My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer • Hacker News Board

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#631

Post by hdsrtrthrth » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 1:22 AM UTC

woogiewonka wrote: post #388

hdsrtrthrth wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, i should have been clearer. There were 2 distinct startups i founded during that time. One at the start of 2012, which died mid-2012, and the other started mid-2012 and I worked on all the way through till 2018. I should also mention, this was in Canada. And yeah, I didn't keep the PW to my previous burner account. Not used to posting anom info :-(

I'm curious, was this pay from raised money or did you actually generate revenue to cover your pay?

When it was 65k it was just from raised money, just to take the focus away from how to pay rent and back on the business. We had revenue, but it was in my opinion insignificant (Less than $1 million).

We bumped it to $150k around the time that we had about $5 million in revenue, and post acquisition it was increased by the purchaser several times.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#632

Post by hdsrtrthrth » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 1:23 AM UTC

arvinsim wrote: post #63

rewgerthgrth wrote: post #21

Burner account. All numbers adjusted to USD: 2007: Junior developer $25k (no bonus) 2008: Project manager $50k (10% bonus) 2009: Project Manager $65k (10% bonus) 2011: Senior Project Manager $92 (10% bonus) 2011: Product Manager $97k (Some worthless options as it turns out, and an approximately 8% bonus) 2012: Founded my own startup / developer $28k that year 2013: Startup founder / CTO $65k 2014: Startup founder / C…

Seems to be that you went to the management pretty soon. Seems to pay much better.

Yeah i guess that's just my strong suit so i went with it.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#633

Post by sures » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 1:46 AM UTC

lnkmails wrote: post #630

sures wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this comment. The quality of life in a place like Bangalore or Mumbai is quite bad when you compare with an American city. Imagine spending 60 minutes to 90 minutes for one way commute to work just 6 miles away!

Ok. I have to make a choice between driving 60 mins for 6 miles vs getting shot at Walmart :). I am joking but I knew already commute is a problem in India. Is work from home more prevalant there?

Work from home is prevalent in India in some companies. The policy or the practice around it varies from no WFH at all to 1 day of WFH per month to 1 day of WFH per week to WFH whenever you like.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#634

Post by flerchin » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 1:48 AM UTC

codemonkeythrow wrote: post #197

adarsh_thampy wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious to know why you decided to take a pay cut. And you mentioned that you lied during the interview regarding your salary. In India, companies usually ask for 3 months salary slip as proof. Does it not happen in the country where you work?

I was laid off from the $40,000 job due to downsizing, then I spent a few months job hunting, so I was extremely happy about getting a new job, regardless of the salary. Lying about my salary was a huge gamble, I guess. But since the FAANGs are based in the US and I wasn't, I was counting on them not asking for the IRS tax returns since I obviously didn't have one.

In the US, there is no salary verification. They ask, but you can lie, refuse to state, or answer. It's just a negotiation tactic.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#635

Post by milliondollar » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 1:52 AM UTC

sah2ed wrote: post #608

milliondollar wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, totally agree. You need to smooth your earnings and account for downtime. But in seeing all these $50/60K salaries on here, I guess what I'm wondering is I'd happily pay a fixed retainer of say $25K a year for 10-15 hours of work per week. I don't have enough work to keep a $60K a year developer busy, but I could keep a part of one busy all year and make a commitment to pay at least $X / year.

Sounds like freelancer position you have on your hands. You should consider posting your position to the Whoishiring thread tomorrow. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18113145

Thank you! I've never read those threads but will be on there!!!

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#636

Post by throwaway487548 » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 2:24 AM UTC

thereauaway wrote: post #601

throwaway487548 wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which language(s)?

Java at startup. C++ and python at bigcorps.

One more question, please. How many lines of code you are committing daily?

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#637

Post by tdotthrowaway » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 3:01 AM UTC

throwawayosiu1 wrote: post #325

I'm currently based in Toronto 2012 - small business owner - 60k AED / yr (no taxes) - built Wordpress websites in my spare time 2013 - technical cloud marketing intern - 60k / yr CAD - FAANGish company 2013 - contractor - 30k / yr CAD - Engineering consultancy 2014 - Software Dev Fullstack - 22k / yr CAD - early stage startup 2015 - Lead Software Dev Fullstack / Architect + DevOps - 55k / yr CAD - very early stage s…

I too am in Toronto and this is my career progression:

2015 - Linux System Administrator - $65k - large company 2016 - DevOps Engineer - $79k - startup 2017 - DevOps Engineer - $95k - large company 2018 - Site Reliability Engineer - $115k - medium company

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#638

Post by _57jb » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 3:04 AM UTC

chad_strategic wrote: post #616

wernercd wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started at $21k in 2010 as a programmer * 2000-2005 USMC * 2005-2008 various (Unable to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up) * 2008-2010 A.A.S. Computer Information Systems * 2010-2015 Backend Developer, 21k => 50k * 2015-2016 DevOps/System Admin, State of Delaware 60k => 68k * 2016-2017 Backend .Net Developer, small company 70k => 85k * 2017-Pres Backend .Net Developer, major bank 100k I live in Delaware - i…

Nice to see another devil dog in the coding world. Don’t see it that often... Salaries are great, but my best job is still my most underpaid: USMC S/F

Oorah Devil, I think tech is a good world for us. Pure logic separating the emotion.

My hard-headedness and willingness to sit in front of the problem longer than most civilian team members has given me a ladder to climb and respect without the degree.

It's been hard but worth it. I miss the brotherhood but I feel life as software engineers in today's age, we have an opportunity to make just as much (and debatably more) impact although maybe not as directly as when we were in the streets overseas.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#639

Post by seanmcdirmid » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 3:13 AM UTC

sethammons wrote: post #293

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent is obviously not saving much if they have to spend 50% net on rent, $6k/month is only $72k a year, which is really tough even in a lower cost place like Seattle or Austin.

Net vs gross

Right sorry. That is still only $95k or so if you are paying Californian + federal taxes and pay toll taxes.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#640

Post by innomansland » Thu, Nov 01, 2018, 3:28 AM UTC

iopuy wrote: post #445

innomansland wrote: post #126

using my throwaway account but have some comment history on my career (i did a Ask HN post on pivoting my "career" last year). I saw someone from Sydney posting their history so I thought I add my perspective from another Australian lurker: Date - Company ID | Starting Salary | Percentage Increase Role | Role 2005 - Company A | $20/hour | 100%! :) | Part Time Tester 2007 - Company B | $48,000 annual | 20.0% | Graduat…

2014 - same locale or moved to a different cost of living? Congrats, that's a very nice progression.

thanks! and good question - same locale but jumped ship to be a contractor.

I was a team lead prior and dealt with a lot of vendors where I was approving their time sheets so I saw how much they were being paid. Told myself.. WTF, why aren't I doing this?? Paid twice as much, way less accountability (parameters of work are all defined per project or per SoW) and I don't have to be stress out about the politics within the company. Also.. as a contractor, my schedule consist of half the time on customer's premises and the other half dealing with internal dev teams which gave me loads of flexibility of WFH.

This is the unfortunate reality for IT positions in any industry in Australia - Full time positions have not many upsides and contracting is the best way you can capture as much $$$ as you can. There are some downsides but upsides outweigh it by a mile!