As a salesman, maybe… you may even be able to land a few appointments and treat them all as a boutique. As a developer, a marginal chance exists in the fintech, if you are able as a quant or as a janitor for very exotic and often old codebases.
Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
41–50 of 515 posts
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I will never understand is how harmless old Netflix found its way into an acronym for the big beasts of tech. Not even Microsoft gets that privilege (for some reason).
$600,000/year compensation for programmers
Is this for real? I thought $400k was sort the max for regular high end engineers.
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#43The easiest way to make a lot more money…
Get a job making 120-180 but 4 days a week. It is possible to do this. Make sure it is not an exciting company, but rather a corporate, slow moving one.
Now you can pick up a contract making 100+ per hour. 15-20 hours a week.
Do 4 hours of the main job. Do 4 hours of the freelance work.
You’ll easily be making 250k.
Another thing to note, as a developer you can solve a problem in 1 hour that may take others 4,5, or 10. At your full time job, schedule your work and spread out when you complete tasks.
I’ve found this is a solid way to make a lot of money 200-300k, at non FAANG, and I have been able to fit it all into 4 days every week. I also work less than 40 hours on average. I’m not affiliated with it, but there is a site called overemployed with more tips on doing this.
The key is getting a really slow, easy remote job first. This is easy to manage if you’re a good senior dev
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#44My main trick has been to specialize in things that all companies like a lot (AWS, js, python), jumping gigs, and leveraging Remote Contracting networks [1]. To get to ~200k remote salaries is hard, but not impossible if you make clear what kind of business leverage you bring and what responsibilities you can take. In addition, you might not actually need such a high Remote salary if you choose to live in cheaper tow…
Great article.
That article's thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29267070
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#45Leverage. If your work improves the productivity of 100+ other people, you're surely worth the price. If your work saves $500k+ in annual costs, you're surely worth the price. If hiring you cripples key competitors, you're surely worth the price. If you can enable new revenues streams through knowledge that only you have, you're surely worth the price. If hiring you does not increase productivity, reduce costs, fend…
> EDIT: And if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business. By local, do you mean a US-based company (eg delaware), or local to where you are?
Good and relevant question! Hope to see an answer to it
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#46My main trick has been to specialize in things that all companies like a lot (AWS, js, python), jumping gigs, and leveraging Remote Contracting networks [1]. To get to ~200k remote salaries is hard, but not impossible if you make clear what kind of business leverage you bring and what responsibilities you can take. In addition, you might not actually need such a high Remote salary if you choose to live in cheaper tow…
Interesting point, would you say it makes more sense to focus on adopted technologies rather then interesting ones in thier growth phase?
Concrete: I learned React a while ago but find Svelte interesting and think it has potential. I am no SWE but interested.
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#47Here’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…
Isn’t this equivalent to freelancing? Do it legit and be a freelance dev/consultant and earn your 250k+
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#48You just need to apply for roles with public companies that offer liquid equity. Very few of us are getting 250k+ on base salary alone. Most of us have the salary bands you’re already in, but have additional equity pay on top. It doesn’t have to be a FAANG either. There are loads of public companies out there hiring engineers at 250k total comp.
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#49An 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…
This was the way I did it, I worked as a freelancer charging 1k a day based on me having both nice specific skills and language skills that are uncommon. eventually some of my clients approached me to work full time for them.
Re: Ask HN: Strategies to land fully remote $250k+ job
#50Here’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…
I recently fired an engineer who was working 3 full time jobs all paying $130k+. He ended up getting busted by all 3 companies at once, and all 3 fired him. Hopefully he can find a new job that doesn’t check references. If you care about your reputation, or if you have the slightest moral compass, don’t do this.
I disagree with this wholeheartedly. If you are constantly doing the work of multiple devs, you get zero reward in this industry.
Instead, put that extra focus into side work and side projects. If you’re good enough you can even be honest with people. When taking on a contract you can say “I have another commitment and will be working between X and X on X days for you” as long as you get all the work done for your primary job it’s not immoral.