100k+ a year, what are your secrets to your success?

#30

Post by oniTony »

baddox wrote: post #18
feverishaaron wrote: post #9

Be careful about chasing a dollar amount. $100K is pretty baseline for someone who has technical/design etc. skills. Moving into the $200K+ salary range often means working a lot of overtime, which leaves little time for enjoyable pursuits, or side projects which may eventually earn far more than that extra $100K a year.

$100K baseline? That sounds like you're talking about entry-level, which can't be right regardless of where you live. I believe that the mean annual income for a software developer in the USA is about USD 75k. I found one estimate as high as 90k. In non-coastal areas (even big cities in the Midwest, Texas, etc.), entry level positions requiring a 4-year CS degree are commonly 45k-60k.

Entry level at top tier companies such as Google/Facebook/Amazon/Microsoft will break $100K if you include signing bonuses and stocks.

I suppose those are the exception though.

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