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

Be in a field where tech is the limit

mathiaskirkbonde.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 213 posts

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#151

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

cameronh90 wrote: post #76
plandis wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with the higher cost of living in SF/NYC/Seattle, tech pay at FAANG is pretty high. Senior software positions are pretty much start at $300k/yr across all of those companies. Plus these companies generally have excellent healthcare plans and good vacation policies. At those income levels pretty much the only thing you’re really priced out of are nice single family homes, but I suspect that’s the same in Zurich.

What's a good vacation policy in SF? I'm tempted to move from London, but I currently get 28 days holiday a year + 8 public holidays + birthday + Xmas to NY (so about 40 days give or take). I know there's a lot of "unlimited" holiday policies - but would they really be okay if I took that kind of holiday? I earn a lot here in London, but moving to SF would be a significant bump. However, I very much value my time off…

It's very much a mixed bag.

The "unlimited" thing became popular in California in part as an attempt on behalf of companies to avoid having to issue payouts for accrued time off to employees leaving their organizations.

I'd suggest simply being very up front and specific in interviewing and negotiations about how much time you plan to take and see what kind of reactions you get.

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#152

Post by whateveracct »

Negitivefrags wrote: post #126
whateveracct wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick there is to work remotely. You can just build software, make art, do your own side-business 8hrs/day while hitting the employer's bar of "I'll keep paying this guy" and keep that income flowing.

And you have zero moral qualms about this behavior at all?

Why would I? I'm employed at-will. I'm good with the arrangement. My employer is too. Win-win.

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#153

Post by whateveracct »

globular-toast wrote: post #47
whateveracct wrote: post #2

i think going in a field where they'll pay you plenty without noticing you barely spend time working is the play the brightest don't spend their time & energy making others wealthy

I did that for a year or so in finance. Realised I was wasting my one life. I want to be useful.

You can be paid by the company while being useful for yourself :)

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#154

Post by 55555 »

spekcular wrote: post #138
RhysU wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What, exactly, is the "meaningful mission" of modern tech-driven finance firms? Suppose that such a firm accepts money from a state (or other) pension plan. Then part of the mission of that firm is to provide a stable retirement for every participant of that particular pension. Know anyone on a state (or other) pension?

Do most statistical arbitrage/high frequency trading/market making shops manage state pension money? I use these terms loosely – if you want me to be more precise I can just start naming individual firms. Again, I take no issue with the firms that responsibly manage people's pensions, help the public access equity and bond markets, and so on. But those are not the firms that the people making demeaning comments about…

There isn't one. It's the worlds biggest poker table and they just like playing cards and it's profitable and it's intellectually rewarding to think your way to being the smartest guy at the table. Sounds awesome to me (until you burn out because you're fundamentally just playing a big game of poker).

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#155

Post by 55555 »

whateveracct wrote: post #20
nicbou wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That also has its disadvantages. Being stuck in an office with little work, but little else in the way of entertainment slowly burns you out. Having next to no work for two months wasn't as pleasant as I thought it would be. Fields where you don't make other people wealthy aren't so rosy either. They bring their own drama to the table.

The trick there is to work remotely. You can just build software, make art, do your own side-business 8hrs/day while hitting the employer's bar of "I'll keep paying this guy" and keep that income flowing.

You are proving the conservative belief in welfare queens.

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#156

Post by jsolson »

datameta wrote: post #144
kmonsen wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not double, easy 10x for a decent senior engineer at a top 10 software company. I am sure you are making the best trade off and respect that, but use the real values. Double is for a fresh grad in top US markets.

108k for a fresh grad? That's just not accurate. The Greater NYC area will net an entry level dev 60-75k max in most cases. 108k is much closer to the average, taking into account highly experienced outliers. National average of entry level dev salaries for reference: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Entry-Level-Software-D...

Taking a glance at levels.fyi, in NYC for people with one year of experience there isn't a single entry from Google below $150k. Similar for Amazon.

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#157

Post by whateveracct »

55555 wrote: post #155
whateveracct wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick there is to work remotely. You can just build software, make art, do your own side-business 8hrs/day while hitting the employer's bar of "I'll keep paying this guy" and keep that income flowing.

You are proving the conservative belief in welfare queens.

What welfare? I'm employed at-will and my performance is reviewed yearly.

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#158

Post by ta988 »

_Wintermute wrote: post #44
d3ntb3ev1l wrote: post #23

I worked in bio tech for 4 years. Amazing people and problems. Worst pay, top heavy salaries. When a phd makes 80k a year and a “ML/AI” data scientist is lucky to make 100k you won’t find any progress like software They need to cut the top heavy executive bloat, respect the mid tier with better pay

I worked as a post-doc at a pharma company in Europe, our research-based department was in need of a software engineer as our collection of crappy R/python scripts couldn't actually be linked up to any equipment or processes. HR asked what sort of salary range we were looking at, we suggested that we won't get any decent candidates for less than 70k EUR and were laughed out of the room and they decided on a 50k limit…

I had the same problem in academia. They asked me what I would need to get that project evolving (and thus funded), at that time a single medium xp dev, and the salary range was the same as their tenure track professors. Then they ask if a student can do it instead... There is no way anything can be done in mainland US in term of software for institutions that can't pay. I know places where they hire companies oversea to do their dev, bit thats complicated with federal funding.

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#159

Post by datameta »

jsolson wrote: post #156
datameta wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

108k for a fresh grad? That's just not accurate. The Greater NYC area will net an entry level dev 60-75k max in most cases. 108k is much closer to the average, taking into account highly experienced outliers. National average of entry level dev salaries for reference: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Entry-Level-Software-D...

Taking a glance at levels.fyi, in NYC for people with one year of experience there isn't a single entry from Google below $150k. Similar for Amazon.

FAANG salaries are outliers, no doubt about that

Re: Be in a field where tech is the limit

#160

Post by ta988 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #72
_Wintermute wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked as a post-doc at a pharma company in Europe, our research-based department was in need of a software engineer as our collection of crappy R/python scripts couldn't actually be linked up to any equipment or processes. HR asked what sort of salary range we were looking at, we suggested that we won't get any decent candidates for less than 70k EUR and were laughed out of the room and they decided on a 50k limit…

> HR asked what sort of salary range we were looking at, we suggested that we won't get any decent candidates for less than 70k EUR and were laughed out of the room and they decided on a 50k limit. I've since left, but I'm pretty sure they've still not manage to hire a software engineer. Just relocate your lab to be in the US and associated with a US University. Then you can hire a Masters/PhD student from Europe's t…

And how exactly would you relocate? This is not the same as moving a stack from one DC to another. You have families, ties, visas, legal...
Post reply on HN