Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#1

Post by aristofun » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 12:28 PM UTC

From my experience most of the companies scouting for developers are trying to minimize costs and using the “fully remote” positions as a mean.

I almost never faced an HR ready to discuss salaries higher, than my current “above average” full-time salary in my region (~120-180k).

I wonder what should your CV look like and how should you approach the search for companies that can afford expensive developers no matter the geo.

If the goal is not worth the effort in the first place — what alternative scalable ways to increase senior programmer’s income can you recommend?

Scalable means more or less reproducible in finite timeframe without high risks like in “starting your own startup”.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#2

Post by ThePhysicist » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 12:54 PM UTC

You should think about it from the company's perspective: Why should they hire someone at twice the rate at which they can find very good people? As you say most remote companies pay either average or slightly above-average local market salaries as that's good enough for most developers to find these jobs attractive enough (since many prefer remote work) for the companies to fill up their hiring pipeline with lots of good candidates.

That said I think $250k is definitely possible for non entry-level positions if you bring strategically important knowledge into a company. If you e.g. work for a startup/scaleup/enterprise in given space go talk to other companies in the same space that want to break into the competitors market or pull off a similar business model. Then you can e.g. say "I helped company X to scale their backend infrastructure to support 100 MM customers and I'm looking for a position where I can apply that knowledge and help you do the same, while having more responsibility / ownership / decision power". That will make you more valuable to a company than saying "I'm a really good Golang programmer". It's all about selling you as an individual with very specific market knowledge that a company wants.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#3

Post by ayoubElk » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 12:56 PM UTC

An alternative scalable way is to switch from a full time job to becoming a freelancer/consultant and set your own rates.

In order to be able to land high paying projects as a consultant, you would need to showcase your skills somehow (open source, portfolio, etc...). This can happen later on though and as a start the easiest way would be to ask for referrals and make it known to your network that you're looking for consulting opportunities.

Making this transition though would imply that you'll need to think about it as a business instead of a job, and start cultivating new skills i.e. communication, marketing, sales, etc...

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#4

Post by xwdv » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 12:58 PM UTC

Here’s a cheap and easier trick: find two easy remote jobs each paying $125k. There’s your $250k a year. You don’t need any particularly distinguished resume.

With the right job responsibilities, this is doable for a software engineer. If you can offset the two jobs a bit by time zone it’s even better.

But you better hurry, once people catch on that this is possible the supply of developers can quickly increase overnight, leading to a fall in salaries from oversupply.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#5

Post by aristofun » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 1:04 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #4

Here’s a cheap and easier trick: find two easy remote jobs each paying $125k. There’s your $250k a year. You don’t need any particularly distinguished resume. With the right job responsibilities, this is doable for a software engineer. If you can offset the two jobs a bit by time zone it’s even better. But you better hurry, once people catch on that this is possible the supply of developers can quickly increase overn…

This is actually great advice, though Im very bad at shitty work, i need hyperfocus and challenging task to feel good about the job :(

But I wonder if there are companies who understand that 250k developer is not even close to 2 125k developers, but can be much much more valuable asset with proper management.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#6

Post by PaywallBuster » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 1:05 PM UTC

That's high enough that it would be difficult to find alternatives to FAANG

and some of them may accept remote or not (highly uncertain), employees are certainly pushing for it but may be difficult to justify the high salary without coming to office in the future when things start getting back to normal

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#7

Post by RortyPorty » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 1:07 PM UTC

Go work for Meta (other MANGA companies would likely work but I'm not as familiar with them). Meta is shooting to have a significant portion of their workforce be remote over the next five years so they're pretty much always willing to offer full time remote. As someone working remote, I can say their location-based pay adjustments really doesn't scale to local cost of living (in a good way). Plus thanks to all the bad publicity they're struggling to fill roles.

Note: I'm talking about working remotely in the US, if you want to be remote from a different country Meta may not work for you.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#8

Post by sh4un » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 1:10 PM UTC

If you are worth 250k companies find you. I used to get companies calling to offer work because I was able to prove my worth and have companies refer me to other companies.

Harder for you to put a number on your head and try to convince anyone you are worth it.

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#9

Post by headmelted » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 1:14 PM UTC

aristofun wrote: post #5

xwdv wrote: post #4

Here’s a cheap and easier trick: find two easy remote jobs each paying $125k. There’s your $250k a year. You don’t need any particularly distinguished resume. With the right job responsibilities, this is doable for a software engineer. If you can offset the two jobs a bit by time zone it’s even better. But you better hurry, once people catch on that this is possible the supply of developers can quickly increase overn…

This is actually great advice, though Im very bad at shitty work, i need hyperfocus and challenging task to feel good about the job :( But I wonder if there are companies who understand that 250k developer is not even close to 2 125k developers, but can be much much more valuable asset with proper management.

Well, sure, but this line of thinking suggests you’re worth more than double what someone else is at the same job.

What makes you think this is so?

Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job

#10

Post by k__ » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 1:16 PM UTC

PaywallBuster wrote: post #6

That's high enough that it would be difficult to find alternatives to FAANG and some of them may accept remote or not (highly uncertain), employees are certainly pushing for it but may be difficult to justify the high salary without coming to office in the future when things start getting back to normal

They could be lucky and score a job in an overfunded startup.