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Ask HN: How much do you work, what's your salary and how experienced are you?

58 points by throwawayadvsec ↗ HN
Hi, I have a really chill job at the moment, but I'm underpaid. I know I could make twice as more, I was even recently contacted for a job paying 3 times more.(I would have tried if it didn't require relocation)

I'm looking for a new job, but I don't know if I should aim for a really high salary, depending on how much more work I'll have to put in.

So I'm wondering about your experience, how many hours do you put in weekly or monthly/salary after of before taxes/location/job title/experience?

101 comments

[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 142 ms ] thread
floydnoel
also check out the Blind app which much more focused on this topic.
H8crilA
The problem with Blind is that it gathers mostly obsessive people with short attention spans, and those obsessions cause a lot of exaggeration or straight up bullshittery.

It's like reading "leaks from people working at intelligence agency X", you just can't tell what is exaggeration, what are lies, so you end up a bit dumber usually.

throwaw12
> The problem with Blind is that it gathers mostly obsessive people with short attention spans, and those obsessions cause a lot of exaggeration or straight up bullshittery.

I disagree with this sentiment, it might gather "obsessive people with short attention spans", but it doesn't mean their data is wrong. there is no way I can prove it to you, because anything can be faked. But from personal experience can tell you that Staff engineers easily make 400k+

H8crilA
Yeah, in "prime locations", I know that. But I know it because of other sources, and to some extent despite Blind.

There's just too much rumor there written with full confidence.

lbrito
I was about to comment how funny it is that self reported salaries here are in the 100-200s, while on blind every post-adolescent twat straight out of college claims to make north of 350k.

IMO HN posters are much smarter and more productive on average than blind posters. Makes me think salaries strongly correlate mostly with how much tedious algorithm trivia one can crank out.

forthisonepost
About to reach 1 year of full-time experience next week, $133k base salary, remote full stack software engineer at fintech kind-of-startup in New York (not NYC), about 30-40 hours/week
whynotkeithberg
155k, Linux/DevOps/SecOps. I work about 40 hours a week full remote.

However, I just found out I'm getting laid off in october as they're moving services overseas to cut costs. I work for the largest Clinical research org in the world & we were bought by them last year. I'm a bit surprised & the group that bought us was not known for tech. I think they're going to ruin a lot of their tech offerings because I've worked a lot with their Systems/Devops people over the last couple years and they are extremely unimpressive.

As for experience... I technically started at age 17 in the military doing tactical communications via satellite, networking, servers, radios etc. But been working in private sector for about 12-13 years after going to school for about 2 years upon getting out.

dwater
PPD? My partner says the lab side of the house is also seeing a lot of changes that will be bad for quality control and long term customer retention. Lots of people there polishing their resumes regardless of how stable their positions are.
whynotkeithberg
I'm on the tech side of it so I can't fully speak to the labs. But some of the lab people I do work with since before we got acquired with this company have received emails saying they could receive a 1k bonus for helping find people for certain positions that exactly match theirs lol.

So the company is trying to solicit the very people they're replacing to help them find their own replacements.

quacked
I worked at a clinical research tech platform startup and the lack of tech experience in the leadership of the larger orgs actually paying for the tech is hysterical. Like, people cutting $10M deals for remote international drug studies done via web and mobile app who don't know what a "server" is.
whynotkeithberg
yeah... The company I was originally with before we got bought was highly tech so they understood all that. However, this other company that we were bought by they have no tech experience and they hate paying tech salaries. However, dealing with their IT & other people is insanely frustrating and doesn't foster a good development environment.

The thing is with our tech is we have contracts for clinical studies that run years out. So they can't just kill our products and some of our stuff runs on REALLY old technology and definitely not something their IT people know how to handle. So i'm actually curious to see how this goes for them and I wonder if they won't try to bring me back as my group has always been a slightly special/weird group when it comes to what is needed for support.

quacked
If they do bring you back, charge 5x your salary as a contractor.
gamedev_101010
Graphics programmer at AAA game studio in LA area

~200K

YOE 5

40 hours/week majority of the time, more around milestones but nothing crazy

danielvaughn
This is interesting because it contradicts much of what I’ve heard about the gaming industry. Always heard about low wages and really long hours.
gamedev_101010
It varies a lot depending on studios

Big AAA studios can pay pretty decent (could still get more if I moved to tech though)

I also work on a live service game so we have a couple releases a year rather than one giant release which I think helps a lot with WLB since the scope/estimation is more predictable

Also I've only ever had graphics roles, not sure if pay is different for stuff like gameplay programming which seems to be the thing everyone entering the industry wants to do

amyamyamy2
1 yoe, ~200k big tech in the bay area. 40-45 hrs a week, more around deadlines
nerdponx
Holy cow, $200k with 1 year? Were you a strong student at a high-ranked academic program? PhD? Particularly gifted individual with proven high-quality amateur/hobby work?
amyamyamy2
I got lucky in that I joined early enough to get an annual raise + performance evaluation while being under a year in.

This is a pretty standard offer at meta/google in NYC or the bay area though; I didn't negotiate equity at all so I know a few people making more. I think it's definitely possible to get into meta/google without any of those things but tbf I was very fortunate because I did 4 big tech internships and came from a top 5 school.

I know people making about as much who didn't do internships or go to a top school, though but were able to get noticed by a recruiter and then pass the interviews

edit: also i looked at https://www.levels.fyi/2022/ and applied to all of the top companies I saw

nerdponx
I knew salary distributions were bimodal but I never realized it was so separated even at entry level. Outside of these top companies, from what I have seen, entry-level IC offers have been stagnant for years in the 60-80k range.
saagarjha
That’s a pretty standard entry-level comp at a well-paying Bay Area company
nerdponx
That's bonkers to me. In the northeast US even at 5+ years exp you still need to get into a big company like Meta or Google to have a reasonably good shot at 200k+ as an IC.
saagarjha
Generally compensation here tracks those companies.
notesinthefield
A solid 30-35 hours a week, $102k in the US Midwest, im an ISSO for a DoD contractor, 9 YOE in IT Ops, 1 in IT GRC. Im finishing a CISSP and MS in the next 6 months so I should bump to $112-$120 this time next year.
howmuchdoiwork
In my experience salary vs hours is not correlated and varies wildly across companies. I've worked for huge corporations that paid extremely well and could have easily worked ~30hrs/week and be seen as 'high performing' (impact vs effort is something to learn).

<=40hrs/week, $235k base + ~$50k/year stock (real stock) + benefits. ~18 years experience.

Check out http://www.levels.fyi for aggregate data.

bobolino123
USD ~117k TC, SaaS staff engineer. I work about 42.5/47.5h a week fully remote in Switzerland and as a staff you need every minute.

Edit: Bachelor and Master in CS + 6 yoe

throwaway832191
20 hours per week / $120K per year pre-tax / remote / Senior Software Engineer / 16 years experience
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Apreche
Been doing web dev, mostly backend/Python, for almost 20 years. 180k Fully remote 32 hours a week

I probably could be making more money, but I value other things more, like working only 4 days a week fully remotely.

neoromantique
80ish k, Linux/DevOps/(bad)Dev. I work 40ish hours, but tbh available close to 24/7 due to small company size, it only really includes out of hours bothers few times a year, but it still does.

EU, full remote.

Been working for a decade-ish now, of which last five years specifically devops.

squegles
Based out the Bay Area.

~50h a week. 7 YOE Sr SRE with a BSc in CS.

Right around the $400k mark with base/equity/bonus. Private company though.

Specifically working on distributed systems.

smokysaucier
$180k, Director of data science, 40 hours per week, mostly remote these days
pdimitar
Last contract was ~100k EUR a year and that was my highest ever payment.

I usually work 35-40 hours a week, fully remotely. Last time I worked in an office was in January 2011.

Senior programmer with 21.5 years of experience, currently working mostly with Rust and Elixir, and some Golang here and there. I know shell scripting and automation quite well, I know many CLI / TUI tools (don't like coding things when I can assemble my own LEGO for a lot of problems with 1-2h of work), and know Linux well-ish. Interested in network administration, true AI (not ML/DL), robotics and algo trading but never had the chance and time to give in to those passions so far, sadly. Also worked with C, C++, Assembly, PHP, Javascript, Ruby and Java.

I'm in Eastern Europe. Will likely settle for 50% less payment because I am extremely tired of the startup culture; the hustle and hurrying never ends. Some people thrive in that but it honestly is killing me in an accelerated manner and I'll just refuse startup offers straight away, I feel. I would hate the pay drop but the time has come in my life to choose between money and health.

hulitu
> I'm looking for a new job, but I don't know if I should aim for a really high salary, depending on how much more work I'll have to put in.

Salary has nothing to do with work.

Der_Einzige
Yeah, but how much of that time is actually butt in seat coding vs hardly paying attention in meetings?

I've worked at multiple big firms and startups and I don't believe that even the majority of people are working "40 hours" in the same way that most people work 40 hours.

This is the wonderful thing about technology. I was literally motivated to get into tech by the old "The Website is Down" videos, and in practice, it seems to be how many tech workers operate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRGljemfwUE

jakeduth
150k salary, fully remote with a sweet equity deal as well.

10 years exp.

Was sought out for this startup because I'm active on social media and originally offered $125, but negotiated higher.

Idk how many hours, probably averaging 50/wk, but there will definitely be outlier weeks that I'm cool with.

I also had a really chill job two weeks ago for just under $100k. That was a gov job - strict 40 hr/wk. I don't like "average" lifestyles though, so even though I work more (and harder) now, I love it.

Then I also have side projects and another two companies that I have 50% ownership and 100% ownership of respectively. All together I usually end up working about 100 hours/wk

potsandpans
tc ~250k. remote, Westcoast city. I work around 50-55 hours a week give or take. I'm a principal engineer at a faang-adjacent company. a lot of my time is spent in meetings and consultations. a bit is spend writing either foundational code, or code that no one else can do in a timely manner. the rest is reviewing the work of others and charting out designs or plans.

i would say that my current position is probably unsustainable long term and that im feeling a bit of burn out creep. I definitely wouldn't call it chill, but the cash is.

throwaway561
160k / full stack / ~16h / 10years . fully remote. (france)

I have a pretty chill job working at a large company where there are no deadlines and the bar for 'hard working' is pretty low. I try and get urgent things done as fast as possible but otherwise I take it pretty easy. I work in the evenings so I have my days free to ski/bike/ be with the kids in the hols, then i take some time off to pic them up from school and put them to bed, and i usually finish early to watch tv with my wife before bed.

I'm in a similar situation as you where I feel like I could work harder, but i wont get any more money for working harder where i am, and i think i'd need to be paid waay more to be persuaded to do 40 full hours a week.

ElKrist
Would you mind sharing what type of work? 160k in France is really high for such work conditions
throwaway561
I work remotely for a company in the US, as a full stack software dev but mostly frontend at the moment
mrzool
Is your contract really for 16h/week, or that's your honest assessment of how many hours you actually work in a week?
throwaway561
That's my rough average for actual work, including meetings, which can vary a bit. I've been at the company 5 years, when I first started I worked my ass off and got a lot done, but it was frustrating seeing how slowly everything worked and how little work people did, it felt like the company actively pushed back against trying to get anything done fast. Especially coming from a startup where id be doing everything. After having kids and changing my priorities a bit I've learned to just embrace it. I try do the least amount of work possible to be average or slightly above average on productivity.
igetspam
In my next life, I want this. I work 4x what you do but make double. It's very often not worth it. Your priorities are right. When my cost of living goes down, I'll join you.
okrad
Are you IC or Management?
tracker1
It's really all over the map, especially if you're looking to work remote. There are very senior roles for $150k+ and jr-mid for $60-200k. Depends on where the job is. That doesn't even get into culture. Many places want to see Jira tickets closed... others are more laid back, and many in between.

If you can afford it, and aren't living in a high cost of living city, concentrate on job culture first. Alternatively, if you don't have family to worry about, move wherever needed to get the most money and bank it for 5-10 years living as cheaply as you can, then reconsider your direction and priorities. You don't mention how old you are or what kind of area you're living in, so it's hard to give anything resembling advice.

Paul_S
Just use levels fyi or glass door - the self reported salaries here will be the self-selected top of scale. And given how vague the question is the information you get here will be useless for anything but reinforcing whatever you already thought.
lbrito
Glassdoor has terrible data. levels.fyi is great for big tech but very spotty for anything outside of Farangula or whatever the acronym is these days.
zuhayeer
Not sure why this is the sentiment, perhaps because we started with FAANG. But we have much more data now representing tons of companies all across the board: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer?country=254

Larger companies do tend to get overrepresented but it’s also due to the fact that these companies hire the most and do actually largely represent the labor market.

throwawayadvsec
levels fyi will not tell you how many hours people are actually putting in

I know how high salaries can get, I'm mostly wondering about the effort/salary ratio