291–300 of 345 posts
I have more than quadrupled my comp over the last 10 years, and I have not worked at a F*NG. I have not really climbed the ladder much either, I went from a senior to tech lead and manager back to a tech lead/IC. My comp is almost entirely cash as well, though I am fortunate in that regard. This is in the US in the NYC area.
The thing you're forgetting to mention is that you're probably a very good and talented SWE. The average SWE is not. :P
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How do you jump jobs every 2 years if your shares don't vest for 4?
I have never paid attention to shares or vesting schedules in contracts. I would stay until I had made the improvements I sought out to make and was bored. I would leave with whatever has vested at that point. I do not acknowledge golden handcuffs ever. Leave when you do not enjoy the job anymore, or are not bringing maximal value you know you could elsewhere. Startup stocks are ephemeral lottery tickets unlikely to…
Would love to hear your experiences doing this. I took a break from FAANG to do this, and I was making the same (which is great!) but doing utterly boring work (control over my hours was the point). And now I'm back at FAANG making almost double the equivalent since salaries there accelerate after 15+ years exp. You make 150-250 in the lower bands, but like 350-1M after that.
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> Most of the engineers in europe that want to make money work for an american company. From my experience, most of engineers in Europe who want to make money work are contracting. Contracting money can be similar to what the FAANGs offer here (outside of Switzerland), but taxes are often lower and you don't have to debase yourself with multistage leetcode interviews and intracompany promotion games. However, the US…
in many european countries tax will be 50% for contracting. to make 150k you need to make 300k... you cant take days-off,sick-days, might even need to make more for retirment match vs normal job... it is really not a good way to make money
This! Contracting is the way if your country of residence has low taxes for freelancers, but if its' the same or higher as a FTE then it sucks.
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Could you provide more details so I can add to my anecdata? :) Is that on the same company? Different company but the same role? Or just job hopping here and there?
Different company, same role as senior software engineer. In 10 years I've had 4 jobs, although one was only for 6 months, and I recently started a new job.
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Issue in denmark is that high pay gets heavily taxed. So 102k is what 50k at best? Factor in vat and its less.
So very wrong. $102k/year = DKK 759288/year = DKK 63274/month. Typing 63274 into https://hvormegetefterskat.dk (howmuchaftertax) says 40.2% tax rate. The you have to factor in $0 in health costs (gratis hospital and doctor visits), no payments for kids attending university, 32 weeks of paid maternal leave, and 5 weeks of mandatory holiday each year.
>So very wrong [...] 40.2% tax rate.
What!? That's definitely high, man.
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Every one of those clauses that I've seen or heard about also tried to make the contractor liable for all of the employer obligations: Employer NI, Apprenticeship Levy if applicable, and usually some blanket term that covers any other expenses they incur dealing with it. That is most definitely not in the spirit of the law. Paying the personal taxes is obviously a different matter. Even then it's usually the client s…
You are assuming that HMRC and Treasury act in a good faith. The purpose of these changes is to stop small business from operating without explicitly saying so (as that could bring a bad PR, so they use their Behavioural Science Unit to frame it as anti-tax avoidance law and their messaging is designed to ensure population sees these businesses as cheaters etc.) - a nudge technique. Reality is that it is always the w…
I'm surprised the agency seem to be walking away untouched though if they set up the deal and actively pushed your friend towards a dodgy umbrella employer. HMRC have some pretty screwed up policies at times but surely it can't be normal for them to go after someone who honestly believed they'd been properly employed and had all of the deductions properly collected just because someone completely different has ripped off HMRC?
This isn't really a problem with IR35 in principle though. It was apparently just plain old criminal fraud and your friend was the unlucky victim of that crime.
Edit: Also I hope your friend is disputing this with HMRC and if necessary getting their MP involved. Assuming everything you've described is a fair reflection of what really happened it clearly wasn't a tax avoidance scheme. HMRC do make mistakes but do also want to get the right money from the right people so if something has gone wrong here it's worth following up.
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> In fact, were seeing the largest increases in pay over the past two years (and i think in real pay too), and they're forecasting that will continue this year as well. Last two years I agree, and fueled by a acceleration of business for tech companies. But continue this year? Who is forecasting that?
The Federal Reserve, among others. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/08/wages-202...
The fed is assuming that inflation is being driven by wage increases.
Thus they raise rates to force employers to cut back on compensation and job openings.
How they do this with a clear conscience is beyond me.
Wage growth has lagged behind inflation, let alone productivity for 40+ years!
Inflation is caused by a lot of different factors, but wage growth doesn’t appear to be one of them.
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Yes, you're right. After 25 years of mostly being treated like shit by start-ups with an average weekly work rate of 60 hours, my attitude is probably kind of bad. Do I really need to be a rockstar to get an inflationary raise every year? Take cost of living into account and we make about 40% less than we did 20 years ago.
This is all a "you" problem. You have made the choice to work in shitty startups, you have made the choice to work 60 hours per week, and you have made the choice to accept jobs that would pay you below market rate. Being a bitter old man is not the attitude problem mentioned here, being someone that refuses to see that their unsatisfactory situation is 100% due to their own actions (or rather, lack of action) is you…
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I have a cousin who makes $220k as a crane operator at a port. I'll never make that much in my career.
A welder in london charges 700£ plus per day. A bit difficult to reach as a software engineer.
EDIT: (clarified a timeframe)
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Have you considered moving to those countries for better pay? It sad to hear pay is so bad in germany, probably getting quality education in romania or turkey might help? At the end of the day you are also free to move in to any of these countries.
you don't understand how economics work right? ask mexicans how happy they are to have high earning americans moving to mexico? https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-07-27/americ... . once you remove a country frontier, the market forces that are leashed to that country will be destroyed. radically transforming the country economy in ways that no one in this country but the 1% will benefit.