Ask HN: How to move past 150k/200k in compensation?
It looks like i am stuck around 150k range compensation despite having 10+ yrs of experience. The only thing against me is that I am an immigrant. Nowadays, new grads are pulling 120k to 130k right away.
I no longer enjoy coding but I am good at getting things done and building good rapo with people. What can I do to move into leadership roles?
How does someone like me get 200k or more in compensation?
PS- I am not a native English speaker but I have studied in English throughout my life.
Any suggestions?
68 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 118 ms ] threadOr real estate
Making $150k/200k a few $1k investments shouldn't break the bank too much. If you are good at Internet research, finding new crypto's with groundbreaking tech before the masses can get you some good return. It may not last forever, but I think it's here to stay and the best ones will remain just like the dot-com bubble era.
Just for example, I bought few Ethereum when it was around $70 and sold half of it and took money out of market when it hit $300. Now I do not care if I loose my rest of money. I just invest in other cryptos for long run and watch where the market goes.
Most people here are used to thinking that if there's something that looks too good, it's probably a scam and/or someone else is already doing it better. But just by being a software engineer and reading HN you are probably in the top percentile of people qualified to evaluate (and invest in) ICOs.
I'm not happy currently with the amount of travel required nor the archaic mindset of some of the managers/planners.
That also implies the way to break $200K: join a company whose stock is rising, perform well for them, and negotiate a generous equity grant.
1. Learn soft skills. If we look at the modern business exec they do a few things very well. They can speak to large groups of people with conviction. They can make tough decisions. They can articulate their thoughts through a variety of mediums. These skills are learned. They come from practice and experience. One of the first things I would recommend you do is join an organization like toastmasters and learn the basics of public speaking.
2. Depending on your situation in life, take risk. Risk is what allows people to propel themselves into those 400k+ annual comp. A lot of these suggestions cite going into consulting, which is high billable if you're good. What they lack though is the necessity to win clients, build good relationships and grow your business. This is mitigation of risk + soft skills.
Relevant reading. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/11/crackin...
- Decide how much more you want to make? Is it purely a greed or do you really need that much money. You alway have to pay some cost to increase your income beyond certain point, it could be your time, safety, health. Calculate those factors in. Earning $50k more then if you end up spending that much on health would not be a good idea.
But that isn't San Francisco dollars. I guess it would be closer to $180k/yr there.
I lived quite well as a single male working in Manhattan proper with a sub six-figure salary; living in Hoboken, and commuting maybe 15-20 mins everyday on the PATH. This was around 2013-14. And I lived like a king in my opinion... was able to save money, build my credit, eat out wherever, never pay attention to price tags when shopping, and take trips/vacations, etc.
Maybe things have changed.
I've worked in all three cities and I have made a similar salary in all three cities and I have to say it's not hard to live on this kind of salary in cities like Salt Lake or Pittsburgh and both give a beautiful quality of life.
Feel free to pick whenever you'd like to live. But don't insult a city just because you don't want to live there.
Consulting can bring you closer but you have to move up the food chain in the type of strategic consulting you do.
Then you are free to move into something more lucrative. CTO, for example.
- live in a tech hub with high demand for programmers. The best places are NYC/SF and probably Seattle
- switch companies every ~2 years, and negotiate for ~25% comp increases when you do. There are some tips that can help you achieve this, but it's a blog post in itself
- work for a lucrative brand-name employer like Google/FB. First, you'll make a ton of money there. Second, having them on your resume will boost your future prospects and compensation offers
- in order to accomplish the above, get really good at interviewing skills. Practice topcoder, cracking the coding interview, fundamental algorithms and data structures, communication and presentation skills, etc etc. Whatever it takes to ace the interviews, no matter how dumb you may think it is
- be good at your craft. Read expert books, work on your own small side projects, push yourself to build high quality code, and not just barely functional junk. Do everything you can to become an expert in your area
- be a great coworker. Leave a positive impression with your manager and colleagues. You don't have to be their friend, but you want to be someone they respect and would recommend to their friends
Even at $10/hr? Hahaha
Without more leverage you may not be able to extract the extra value you create with more output, but without more output you can likely extract more value with more leverage. Though if you're concerned with fairness, increasing both is the way to go.
One reason is tax. After 200k almost half of what you earn is going in tax (Assuming US/California here). So going to 250k seems like a jump, but it's going to have a much less increment on your lifestyle.
So you may be better moving laterally/zig-zagging than continuing to optimize on the path you're on. Perhaps a smaller org that can still pay well, but gives you equity or leadership opportunities.
> So going to 250k seems like a jump, but it's going to have a much less increment on your lifestyle.
Second, the difference between 200k and 250k is that your adjusted gross income legally allows you to participate in private equity investments without you having to get an accountant to lie for you.
So therefore, instead of having to spend 8 years of your life just to get the OPTION of buying $4,000 worth of the two startups you were stuck working at, you can get into the deal flow for any of the trendiest and flashiest companies with the biggest upwards trajectory. Or even better, invest in a VC fund that does this better than you. You can finally stop lying to your company's cofounders about all the passion you have for their non-sensical company just so you can eek out another 1/48th of your option while getting another month of React under your belt for the next move.
There's really no reason to rationalize if you are already that close. You are playing the money game or else you would have used the exact same rationale to not pursue the salary increase from $50k to anything above $75k in whatever suburb or regional support city that you came from. Its only financial engineering from here on and you are in a position to create generational wealth.
You are close to an exemption from the income taxes that make 20% increases in your comp demotivational, when your long term capital gains start rolling in.
You are close to an exemption from the socioeconomic problems of your costly urban environment.
You are close to an exemption from the class system preventing you from obtaining the cheapest and most lucrative investments.
This is about honesty.
Yup. That's the core point I was making.
> you can get into the deal flow for any of the trendiest and flashiest companies with the biggest upwards trajectory
Much harder that you're making it out to be. Being a angel investor is tough. Being a successful one is even tougher. Experienced investors can improve their network, access and odds - but it's a lot of work and they're often outliers.
> This is about honesty.
Really not sure what point you're making.
> > Or even better, invest in a VC fund that does this better than you.
If there are individuals involved, they're high net worth already. You need to be prepared to write a $500k-$2M check and not see a return for an extended period of time. Even then, getting into a top-quartile fund with the best return proposition is going to be highly competitive. Finally, funds are relatively infrequent, so you still need to be at the right place at the right time.
Either way, we're clearly describing a scenario which is well beyond the situation in the ask.
Probably lots of companies you can do that at. Will depend more on your geography, the opportunities that are available. Generally system integrators and technical consultancies can be a good place to start looking...
SDE III (a promotion up from new grad) has typical total comp in the 210 - 240 k$/yr range.
But 'the system' is set against > 200K in compensation. You get taxed to the point of regret and even in the zone of 'getting better' you eventually realize you can't keep it up. If you are a social butterfly and watch for opportunities maybe you can make it to 500K by killing your friends, but that is what it takes.