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How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

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Re: How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

#31

Post by charleslmunger »

acconrad wrote: post #9

How realistic is this though? Imagine you come out of college and work for the Big 4 making $100k. Assuming you make 10% more (compounding) every 2 years, by 38-36 you would make over $200k, by 50 you are making close to $500k. You hit that much sooner if you change those numbers by 20%. At what point do those returns diminish and you're having to do something more creative than simply looking for a job every 2 years…

I came out of college 4 years ago and started working at the Big 4, making ~100k base salary. Both my base salary and my total compensation have more than doubled. Getting promoted at a big 4 company is equivalent or better than the value quoted in this article for switching jobs - promotions usually entail a 20-40% total compensation bump, depending on where you were in your previous salary band.

Re: How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

#32

Post by vonmoltke »

codazoda wrote: post #18
EGreg wrote: post #3

Can someone fill me in, do most jurisdictions allow employers to report to each other how much you made in the previous job? Or is this considered protected data that employers cannot ask for? Which jurisdictions have which rules? Obviously if you don't have to disclose your previous salary you get an advantage. The same advantage as the employer has in not disclosing the salary they paid to the person you'll be repl…

As far as I know, in my state, a previous employer is only allowed to say weather or not I worked there and for how long. Nothing else should be discussed, legally. IANAL I've only changed jobs twice in my career but I included my salary requirements in a cover letter and did not disclose my previous salary.

"Can't" is not the same as "shouldn't". Any labor attorney worth their salt will adivse their clients not to divulge more than the minimum they can get away with, but that is not the same as not being allowed to.

Re: How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

#33

Post by maxxxxx »

EGreg wrote: post #3

Can someone fill me in, do most jurisdictions allow employers to report to each other how much you made in the previous job? Or is this considered protected data that employers cannot ask for? Which jurisdictions have which rules? Obviously if you don't have to disclose your previous salary you get an advantage. The same advantage as the employer has in not disclosing the salary they paid to the person you'll be repl…

The idea by itself is just nuts. The employee is totally transparent while employers can hide information or just lie whenever they feel like it.

Re: How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

#34

Post by squegles »

patrickbeeson wrote: post #24
dmoy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the big tech employers, specifically as a software developer, a reasonable start point now is probably 140-150k. If that's the premise from GP.

This is highly dependent on where you live. Those figures are very high for the Portland, OR area for instance.

Portland starting salary for a SWE is much closer to the 65k mark.

Re: How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

#36

Post by tiggybear »

What is the difference between value and leverage on a microeconomic level?

Despite the common notion to "provide more value" to a business if you want a raise, it seems most business people, and thus those responsible for employee raises, conflate value with leverage.

Someone can double their output and easily be denied a raise because they have no leverage. However, if you have leverage but do not increase your output, you can likely get a raise.

So maybe we should nix the old advice about "creating more value" as it's a very confusing and an unclear metric. If businesses see value as leverage, employees should do the same as that's the only way they'll get what they want.

I hope this makes sense, I've been trying to figure out the relationship between value and leverage (at s microeconomic level) and they seem to be almost, if not completely, identical.

Thoughts?

Re: How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

#37

Post by danjoc »

codingdave wrote: post #20

Step 1 - Take a low paying job as your first software job. Step 2 - Switch jobs for pay increases every couple of years. Step 3 - When you get to market rate for senior devs, say, "Look! I doubled my salary!"

Yeah. Correlation something something causation.

"People who switch jobs are making more money!"

"People who are offered more money will switch jobs."

Re: How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

#39

Post by ihsw2 »

EGreg wrote: post #3

Can someone fill me in, do most jurisdictions allow employers to report to each other how much you made in the previous job? Or is this considered protected data that employers cannot ask for? Which jurisdictions have which rules? Obviously if you don't have to disclose your previous salary you get an advantage. The same advantage as the employer has in not disclosing the salary they paid to the person you'll be repl…

There are third-party services that will provide that information but only in exchange for the same information about your company (staff members, salaries, etc), and a modest fee of course.

It is very secretive though, for obvious reasons.

Re: How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

#40

Post by dmoy »

patrickbeeson wrote: post #24
dmoy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the big tech employers, specifically as a software developer, a reasonable start point now is probably 140-150k. If that's the premise from GP.

This is highly dependent on where you live. Those figures are very high for the Portland, OR area for instance.

Yup true, unspoken assumption there is bay area / nyc / seattle / etc, where the big 4 hire a lot (the majority?) of their workers.
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