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My Salary Progression in Tech

georgestocker.com

351–360 of 631 posts

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#351
post #50

I have worked in Spain and Sweden. My salary as developer has been in the range of €32K-€45K in the past 15 years in Spain. It has been around €65K in Sweden (similar to what now friends make in Spain). And it is below €100K as an architect. The cost of living in Sweden is higher than in Spain. And Spanish salaries in IT has soared. So, economically, it was not worth moving. But, the experience of living abroad is wo…

It is difficult to compare, but the reality is that especially at FAANG companies the company has good services. They provide transport to/from the office, healthcare, retirement stuff, etc. However, the taxes in Europe are higher.

There are some benefits in knowing that the people that make your food, drive you, clean your streets, etc. don't live out of their car.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#352

These are unbelievably high salaries. In Germany such salaries are possible only at management positions (not talking about IB) of large companies only. I visited US 3 years back and I found everything better - clothing cheaper, food more delicious, people friendlier and houses bigger. Yes you don't have social security and have poverty issues but I would still be in US than in Europe considering the amount of money…

Europe is all about quality of life raises rather than cash raises. My passion is acrobatics and I negotiated less working hours rather than a big pay raise. This year I'll do partner acrobatics teacher training for a month in spain and still extra time left over for staffing a meditation retreat over christmas. I'm in Austria and my progression is as follows. (All of below hours are flex time, all overtime can be redeemed as time off at a later date) (* is negotiated raise)

2011 - Moved from Canada to Austria fresh out of college

2011 - 26k€ 38.5H/W Company 1

2012 - 31k€* 38.5H/W Company 1

2013 - 35k€* 38.5H/W Company 1

2014 - 37k€* 38.5H/W Company 1

2015 - 46k€* 38.5H/W Company 2 - Mandatory overtime 10/month

2016 - 49k€* 38.5H/W Company 2 - Mandatory overtime 10/month

2017 - 50k€ 38.5H/W Company 2 - Mandatory overtime 10/month

2018 - 35k€* 30H/W Company 2

2019 - 42k€ 30H/W Company 3

A few notes -> Taxes are very high, but so is support. I have no worries health care, dental, etc everything is covered. 5 weeks paid vacation a year, unlimited sick days. I end up with about 1000€/month after rent/food/entertainment and I live very comfortably. I'm not rich but it works well for me.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#353
> It's always been my intention to retire early, > I'm interested in making huge money and retiring early, > I don't begrudge people with their crazy salaries but I do get frustrated that I can't find success myself.

I am shocked and surprised at the same time (knowing that I only selected quotes of a few commentators).

Shocked to see the same mindset as many managing consultants and investment bankers I have met and worked with. They work a lot with the idea to stop working eventually. Not a single one of them has retired early. Not a single one of them I would call happy or satisfied (again: my bubble).

“Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” - Dalai Lama

Surprised maybe because I hoped here on HN people might have a different mindset towards money and success. Or: know that there is not a strict connection between the two. To read all this "Keeping up with the Joneses" makes me sad...

Choose life, not career. Find something you love doing and do it for the 'work' itself, not for some postponed happiness.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#354
post #45

I am Asian but was born and raised in Australia. I have a Bachelor of Science and I work as a web developer, e.g. Spring, ASP.NET, React, WordPress, Drupal, etc. 2013 - 23yo - $45K - First job - Magento developer building eCommerce websites for clients. 2014 - 24yo - $54K 2015 - 25yo - $70K - Second job - Magento / Shopify / WordPress developer, building eCommerce websites for clients. 2016 - 26yo - $75K 2017 - 27yo…

I am in Australia as well, I started on a similar base as you. I told employers that I was willing to learn and do anything. Most the stuff I have worked on is back-end services. 2010 - 25yo - 41k - First job - .net dev (internal services / sql). 2011 - 26yo - 41.1k 2012 - 27yo - 65k - Second job - job advertised as .net became pseudo COBOL dev. 2013 - 28yo - 80k - moved more in to tech lead / manager role. 2014 - 29…

Are these US or Australian dollars?

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#355

My progression: 23 - 45K (University sysadmin, east coast) 26 - 60k (University research systems programmer, east coast) 31 - 65k (SWE, small IHV, remote) 32-42 -- incremental raises up to $145K (senior SWE, same company) 43 - 425k (Senior SWE, Google, Mountain View CA) 44 - 390k (Senior SWE, Google, Mountain View CA) 45 - 350k (Senior SWE, Netflix, Remote) 46 - 400k (Senior SWE, Netflix, Remote) 47 - 525k (Senior SW…

What kind of genius does one have to be to earn $800k? Or do you possess rare knowledge and connections in your industry?

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#356
post #344
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a few friends in London, contracting whilst working a Single Person Business (lacking the proper terminology). Super high wages £500 - £700 per day, whilst having an effective tax rate or 13%. Boom.

Where are you getting 13% from? If you pay yourself a salary from a ltd company there's ~14% Employers NI, 12%-2% Employee NI Depending on tax band, 20-40% Income tax depending on tax band. If you pay a dividend there's 19% Corporation tax plus 7.5%-32.5% Dividend tax. So 46%-56% tax on salary and 26.5%-51.5% tax on dividends. Nowhere near 13%, unless you're talking about 'creative accounting' by running non-business…

Yeah, by all accounts reading online indicates a 45% tax rate for a sole-trader[1].

I'll have to enquire with the few mates there -- don't see a reason as to why they'd bullshit me. Frankly I have nfi however, apologies for the cop-out of an answer.

1: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/sole-trader-tax/

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#357
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we really compare them, though? I live in France, where €90k/y puts you in the top 1% salaries. In the US, you’d need to earn $400k/y to be in the same position. Standard of living and other social benefits come to mind.

I don't get this thinking. I think everyone is making the comparison to Silicon Valley, which is ridiculously expensive because their are too many people making too much money that all want to be in the same place. In most of the USA, not only do you make more than you would in France, but things are actually cheaper, not more expensive. Imagine you make $150,000/year, a really nice house cost $300,000 (think $2,000…

European salaries are in my experience usually reported pre-tax, which makes the situation even worse :P Half the pay of our American counterparts, double the taxes and most non-real-estate goods are more expensive.

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#359
post #45

I am Asian but was born and raised in Australia. I have a Bachelor of Science and I work as a web developer, e.g. Spring, ASP.NET, React, WordPress, Drupal, etc. 2013 - 23yo - $45K - First job - Magento developer building eCommerce websites for clients. 2014 - 24yo - $54K 2015 - 25yo - $70K - Second job - Magento / Shopify / WordPress developer, building eCommerce websites for clients. 2016 - 26yo - $75K 2017 - 27yo…

I am in Australia as well, I started on a similar base as you. I told employers that I was willing to learn and do anything. Most the stuff I have worked on is back-end services. 2010 - 25yo - 41k - First job - .net dev (internal services / sql). 2011 - 26yo - 41.1k 2012 - 27yo - 65k - Second job - job advertised as .net became pseudo COBOL dev. 2013 - 28yo - 80k - moved more in to tech lead / manager role. 2014 - 29…

Oh man you hear some silly numbers being thrown around when it comes to COBOL...

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-banks-cobol/banks-scra...

Re: My Salary Progression in Tech

#360

These are unbelievably high salaries. In Germany such salaries are possible only at management positions (not talking about IB) of large companies only. I visited US 3 years back and I found everything better - clothing cheaper, food more delicious, people friendlier and houses bigger. Yes you don't have social security and have poverty issues but I would still be in US than in Europe considering the amount of money…

Don‘t focus on the huge money aspect. There is a lot of selection bias here, only few people make this much outside of some very particular areas/companies. Comparing Germany (where I’m also from) and the US, I’d say that Germany still gives much higher standard of living at the same salary, especially due to lower rents in the big cities. FYI my progression 120k joining top3 mgmt consulting after PhD, stayed for 4yr…

Look, you're right about happiness, but let me make 200k/year for about 5 years and then I'll publicly share your view. Also, that's Berlin; the situation in NRW (excluding D & K) is a bit different. Currently earning 1/4 from what you earn, with 6 years experience in the same company.
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