Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 345 posts

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#191

Post by juve1996 »

giantg2 wrote: post #179
lotsofpulp wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the qualify of life at work like for a crane operator? Do their mistakes cost immediate loss of life, possibly even for themself? Do they work evenings, nights, and weekends? Can they work from home, or move to a new country at a whim?

Do they have crushing expectations placed on them and are expected to be connected 24/7?

The railroads in the US are close to striking because they only get 1 random day off per month. 353/365 days working.

Yea, I'll take the occasional phone call at 1 AM for a production down over that.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#193

Post by wnolens »

ny-anon wrote: post #167

Going anon for this I grew up poor, got in trouble with the law at 18 - but was coding since I was 9, now I have been writing software for 20+ years professionally, no degree, and have never been able to clear more than 250k - moved from coding to mgmt but still cant break 250. I looked at changing companies to a FAANG but haven’t been able to dedicate the massive amount of time needed to prep for the algo whiteboard…

Swallow the leetcode prep slowly over time, and then FAANG.

Play the startup lottery (potentially high equity that will pay off in 5-10y).

Try a hedge fund (high base).

Move up the management ladder.

Side gig product or sell a course on something you have unique expertise in.

Move to Philly!

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#194

Post by aynyc »

baron816 wrote: post #189
ny-anon wrote: post #167

Going anon for this I grew up poor, got in trouble with the law at 18 - but was coding since I was 9, now I have been writing software for 20+ years professionally, no degree, and have never been able to clear more than 250k - moved from coding to mgmt but still cant break 250. I looked at changing companies to a FAANG but haven’t been able to dedicate the massive amount of time needed to prep for the algo whiteboard…

Don’t study leetcode. If you want to work at FAANG, get some interviews with them. You may discover that you really didn’t need to spend days studying stuff that’s not relevant to your job. At the very least, you’ll get some interview practice and figure out what you do need to study. Those companies will let you interview again and again after a 6-12 month break. Also, companies like Stripe and Airbnb also pay compe…

If you want to work at FAANG, get some interviews with them.

That requires Leetcode, no? Am I missing something?

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#195

Post by giantg2 »

juve1996 wrote: post #191
giantg2 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they have crushing expectations placed on them and are expected to be connected 24/7?

The railroads in the US are close to striking because they only get 1 random day off per month. 353/365 days working. Yea, I'll take the occasional phone call at 1 AM for a production down over that.

"Rail employees are provided with significant time off. Generally, train crew employees have over three to four weeks of paid vacation and over 10 personal leave days. Depending on craft and seniority, these numbers can extend to five weeks of vacation in addition to 14 paid holidays and/or paid leave days,” BNSF told CNBC. “The number of Personal Leave Days was increased by 25% this year which makes it easier for employees to take time off.”

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#196

Post by belmarca »

IaacForHire wrote: post #93
brandall10 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, the vast majority do. But to say that only a small handful of companies pay this is just untrue... it's probably in the high double or even triple digits. Many namebrand non-FAANG (ie. Linked-In, Uber, Snap, Slack) do, and some you might not even think of. One example - OpenDoor, which pays over $400k for a regular senior engineer. Additionally, it's not uncommon for small NYC fintechs to pay straight cash comp…

I think you might slightly underestimate the sheer # of companies and tech jobs in the Bay Area? I think Hacker News is an echo chamber when it comes to this because there are so many "rockstar" type engineers here.

Probably. But there is worldwide demand for good developers, try looking into remote work. I've spoken with many people who have more than one "job", which amount to long, but not insane work weeks.

One thing I think a lot of people underestimate is the sheer amount of _clueless_ (or almost clueless) software developers out there. There are a lot of young people with good intentions but very, very little "real" experience (writing a React web app for a class assignment isn't "real" except for saying you've tried the framework). Work experience is quite different from CompSci knowledge, evne if both are important! If you have even just 3-5 years of real experience building real systems with real failures and real successes, you should be quite easily employed elsewhere if your current job doesn't meet your expectations.

Keep this in mind: we don't let surgeons operate alone before they have 5-6-7 years of _post-doctoral_ education and training. If you have the battle scars and experience to get a project done properly, you should be fine.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#197

Post by savanaly »

datacruncher01 wrote: post #119

US tech salaries are good for only one reason, the largest tech companies went the path of public stock valuations and paid employees with stock. If anything, it's an indicator of the vast difference in income for people who make a living with assets vs people who still need to trade their labor for a paycheck. Tech salaries are going to be on a decline for a while with the Fed rate hike, like it or not, most tech co…

>US tech salaries are good for only one reason, the largest tech companies went the path of public stock valuations and paid employees with stock.

That's a reason for first-generation employees to get paid highly, not a reason to continue to pay that highly to new employees joining today.

The real determinants of tech company salaries are the same old boring ones that govern salaries in most lightly regulated industries: productivity and competition. Each marginal employee earns a lot of revenue for a company, and competition ensures most of that is paid out in salary to them (I'm aware the company makes more from you than it pays you, but that's about average productivity not marginal productivity).

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#198

Post by aynyc »

ny-anon wrote: post #167

Going anon for this I grew up poor, got in trouble with the law at 18 - but was coding since I was 9, now I have been writing software for 20+ years professionally, no degree, and have never been able to clear more than 250k - moved from coding to mgmt but still cant break 250. I looked at changing companies to a FAANG but haven’t been able to dedicate the massive amount of time needed to prep for the algo whiteboard…

What industry are you in? You should be able to break 250K in finance.

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#199

Post by omni »

ny-anon wrote: post #167

Going anon for this I grew up poor, got in trouble with the law at 18 - but was coding since I was 9, now I have been writing software for 20+ years professionally, no degree, and have never been able to clear more than 250k - moved from coding to mgmt but still cant break 250. I looked at changing companies to a FAANG but haven’t been able to dedicate the massive amount of time needed to prep for the algo whiteboard…

If you can't afford an apartment on 250K you need to take a serious look at your spending and figure out what you actually want to prioritize. Sure, you won't be picking up a $3M apartment overlooking Central Park, but toooooons of Brooklyn and Queens should be affordable to you with that level of income. I got a mortgage a few years ago when I was only pulling down $180K and I was approved for up to $1MM loan, most of the city is doable at that budget. https://streeteasy.com/for-sale/brooklyn/price:-1000000?view...

Re: Ask HN: Have tech salaries been stagnant for the past decade?

#200

Post by giantg2 »

datavirtue wrote: post #184
giantg2 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is toxic positivity. People can't just make as much as they want. There's always competition and other constraining factors. It's absolutely reasonable to say that you'll never make $220k (in 2022 $) as a dev when the median is $110k, regardless of one's attitude.

Remove TATA, now what is the median?

Considering they only have about 10k-20k employees in the US, I would guess the median wouldn't move much.
Post reply on HN