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

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

#231

Post by zerocount »

mojomark wrote: post #183
rco8786 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredibly untrue. I’m sorry that your particular company saw a 60% decrease in stock price over 3 years. But this is not the norm for any reasonably healthy company.

Fully concur. I recieved stock appreciation rights (SARs) as a bonus at one company for a few years. CEO drove company into the ground that effectively wiped out all of these SARs. I was bitter at the CEO for making stupid decisions, but not at the fact that my bonus was in the form of SARs. If I'd have stuck to my guns more, the company would have probably succeeded and the SARs could have had significant value. Bot…

It's hard to believe that your lack of contribution tipped the scales so the company failed. Doing good work, in itself, doesn't increase the value of the company.

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

#232

Post by ImprovedSilence »

kortilla wrote: post #90
cj wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. His output was horrendous. I would have fired him anyway based just on that, but discovering he had multiple jobs expedited the firing (and clearly explained why his output was so poor).

Why did it expedite the firing? Was he working for a competitor?

Usually in the fine print of signing on to become a full time employee, there are clauses to ensure you are not working for anyone else unless approved by company.

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

#233

Post by ghaff »

username223 wrote: post #68
k__ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Freelancing is a good option. 250k a year is 20k a month, for 12 months a year. 20k a month is 1k a day, for 20 work days a month. How to make 1k a day? Write 2 technical articles. Btw. as a freelancer you could end up paying less taxes, because more things are deductible. This could mean, you can end up with the same money after taxes without making 250k a year.

> How to make 1k a day? Write 2 technical articles. The going rate for a technical article written in ~4 hours is $500? That blows my mind. I'm not saying it doesn't happen -- I've only done non-technical articles -- but that it's hard for me to imagine it being profitable for the publication. 800-1000 words produced from scratch in 4 hours, including research, editing, and graphics, is going to be garbage one step a…

As someone who does a fair bit of writing, I'd say a 1,000 word article is more like 1-2 days depending on research (including perhaps attending an event/interviews), administrivia, editing, procrastination, etc.--and can certainly take more than that. Not that I'm generally working freelance, but I'd certainly expect around $1K as the bare minimum. Which, if you do the calculation, probably only translates to about $100K/year best case before expenses, etc.

And, yes, a lot of publications pay less than that which is why you see a lot of writers with technical knowledge working for product companies doing content marketing and related.

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

#234

Post by Cederfjard »

kitten_mittens_ wrote: post #155
sofixa wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 weeks vacation per year is pitiful. Do people really get on and are happy with only that? I get 5 weeks ( minimum legal in France), i use it to the max and it's okay, but sometimes insufficient.

American weeks are only 5 days long if you use employer accounting when evaluating an offer. I have "3 weeks" but it's only 15 days.

That’s what the person you’re replying to means as well, five weeks or 25 workdays. I think all or at least most of the EU have more than 15 days minimum mandatory paid leave.

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

#235

Post by sidcool »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #193

Well, it is a workers market right now. Professionally there is nothing special about me except that I really enjoy working, but for the last two remote jobs, the offer letter I received was more than what I verbally agreed on with HR. Since I am also 70 years old, I take this as good evidence of how pro-worker the job market is right now. I offer free mentoring (see my web site) and always talk about the importance…

Mad respect for you sir. What advice would you give a 35 year old software engineer who's worried about being obsolete in 10 years?

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

#236

Post by ta988 »

jollofricepeas wrote: post #176
rco8786 wrote: post #48

You 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 .

This is true in the Midwest. I’m seeing two strategies that are friends are using to get to $250k+ right now and much more… 1. Several have left for left/right coast former startups companies that are publicly traded. Their base comp is $160-180k but they are also receiving a large pool of equity that vests in tranches of $75-100k a year. 2. With everything being remote, several senior engineer friends are working tw…

How do you justify on a resume that you had two jobs at once?

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

#237

Post by mgaunard »

marstall wrote: post #168
zibzab wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that was an interesting read. Not sure I'm up for working in such a toxic environment, but the technical challenges seem very interesting.

indeed. > If they don't have an FPGA engineer, or have a very small team, they are not serious about finance, or they are just dumb. are FPGAs that core to Finance writ large?

Not really. There are only a few financial instruments worldwide where very low latency matters, and there you'd be competing against people who have invested millions in custom transceivers, so it's unlikely FPGA work on a readymade board is really going to make much of a difference.

But like all industries, there are many factors that contribute to success. FPGA work might help improve things a bit even if you're not the best.

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

#238

Post by ProjectArcturis »

ta988 wrote: post #236
jollofricepeas wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true in the Midwest. I’m seeing two strategies that are friends are using to get to $250k+ right now and much more… 1. Several have left for left/right coast former startups companies that are publicly traded. Their base comp is $160-180k but they are also receiving a large pool of equity that vests in tranches of $75-100k a year. 2. With everything being remote, several senior engineer friends are working tw…

How do you justify on a resume that you had two jobs at once?

Just list the better one.

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

#239

Post by saberience »

sofixa wrote: post #116
300bps wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$150 per hour is $300,000 per year including two weeks vacation per year. I have a side client that I met 11 years ago that I charge $150 per hour for remote development. They feel lucky to get that rate! Most people around us charge $200 per hour but since I work full time for someone else and can’t always be available I give them that discounted rate. I don’t think they’re hard to find at all for consulting. Being…

2 weeks vacation per year is pitiful. Do people really get on and are happy with only that? I get 5 weeks ( minimum legal in France), i use it to the max and it's okay, but sometimes insufficient.

No post body was provided.

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

#240

Post by karmajunkie »

nickjj wrote: post #229
karmajunkie wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah i was coming here to suggest this. LLC with the S-corp election will save you ass-tons in taxes. the paperwork isn’t worth it until you get to around 100k in consulting income but from there on you can basically cut your SE taxes in half (although technically you don’t pay SE taxes with this setup, you’re paying yourself as w2 so their employer taxes)

> yeah i was coming here to suggest this. LLC with the S-corp election will save you ass-tons in taxes Where did you hear that? No accountant I've ever spoken with mentioned it's worth setting up an LLC to save money on taxes as a typical set up where you're a solo developer who runs their own tech business. I mean, paying yourself less of a salary through an LLC is going to result in paying less income tax but it's…

i did it for years. You don’t pay employment taxes on dividends/distributions, just income taxes. so you’re still paying taxes on those but you’re saving 7.5% on the employment taxes side. maybe “ass-tons” is over selling it but coupled with business deductions you can take you can save quite a bit.

the IRS may take a closer look at you if you’re taking less than half your revenue in W2 income but otherwise it’s perfectly legitimate.

[edit: the S-corp election is key. look into that.]

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