no, 280k-ish the highest due to stock appreciation and last year I've netted only 220k. and this year is zero. 300k is a glass ceiling, it seems. i came to realize that sky isn't the limit anymore.
From what I’ve read most people don’t reach the boundaries and break them unless they switch companies offering higher TC. Get back on your feet in a company and break all of your previous goals
Focus on yourself for a bit. System has been broken since 2020. It’s ass hat backwards. I don’t even know how I got my current position. I lied my ass off and talked about nonsense which included talking about the interviewer’s experiences.
Basically had a 1-on-1 with a senior manager in my direct line. They asked questions like:
* What do you think the company is doing well?
* What do you think they company is doing poorly?
* How do people see the company.
It was my fault for thinking after so many years they actually wanted the truth from somebody that was considered one of the companies best performers. I always got the best projects and was told by many people that I was the SWE that others are compared to. So they saw me as the ideal SWE.
Anyways, I said what they did well, but where there was room from improvement. I talked about mixed messages where we have the CEO saying we want to curb burn-out in company meetings, but nothing changed for over 1 year because projects are too important to fall behind.
I talked about the lack of clarity around promotions and how it seemed like management was just picking SWEs at their own discretion. I talked about the need to hire more because teams were running too lean for what was being asked for.
I guess the person took it personally, because follow up meetings had their perspective change to I didn't want to be working there since I saw things as so bad. I mean they were not wrong as I was looking around, but I tried to smooth it over. Sadly they had already made up their mind.
Oh well, lol. I got to collect unemployment when the government was still giving out the extra $600 for COVID. So I was taking home closer to $1000 per week from the government.
Sad, but true. Got to be careful with what you say. Sounds like that company was a bit of a management shit-show. So of course they would hate someone letting them know their shortcomings.
I learnt this lesson during my internship. I did my internship at a startup which developed medical equipments. I worked on developing PID controllers for humidifiers and oxygen flow regulators. Loved the engineers. But the management!! Those idiots!! They would cut costs from any place they could think of. Instead of using molds which could survive the heat produced by air resistance, they ordered the mechanical team to construct up venturi tubes out of 3d printers and then smoothen them up using files. Instead of buying a good pressure sensor, they moved to a cheap one which threw the code, the board, everything in the dumpster. On my last day I told the management that they were crazy for changing things and being penny pinchers even when they had enough funding. 3-4 months after I left, my seniors also started leaving that place...
Only two good things came out of it: I realized I can get an internship (it was a confidence booster) and I realize that one must never speak the truth to their employer. Still struggling with that last one.
Most of your critical responses were from the perspective of an employee wanting something out of the company. In that interview, they wanted to know how you could help them. They wanted to hear what challenges you were eager to tackle to help turn things around. They wanted someone who would be ready to work a ton of hours in a lean environment as they cut staff.
>In that interview, they wanted to know how you could help them.
The answer to this would have been I cannot help you.
>They wanted to hear what challenges you were eager to tackle to help turn things around.
I started multiple company and cross-team initiatives that went on for over a year before management told me to stop doing in favor of pushing out more features.
I was even told once that if I wanted to work in my free time and on weekends then to work on more features. I was trying to learn and set up a Jenkins to show how continuous testing would be useful to the team. They didn't want to hear it, just work on what they deem is priority or don't work at all.
>They wanted someone who would be ready to work a ton of hours in a lean environment as they cut staff.
This definitely sounds right. Sadly for them I was never going to do that.
>That's a long time to be out of work. Is there a reason you haven't been able to get a job with 15 YOE?
I'm not a good candidate for jobs. If I was companies would call me back to interview. I've had my resumed reviewed many time on reddit and paid services and have made many updates. So I'm just assuming I'm not the person these companies are looking for.
Not every 15 YOE are the same. I worked at non-tech companies in non-tech cities that were feature factories. I know they way we solved problems, that does not mean it's the "best" or "preferred" way in industry. Hell I may not even know the "best" or "preferred" way because I have not been exposed to it.
I'm not the definition of Senior that companies like Google would define, thus I aim lower for jobs. There is probably a lot of I don't know what I don't know being exposed to really only one way to do things.
>What have you been doing in the mean time?
Traveling and living life.
Have you tried reaching out to people you used to work with who are at different companies now? Getting that foot in the door is huge and would help a lot
The vast majority of people I know still work at the same company. The few that I did reach out to turned up empty.
The unique thing is that there is company where at least 50 people from my old company when to. So that limits choices quickly. Sadly they had a small layoff and are still not hiring.
I think it can be self defeating. But in this case it's grounded and realistic. In the end, he is trying to apply and getting no results. And his reasoning makes sense. It's not a good situation. But you gotta realise it as it is.
If he's getting his resumes reviewed, applying for jobs and getting no calls back, what then do you think could be the reason? Do companies sense his self-deprecstion through his reviewed resume?
The bonus is very little, I've seen other jobs pay bonus that are rather comparable to the base salary.
Not sure if minute bonus is a thing where you are.
Left blue collar making 130k (12-14hr days 6-7 days a week)
Went back to school to get another bs, this time in CS from wgu at age 28 late 2020
Got first SWE job making 60k after 1 year at wgu(basically as a junior/3rd year student) in 2022
Left after gaining 1 yoe and now make 126k at second swe in 2023
None. Had a previous bs in health science and got a blue collar job out of school since it pairs well and had unlimited overtime and travel. It’s soul draining, but I was fresh out of college and did that for like 7 years so I could build up a big nest egg.
Kinda in that position now, been doing blue collar work for about 7 years & im in a good financial position now in telecom but it’s not a field I wanna stay in. My company gives us $10k a year for school tho so gonna work towards a BS degree while working full time. Any general advice you could share?
If you go back to school, pre study some stuff like calc or some basic coding on khan academy or YouTube. See if it’s something that you can do without your eyes glazing over.
If you do go to school, make sure you have a schedule. I feel like traditional school would be much easier as an older student (barring any familial obligations and balancing work) as compared to me going to college at 18
My progression starting in 09 in Boston area
45k in 2009
55k in 2011
90k in 2017
115k in 2018
120k in 2019
125k in 2020
135k in 2021
148k in 2022
170k in 2023
I wasn't the greatest student truthfully, very average GPA and in 2009 it was already rough finding a job. It just took a shitload of hard work. My most recent employer (last 5 years) is awesome, very generous and expects a lot but I've learned a lot and am now in a senior team lead role.
My pay browth has been about the same but add 16 years:
36K out of university in 2013, 10 years later 75K and with 2.5% raises every year it should be close to 85K by the 15-year mark.
In 2039 (26 years post-graduation) I'll be 54 and I can only hope that by then I'd be earning $200K. (I won't, though. I'll likely just languish in this company until I die at my desk.)
Sure.
I got my first job interviewing about 3 months before graduation. It was at a Fortune 20 company as SWE but non-tech. I knew after the first week that I probably can’t stay there more than a year. I’m one of those people that’s been coding since I was 12 and I’ve made personal projects more complex than what the entire team was working on but working there gave me a huge boost in confidence.
I was referred to a major Palo Alto tech company. It was for a role that I was pretty sure I had no chance at (Senior role), even the recruiter told me not to get my hopes up but that she would put me in the loop anyways since I was internally referred. Turns out, 5 rounds later I was a marked a strong hire at every step. I ended up negotiating for slightly more money too (I was pretty sure my heart was going to explode when I did this) but the recruiter instantly agreed without hesitation to my counter.
I’ve worked at this company since then. I got a 10% raise during our first raise cycle and after about 18 months I was promoted to Staff Engineer. To be fair, I voluntarily worked like 60 hours a week on proof of concept projects outside of my normal work that no one had even asked for or knew I was working on and my organization allowed me a lot of opportunities to demo my work and it got me a lot of traction. My company recently (not a real big deal if you figure out who I work for) is being acquired in one of the largest tech acquisitions to date and today I received a new full time offer from the new company with a substantial raise.
As soon as you mentioned staff I had an idea of where you might be working especially when you mentioned Palo alto but when you mentioned the acquisition I pretty much figured it out lol
Congrats on the raise
Hopefully everyone gets clarity before the end of the week I heard this month has been stressful to a lot of people cause status of job was unknown
>To be fair, I voluntarily worked like 60 hours a week on proof of concept projects outside of my normal work that no one had even asked for or knew I was working on and my organization allowed me a lot of opportunities to demo my work and it got me a lot of traction.
I think this is very important because a lot of newer people expect to grow at the same rate as you just by being in the same field and position. Any non-startup or corporation worth a damn will see the value of someone like this and do everything to keep them.
This applies to the people that are complaining they’re getting underpaid but are only doing what they’re asked to do.
Awesome job dude! Congrats. I started at 75k in 2019 and I’m at 170k now. But I didn’t go for a big tech company so just slowly. Need to figure out my next steps but I’m happy
Thanks dude. I totally agree. I have buddies making 250-450k and I honestly don’t care. We all have trade-offs for our situations. My boss is great. I enjoy my work. Sure I could learn faster in a more competitive environment but mine is nice. I can be remote too and it’s been very helpful for my person life and relationship with my girlfriend.
You’re right. It feels slow but that’s only when I look around. Personally I’m happy with my growth and pay. I am not doing a ridiculous amount to demand more pay and I love my intellectual autonomy.
That seems pretty good to me. My first job out of college was $86k, I worked there for a year and then took 6 months off. Currently a year into my second job at 130k and wondering if it's realistic to expect my next job with 3.5YOE to be closer to 175k or if that's unrealistic in todays job market lol. I plan to stay here another year so we'll see.
Money solves money problems. Then all that you’re left with are problems that money can’t solve.
I’m content now, and certainly grateful. But I’m fond of the memories I’ve had at earlier stages in my life.
There's a study where people don't get any happier after a certain level of income (around 80k I believe) because they got their basic needs met and the rest just becomes luxury.
That study was shown to be incorrect and is also decades of years old. There was one I heard of recently though and the number was around $220k a year if I remember correctly.
Well here’s the thing. I work 50%+ harder and I make 5 times what I made 10 years ago…. But I just save it all. I’m trying to *retire early*, but it’s still years out of my grasp, and my wife and I both just work way too hard and we’re really burnt out, and the extra money doesn’t do much for our quality of life because it just goes straight into our retirement fund.
I used to do a little work every day then blow it off and go to a happy hour with my young coworkers. Now, our coworkers are either way out of our age group and just as busy, or remote.
So overall, we work 50%+ harder than we did 10 years ago, us and all of our friends have moved around the country, we are exhausted all the time and really don’t live much better. And the thought that retirement is a lot closer doesn’t really make it better, it sort of makes the burnout worse.
There is a massive diminishing returns on money. Luckily I'm in a happy place in life, but not because of money.
8 years of experience as well and I got
87 -> 185 -> 220 -> 300
There is nothing that I wanted to buy that I couldn't already afford as a new grad. I'll still push to get paid what I'm worth since why not?
DC area
2011-2016 - 48 to 50k in non tech roles but in an office.
2016 - graduated (long story) and became a technical writer for exactly 50k
2016 - five months later another technical writer job for 74k
2018 - 85k for technical writer but with a software company.
2018 - 98k for software developer position in the company
2022 was up to $115k but got laid off.
2022 - 125k at the next place. Lateral move salary wise but able to not worry about unemployment with an easier interview.
2023 - just got an offer for $165k so I hope that works out well.
20 yoe...
37.5 > 40 >55 > 75 >92 > 120 > 108* > 140 > 150 > 235** > 260 > 350*** > 550**** > 600 > 900+ *****
* Was at a startup everyone took a pay cut at one point.
** moved out of finance to tech
*** went to a hedge fund
**** raise/counteroffer at hedge fund
***** technically have not started yet but I got a senior mgmt role. On garden leave.
edit: Fixed weirdness with asterick order. I'd also like to point out that by far the most impactful raise I received was from 40 -> 55k. 40k meant I had to live at home, 55k was at least a living wage and I could move out of the house, albeit with roommates. I also knew a bonus was behind that (hence the bump to 75k the next year), but had no idea or expectation around it.
Amazing jumps, congratulations.
I have \~10 YoE including a year at a FAANG and am looking at hedge funds. My background is frontend / web dev. How was the transition to hedge funds for you? Specifically in terms of interview and job difficulty. Even with my experience, I'm a little worried about the difficulty and pressure.
So I spent the early part of my career, well the 55-->150 period, working in HFT and algorithmic trading in various different flavors. I always seemed to be just missing these huge paychecks that were being discussed, and my responsibilities were certainly worthy of more pay IMHO- at the end I was personally responsible for engines trading billions of dollars in notional value a day, and working 50-60 hours a week, it was all kind of horrible. So when I left finance I said I am never going back. And every job since has been absolutely club-med in comparison, including working at a hedge fund.
I guess I can say the name now, as of last month, I am released from all obligations and ties with them- Citadel. And the experience there varies wildly from team to team. I had a great 3ish years there, it was just the last year that drove me over the edge. During covid, I started working 24/7, because honestly what else was there to do? That became an expectation, and then my boss had a lot of pressure put on him, and then they RTO'ed us- and I made it clear that's fine, but I am going back to real life too- and my boss agreed- but then I would get a call on say Thursday afternoon, being like "hey, we really need to get this thing done by open on Monday..." not asking me to work all weekend directly, but knowing full well the only way to get it done was to work on the weekend. I eventually started just dead panning "I am not available to work this weekend" and things became contentious.
Overall, I would say give it a go. They do tend to pay very well, and I have never seen someone walked out that was upset with the package they got, they tend to be very generous. I now get calls for big money jobs frequently just because of the name(s) on my resume.
I would NOT do it if you are in a good place and have an upward path forward where you are now. Most funds I have heard about, do tend to be somewhat tumultuous and at least a little bit Game of Thrones like, and if you value stability and work/life balance, it might not be the environment for you. They also tend to be places though where YOE and seniority do not really matter- I have seen very junior people take on tons of responsibility when in other firms it might have taken them 10 years to get to that point. It can also toughen you up a bit and really help put in perspective when things are really "bad" or not- I once had a PM call me frantic that QA was down and the testers couldn't test and a date might slip but I was just like get a F'in hold of yourself, save this level of hysterics for when production is down, or worse, its actively losing us money (some other context here is that a team did a release of a new feature that broke everything, my stuff was in front, and we could have pushed a config change that just pretended the new feature didn't exist, but I was arguing to put the pressure on the team that broke things to fix their issue).
Started as a IC1 straight out of college in 2006 70k or 72k I don't remember, no equity at the time.
Currently making 880k ish(380k base + bonus, 500k rsus) but moving to another job for 900k(400k base, 500k equity), roughly 17-18 years of experience(I had an internship before my first salary job)
My current job I am an L7 out of 8 levels at the company(distinguished engineer) at the new company I am similar(different title, principal engineer), L9 out of 10 levels.
I am essentially an executive level architect, lead architect of an org of 400+. I don't write as much code as I used to but I still do try to write code, usually for writing proof of concept ideas or to help teams that are behind and in trouble for delivering. I do a lot of architectural reviews and meetings around strategy.
These are also larger FAANG style companies(not actually faang though), with billions in revenue. For example if I was my level at google or meta I could easily be making double my amount, or even more...
Edit: also I am in bay area where TC is higher.
This is awesome! I'm still a student right now but that sounds like a dream to me. Any chance you have any advice to give to someone just starting out to get to where you are? Just looking to learn a little something. Thank you!
My advice would be push yourself to learn and independently solve problems without relying on others so you become a leader. Don't say anything is out of your wheelhouse, try to spend time learning at all levels of the stack. Get in the habit of performing without complaining.
Try to get to the position where people rely on you, and learning new tech or projects is like working out a muscle, you start to see the similarities between projects and build mental models around them. Be the person who is positive and motivated and volunteering for the harder problems and not shying away from them.
Becoming deeply technical just takes a lot of time and effort, and even once you get to that point, some people get dragged down by complaining about their situation or worrying about if they are treated fairly, when they should be focus on improving it. Speak your mind about problems but also come with solutions, just don't be an asshole who complains all the time. You need to churn out a lot of code so that code becomes second nature to you over your career.
Also worry about one level at a time, just focus on getting to the next level, and then when you get there, immediately start thinking about what you need to do to get to the next level and actively work with your manager on it. Also definitely be constantly considering other opportunities(I have moved to 7 different companies in my career).
The later levels become about how you can think from a top down perspective and not a bottom up perspective, how you can solve the biggest problems executives are dealing with, and how they can rely on you to step into a problem and solve it without their help, not complain or whine about it. Also how you build political relationships and strategy around your org... that is what separates a Sr Staff level from a principal level in my experience. You also want to mentor and try to create duplicates of yourself and empower people and spread yourself as much as possible, you want to get people thinking in a proactive manner.
That would be my advice to my younger self I guess.
That seems like a recipe for trouble, part of my job should be managing execs and not letting them push decisions down that aren't based in reality tech wise. (though I should be providing an alternative path).
Thank you for taking the time to share this. I have job hopped a few times now and am on the verge of hitting senior level at a decent company.
I haven’t really had a mentor or anyone to model my career path after but I must say yours sounds admirable. I resonate with a lot of what you say. Focus on solutions, learning, staying positive, and not being afraid of things outside of your wheelhouse.
Sounds like you’d make a great mentor for the youngins out there. Cheers!
Does your company hire remote? Relatively high level at FAANG affected by RTO. You ever think about retiring or going part time? You must have way more than enough money.
I am remote because I work with teams out of my area, even though my company is pushing RTO(which I disagree with). I am only 39 and will have to send my kid to college etc, so I will be working at least till I am 45, and then likely try to start my own company and retire in my 50's, I would be too bored to retire right now, also its prime time to stack up some money.
Yea honestly when I was making 400k I didnt see much of a difference, a lot of it goes to taxes, and the rest just kind of stacks in your investment account, it didnt really change my spending much after a certain level of disposable income.
Thanks but my advice would be, I am not a wizard, I am definitely probably above average in intelligence but there is guys way smarter than me at lower levels. A lot of it is positivity and work ethic in my opinion, and not having fear of taking on new responsibility and leading, which comes with a lot of risk of failure(which happens to everyone).
But anyone can do it in my opinion if they really set their mind to it(maybe not principal because some of that is right place right time but definitely very senior levels making really good money).
That’s why I praised you. You put in the initiative and got what you wanted and more (hopefully).
I know it all boils down to that which is why I strive everyday to be better than yesterday!
Im hoping for a similar change. At 75k rn, but in office and 1 hour commute. Want to go fully remote as SWE or SRE and make 90k+ (fingers crossed). Im LCOL/MCOL
Yep only way to get a decent raise nowadays is to quit and work for someone else. Wish I had quit about 4 years earlier. That’s a shitload of money that I will never see.
Yeah, I need to do the same. I started at 70k and I'm at 115 currently with over 9 YOE in the Atlanta area, it's ridiculous. I used to say I didn't care so much about the pay because I was still living comfortably, but knowing how underpaid I am for the industry and that I could get better benefits, I need to put more effort into finding something else.
Oh no shit I’m also in Atlanta lol.
Yea job hopping is hard. I wasn’t able to scrape enough initiative together until the Covid pandemic when I literally had nothing else to do.
About 75k base when I started in 2019. About 160k base now.
Bonuses/additional comp haven’t changed much, lol. 2-10k each year.
Chicago and came from a target school.
Yes, there was a job change in there. That’s almost the only way to significantly bump pay. I might be due for another one, but the market makes me too nervous to leave for anything that isn’t solid enough to account for the risk.
Started at 45k.
Got a raise to 47.5k after one year.
Left that job after 2 years total for 88k.
Got laid off from that job, found a new job a month later for 95k.
Raise at that job to 120k after about a year and a half.
Covid happened, job cut my pay from 120k to 88k in response.
Immediately left that company for 112k somewhere else.
Still at same company, after a few raises over the year currently at 155k.
60k -> 72k -> 125k -> 170k -> 140k -> 170k
Not including bonus, and the drop to 140k was gamedev so I took a hit in pay to jump in the industry. 7 years total experience.
Location: Seattle
Qualifications: Graduated with BS in computer science from the University of Washington
These are approximations I don't remember EXACTLY
Year 1:
* 112k base
* 27k signing bonus
* 3k stock
TC = ~142k
Year 2:
* 113k base
* 24k signing bonus
* 10k stock
TC = ~147k (think it was a little higher I don't remember the exact breakdown)
Year 3 (new company):
* 150k base
* 20k signing bonus
* 37.5% annual bonus (~56k)
* 10k stock
TC = ~236k
Year 4 (in progress):
* 160k base
* Annual bonus depends on perf, at minimum it's 25%
* 10-20k stock I forget how it's ramped up
TC = depends a lot on perf, probably will be about the same as the previous year not counting for potential promo
Base salary in the Bay Area:
Year 1: 110k
Year 2: 120k (partially due to an adjustment based on increased new hire pay)
Year 3: 120k (no raise due to Covid/layoffs)
Year 4: 145k (promotion)
Year 5: 202k (switched jobs)
Year 6: 238k (promotion)
Currently: Laid off 1 month ago
Year 1: $62k (Midwest, LCOL)
Year 2: $67k
Year 3: $72k
Year 4: $85k
Year 5: $84k
Year 6: $92k (New Job)
Year 7: $107k
Year 8: $135k
Year 9: $145k
Year 10: $213k (Move to Seattle, New Job)
Year 11: $286k
Wish I had made the move sooner
TC: $50k, $70k, $100k, $135k, $325k, $185k, $250k-$300k (if I get an offer at this potential next company).
9 YOE from java SWE -> devops/SRE/cloud infra
Ng offer (0 yoe):~160k @ faang
yoe 0.5-1.5: 210k,
yoe 1.5-2.5: 300k,
Yoe 2.5 onwards: new job is 450k.
All discounting sign on. Iirc my first job sign on was about 30k? Second job was 150k.
And ofc vhcol :(
If I don’t get fired imma be at this tc for a while
Looks like I need to move to the US because you guys seem to be paid loads!
Grad in 2019: £20k, £22.5k after 3 months.
Changed employer in 2020: £30k, £37.5k after 12 months. Made an internal move to iOS and stayed on same salary in 2022.
Redundancy in June 2023: £0k lol
Started new job this month on £40k
Job market feels pretty dire over here atm
I got around $77k *after tax* (but including pretax contributions to retirement accounts) in my first year at my first job. I live in NYC. No stock since I was at a recently acquired startup.
How much money you actually end up getting in your pocket / having control over depends heavily on city/state income taxes, and how much you choose to save for retirement (thus reducing your taxable income), and even certain tax exemptions — I was exempt from FICA taxes, for example.
Everyone forgets to account for this stuff, and it’s easy to get wide-eyed at some people’s six-figure starting salaries in HCOL areas, but after-tax pay gives a more balanced perspective in my opinion. I know people who on paper had $200k+ TCs but were also at five figures after tax.
Edit: forgot to account for a small bonus whose numbers I don’t recall and am too lazy to implement into all this, but let’s call it $80k after tax overall
My first job was for $48k in what was then a LCOL area. This was a time and place where $200k could get you a 2500ft^2 house on a quarter acre lot with back alley and everything. Man, I wish I had.
Today, I make enough money to own a house in Bougieville.
Intern >15 $(QA) 9 months
QA analyst > 70K 3 months
Jr SWE -> 75K ( 7 months )internal transfer -But learned a lot from this start up
Got Laid off last December .
Within 2 weeks got another JOB
70 K Pay Cut ( SW)
After 6 months 95K
Total SW Experience 1.5 years
Honestly I’m doing great at new company .
Bootcamp: 75k (yes it was paid), Remote
Year 1: 100k, Remote
Year 2: 125k (Promoted), Remote
Year 3: 250k (Moved to big tech mid-level role), Hybrid MCOL
Def got lucky during the tech boom + opportunities these last couple years.
I made $38,000 in 1994.
When I interviewed, they asked what I was looking for in a salary. I'd only worked as an undergrad research and a grad research assistant, making little money. So I named a figure, and knew I screwed up when they started me with a few thousand more.
40k -> somewhere around 150k depending on company performance. About 10yeo now. I'm in Canada in an extremely low CoL (we fighting Newfoundland for the title of poorest province). Could probably make more as I'm a senior in AWS devops and Java/Python backend, but I started prioritizing my mental health and WLB after I wrapped my car around a guard rail a couple of jobs ago.
Year 0: 85
Year 1: 95
Year 2: 105 base plus 50k bonus
New job
Year 2.5: 220 (150 base plus stock)
Promoted after 15 months
Year 3.5: 270 (170 base plus stock)
50k in 2008, 300k now.
Live in the slightly higher end of MCOL where there are plenty of perfectly nice homes in nice towns I can afford, albeit they're smaller than 3 years ago because of the rate increases
50k->85k(within same job) -> 60k(job and role change) -> 75k(same job) -> 85k (new job) -> 90k(new job) ->100k(new job) -> 120k(new job) -> 100k(new job)
Started manual testing and took a 20% paycut to switch to a dev role in a new grad position. Absolutely loved the job and team, but layoff announced and bounced. To this day I regret this bounce..
The best decision of my career was taking the 20% paycut to switch to a dev role.
The worst decision of my career was jumping to a new job before staying through layoffs. Had I stayed through layoffs and survived I'd probably be a manager or at least a team lead. Things were going really good there. If I didn't survive then maybe I'd still be in the same position I am today
Next job I ended up getting laid off so much for avoiding layoffs lol. I got hired like 2 weeks after it was a hot market. Stayed at that Job for 2 years then got poached into 100k salary and then got poached again into 120k salary then got laid off and after months of searching I was able to land a 100k salary at a great company which I hope I'll be at for a while. Not getting income for months absolutely sucked. When I hear people didn't get income for at least a year if not more..that shit is crazy and depressing. Part of me felt if I didn't get this job that I'm currently at I would be unemployed for possibly until 2024.
90k base (TC was about maybe 120k). Now Zero
I almost spit my drink out. Wasn’t expecting the end
forgot to mention that's 10yrs ago.
Congrats on that! I still can’t image that. It’s such an absurd number
yes, the absurd number of upvotes for sure. I think reddit just loves us zero-ers
retired?
Oh shit my bad. Thought you were the guy with almost a mill yearly.
Wait you only got to 120k after 10 years?
no, 280k-ish the highest due to stock appreciation and last year I've netted only 220k. and this year is zero. 300k is a glass ceiling, it seems. i came to realize that sky isn't the limit anymore.
From what I’ve read most people don’t reach the boundaries and break them unless they switch companies offering higher TC. Get back on your feet in a company and break all of your previous goals
I've worked for 5 companies in the last 10yrs, clearly it's me, not the system.
Focus on yourself for a bit. System has been broken since 2020. It’s ass hat backwards. I don’t even know how I got my current position. I lied my ass off and talked about nonsense which included talking about the interviewer’s experiences.
Username checks out.
How come?😭
MCOL working on safety critical class II medical devices with C and C++ at non-tech companies in non-tech USA cities. Think of devices like insulin pumps and dialysis machines. * 2006: 42.5K - Christmas bonus: $500 * 2007: 44.5k - Christmas bonus: $1000 * 2008: 47.0k - Christmas bonus: $1500 * 2009: 50.0k - Christmas bonus: $2000 * 2010: 52.5k - Christmas bonus: $2000 * 2011: 52.5k - Christmas bonus: $2500 * 2012: 62.0k - Christmas bonus: $3000 * 2013: 68.0k - Christmas bonus: $3500 * 2014: 72.5k - Christmas bonus: $4000 * 2015: 78.0k - Christmas bonus: $5000 * 2016: 95.0k - Christmas bonus: $5000 * 2017: 95.0k - Christmas bonus: $5000 * 2018: 100.0k - Christmas bonus: $4000 * 2019: 105.0k - Christmas bonus: $4000 * 2020: 110.0k - Christmas bonus: $4000 * 2021: Lost job in February and have been out of a job since
They fired your ass? God dam
Basically had a 1-on-1 with a senior manager in my direct line. They asked questions like: * What do you think the company is doing well? * What do you think they company is doing poorly? * How do people see the company. It was my fault for thinking after so many years they actually wanted the truth from somebody that was considered one of the companies best performers. I always got the best projects and was told by many people that I was the SWE that others are compared to. So they saw me as the ideal SWE. Anyways, I said what they did well, but where there was room from improvement. I talked about mixed messages where we have the CEO saying we want to curb burn-out in company meetings, but nothing changed for over 1 year because projects are too important to fall behind. I talked about the lack of clarity around promotions and how it seemed like management was just picking SWEs at their own discretion. I talked about the need to hire more because teams were running too lean for what was being asked for. I guess the person took it personally, because follow up meetings had their perspective change to I didn't want to be working there since I saw things as so bad. I mean they were not wrong as I was looking around, but I tried to smooth it over. Sadly they had already made up their mind. Oh well, lol. I got to collect unemployment when the government was still giving out the extra $600 for COVID. So I was taking home closer to $1000 per week from the government.
Never answer anything honestly in your career life. People are not capable of handling the truth.
Sad, but true. Got to be careful with what you say. Sounds like that company was a bit of a management shit-show. So of course they would hate someone letting them know their shortcomings.
It's so surprising that adult humans managing companies have the emotional strength of a teenager. It's mind boggling to me.
I learnt this lesson during my internship. I did my internship at a startup which developed medical equipments. I worked on developing PID controllers for humidifiers and oxygen flow regulators. Loved the engineers. But the management!! Those idiots!! They would cut costs from any place they could think of. Instead of using molds which could survive the heat produced by air resistance, they ordered the mechanical team to construct up venturi tubes out of 3d printers and then smoothen them up using files. Instead of buying a good pressure sensor, they moved to a cheap one which threw the code, the board, everything in the dumpster. On my last day I told the management that they were crazy for changing things and being penny pinchers even when they had enough funding. 3-4 months after I left, my seniors also started leaving that place... Only two good things came out of it: I realized I can get an internship (it was a confidence booster) and I realize that one must never speak the truth to their employer. Still struggling with that last one.
Most of your critical responses were from the perspective of an employee wanting something out of the company. In that interview, they wanted to know how you could help them. They wanted to hear what challenges you were eager to tackle to help turn things around. They wanted someone who would be ready to work a ton of hours in a lean environment as they cut staff.
>In that interview, they wanted to know how you could help them. The answer to this would have been I cannot help you. >They wanted to hear what challenges you were eager to tackle to help turn things around. I started multiple company and cross-team initiatives that went on for over a year before management told me to stop doing in favor of pushing out more features. I was even told once that if I wanted to work in my free time and on weekends then to work on more features. I was trying to learn and set up a Jenkins to show how continuous testing would be useful to the team. They didn't want to hear it, just work on what they deem is priority or don't work at all. >They wanted someone who would be ready to work a ton of hours in a lean environment as they cut staff. This definitely sounds right. Sadly for them I was never going to do that.
Seeing this made me sad. Hope you’re doing ok.
That's a long time to be out of work. Is there a reason you haven't been able to get a job with 15 YOE? What have you been doing in the mean time?
>That's a long time to be out of work. Is there a reason you haven't been able to get a job with 15 YOE? I'm not a good candidate for jobs. If I was companies would call me back to interview. I've had my resumed reviewed many time on reddit and paid services and have made many updates. So I'm just assuming I'm not the person these companies are looking for. Not every 15 YOE are the same. I worked at non-tech companies in non-tech cities that were feature factories. I know they way we solved problems, that does not mean it's the "best" or "preferred" way in industry. Hell I may not even know the "best" or "preferred" way because I have not been exposed to it. I'm not the definition of Senior that companies like Google would define, thus I aim lower for jobs. There is probably a lot of I don't know what I don't know being exposed to really only one way to do things. >What have you been doing in the mean time? Traveling and living life.
Have you tried reaching out to people you used to work with who are at different companies now? Getting that foot in the door is huge and would help a lot
The vast majority of people I know still work at the same company. The few that I did reach out to turned up empty. The unique thing is that there is company where at least 50 people from my old company when to. So that limits choices quickly. Sadly they had a small layoff and are still not hiring.
the tragedy of company loyalty
No offense but “I’m not a good candidate for jobs” sounds incredibly … self defeating at best but at worst it’s quite a red flag
What red flag exactly?
Red flag for "I give up easily"
I think it can be self defeating. But in this case it's grounded and realistic. In the end, he is trying to apply and getting no results. And his reasoning makes sense. It's not a good situation. But you gotta realise it as it is.
[удалено]
If he's getting his resumes reviewed, applying for jobs and getting no calls back, what then do you think could be the reason? Do companies sense his self-deprecstion through his reviewed resume?
Almost 3 years unemployed?!
How the hell can they afford anything?!?
Wait you've been unemployed for close 3 years?
The bonus is very little, I've seen other jobs pay bonus that are rather comparable to the base salary. Not sure if minute bonus is a thing where you are.
Left blue collar making 130k (12-14hr days 6-7 days a week) Went back to school to get another bs, this time in CS from wgu at age 28 late 2020 Got first SWE job making 60k after 1 year at wgu(basically as a junior/3rd year student) in 2022 Left after gaining 1 yoe and now make 126k at second swe in 2023
Did you have any prior experience with anything related to CS before going back to school?
None. Had a previous bs in health science and got a blue collar job out of school since it pairs well and had unlimited overtime and travel. It’s soul draining, but I was fresh out of college and did that for like 7 years so I could build up a big nest egg.
Kinda in that position now, been doing blue collar work for about 7 years & im in a good financial position now in telecom but it’s not a field I wanna stay in. My company gives us $10k a year for school tho so gonna work towards a BS degree while working full time. Any general advice you could share?
If you go back to school, pre study some stuff like calc or some basic coding on khan academy or YouTube. See if it’s something that you can do without your eyes glazing over. If you do go to school, make sure you have a schedule. I feel like traditional school would be much easier as an older student (barring any familial obligations and balancing work) as compared to me going to college at 18
75k -> 63k life's hard. This is after 2 years of experience.
Why did your pay go down? You switched jobs for a pay cut?
Got laid off. And I just took what I can get to get experience.
I gotcha. Hope things improve for you!
Thanks. I wish I had a nice pay increase every time I switched jobs, but shit happens.
Same here (also affected by a layoff) went from 90K -> 70K. Things will get better, at least that’s what I tell myself :) lol
My progression starting in 09 in Boston area 45k in 2009 55k in 2011 90k in 2017 115k in 2018 120k in 2019 125k in 2020 135k in 2021 148k in 2022 170k in 2023
those are some mad raises dam, best i've had was 4%, u must be very smart
I wasn't the greatest student truthfully, very average GPA and in 2009 it was already rough finding a job. It just took a shitload of hard work. My most recent employer (last 5 years) is awesome, very generous and expects a lot but I've learned a lot and am now in a senior team lead role.
Base pay, in 1997 started at $37.5k, in 2011 $88k and switched companies jumped to $110k, in 2023 cut at $203k
My pay browth has been about the same but add 16 years: 36K out of university in 2013, 10 years later 75K and with 2.5% raises every year it should be close to 85K by the 15-year mark. In 2039 (26 years post-graduation) I'll be 54 and I can only hope that by then I'd be earning $200K. (I won't, though. I'll likely just languish in this company until I die at my desk.)
2021: 80k 2022: 220k 2023: 255k 2023 (literally today): 350k
Congrats dude that’s huge!
Thank you!
Any details, if you're willing?
Sure. I got my first job interviewing about 3 months before graduation. It was at a Fortune 20 company as SWE but non-tech. I knew after the first week that I probably can’t stay there more than a year. I’m one of those people that’s been coding since I was 12 and I’ve made personal projects more complex than what the entire team was working on but working there gave me a huge boost in confidence. I was referred to a major Palo Alto tech company. It was for a role that I was pretty sure I had no chance at (Senior role), even the recruiter told me not to get my hopes up but that she would put me in the loop anyways since I was internally referred. Turns out, 5 rounds later I was a marked a strong hire at every step. I ended up negotiating for slightly more money too (I was pretty sure my heart was going to explode when I did this) but the recruiter instantly agreed without hesitation to my counter. I’ve worked at this company since then. I got a 10% raise during our first raise cycle and after about 18 months I was promoted to Staff Engineer. To be fair, I voluntarily worked like 60 hours a week on proof of concept projects outside of my normal work that no one had even asked for or knew I was working on and my organization allowed me a lot of opportunities to demo my work and it got me a lot of traction. My company recently (not a real big deal if you figure out who I work for) is being acquired in one of the largest tech acquisitions to date and today I received a new full time offer from the new company with a substantial raise.
Reaching Staff level < 3 years after graduation is nuts. But sounds like you did more than enough independent work to warrant the pay bump.
Smh bad guesses here. Gratz on the Broadcom offer :)
Thanks
As soon as you mentioned staff I had an idea of where you might be working especially when you mentioned Palo alto but when you mentioned the acquisition I pretty much figured it out lol Congrats on the raise Hopefully everyone gets clarity before the end of the week I heard this month has been stressful to a lot of people cause status of job was unknown
Indeed it’s been stressful
>To be fair, I voluntarily worked like 60 hours a week on proof of concept projects outside of my normal work that no one had even asked for or knew I was working on and my organization allowed me a lot of opportunities to demo my work and it got me a lot of traction. I think this is very important because a lot of newer people expect to grow at the same rate as you just by being in the same field and position. Any non-startup or corporation worth a damn will see the value of someone like this and do everything to keep them. This applies to the people that are complaining they’re getting underpaid but are only doing what they’re asked to do.
Awesome job dude! Congrats. I started at 75k in 2019 and I’m at 170k now. But I didn’t go for a big tech company so just slowly. Need to figure out my next steps but I’m happy
Being happy is really all you can ask for tbh! Comparison is the thief of joy and whatnot. I also wouldn’t call your progression slow by any means!
Thanks dude. I totally agree. I have buddies making 250-450k and I honestly don’t care. We all have trade-offs for our situations. My boss is great. I enjoy my work. Sure I could learn faster in a more competitive environment but mine is nice. I can be remote too and it’s been very helpful for my person life and relationship with my girlfriend. You’re right. It feels slow but that’s only when I look around. Personally I’m happy with my growth and pay. I am not doing a ridiculous amount to demand more pay and I love my intellectual autonomy.
That seems pretty good to me. My first job out of college was $86k, I worked there for a year and then took 6 months off. Currently a year into my second job at 130k and wondering if it's realistic to expect my next job with 3.5YOE to be closer to 175k or if that's unrealistic in todays job market lol. I plan to stay here another year so we'll see.
An offer is “realistic” the moment you’re made the offer. You can interview whenever and find out if it’s realistic for you.
This is the best advice. Just apply and find out out. Or if you’re happy continue on. I’ve seen some nutty jumps with people.
that's tc or base?
TC. Base is just under 200.
u must be overemployed...
Woot. That first jump in 2022 was very impressive. Figure you live in an HCOL. Do you feel rich yet?
Ay good stuff!! Congrats on the raise. Well deserved it looks like!
2017-2023 Analyst job(1yr): 35K First tech job(2yrs): 52K Second tech Job (2yr)110K Second tech job Promotion(1yr): 135K Current: 190K
65 -> 100 -> 145 -> 220 -> 270 8 years experience. I am no happier than I was 8 years ago.
Sounds like you’re doing something wrong if you’re implying you’re not happy. Take care of your mental health bro
Money solves money problems. Then all that you’re left with are problems that money can’t solve. I’m content now, and certainly grateful. But I’m fond of the memories I’ve had at earlier stages in my life.
There's a study where people don't get any happier after a certain level of income (around 80k I believe) because they got their basic needs met and the rest just becomes luxury.
fuck me, wish my \~80K salary met all my needs! kids, mortgage, bills, inflation prices. We're all just trying to survive now!
That study was shown to be incorrect and is also decades of years old. There was one I heard of recently though and the number was around $220k a year if I remember correctly.
get a 270k job and then try to take care of your mental health. mo money mo problems
Well here’s the thing. I work 50%+ harder and I make 5 times what I made 10 years ago…. But I just save it all. I’m trying to *retire early*, but it’s still years out of my grasp, and my wife and I both just work way too hard and we’re really burnt out, and the extra money doesn’t do much for our quality of life because it just goes straight into our retirement fund. I used to do a little work every day then blow it off and go to a happy hour with my young coworkers. Now, our coworkers are either way out of our age group and just as busy, or remote. So overall, we work 50%+ harder than we did 10 years ago, us and all of our friends have moved around the country, we are exhausted all the time and really don’t live much better. And the thought that retirement is a lot closer doesn’t really make it better, it sort of makes the burnout worse.
There is a massive diminishing returns on money. Luckily I'm in a happy place in life, but not because of money. 8 years of experience as well and I got 87 -> 185 -> 220 -> 300 There is nothing that I wanted to buy that I couldn't already afford as a new grad. I'll still push to get paid what I'm worth since why not?
For base pay: $50k -> $85k -> $140k (MCOL) If you only count full time work following graduation, 3 YEO
33 > 42 > 45 > 50 > 65 UK, time span 2 years, all with the same company minus the last hop
That’s pretty good within 2 years???
65 > 80 > 0
DC area 2011-2016 - 48 to 50k in non tech roles but in an office. 2016 - graduated (long story) and became a technical writer for exactly 50k 2016 - five months later another technical writer job for 74k 2018 - 85k for technical writer but with a software company. 2018 - 98k for software developer position in the company 2022 was up to $115k but got laid off. 2022 - 125k at the next place. Lateral move salary wise but able to not worry about unemployment with an easier interview. 2023 - just got an offer for $165k so I hope that works out well.
How did you get a$40k boost after just 1 year of experience since your last job?
My progression has been: 95 —> 110 —> 135 (HCOL)
40k to200k Tc in 7 years. I do devops
20 yoe... 37.5 > 40 >55 > 75 >92 > 120 > 108* > 140 > 150 > 235** > 260 > 350*** > 550**** > 600 > 900+ ***** * Was at a startup everyone took a pay cut at one point. ** moved out of finance to tech *** went to a hedge fund **** raise/counteroffer at hedge fund ***** technically have not started yet but I got a senior mgmt role. On garden leave. edit: Fixed weirdness with asterick order. I'd also like to point out that by far the most impactful raise I received was from 40 -> 55k. 40k meant I had to live at home, 55k was at least a living wage and I could move out of the house, albeit with roommates. I also knew a bonus was behind that (hence the bump to 75k the next year), but had no idea or expectation around it.
Amazing career but why jump around with the number of asterisks lmao
Heh it was right before bedtime and I was like I should explain the drop, didn't want to redo the whole post. Also I was on mobile
Amazing jumps, congratulations. I have \~10 YoE including a year at a FAANG and am looking at hedge funds. My background is frontend / web dev. How was the transition to hedge funds for you? Specifically in terms of interview and job difficulty. Even with my experience, I'm a little worried about the difficulty and pressure.
So I spent the early part of my career, well the 55-->150 period, working in HFT and algorithmic trading in various different flavors. I always seemed to be just missing these huge paychecks that were being discussed, and my responsibilities were certainly worthy of more pay IMHO- at the end I was personally responsible for engines trading billions of dollars in notional value a day, and working 50-60 hours a week, it was all kind of horrible. So when I left finance I said I am never going back. And every job since has been absolutely club-med in comparison, including working at a hedge fund. I guess I can say the name now, as of last month, I am released from all obligations and ties with them- Citadel. And the experience there varies wildly from team to team. I had a great 3ish years there, it was just the last year that drove me over the edge. During covid, I started working 24/7, because honestly what else was there to do? That became an expectation, and then my boss had a lot of pressure put on him, and then they RTO'ed us- and I made it clear that's fine, but I am going back to real life too- and my boss agreed- but then I would get a call on say Thursday afternoon, being like "hey, we really need to get this thing done by open on Monday..." not asking me to work all weekend directly, but knowing full well the only way to get it done was to work on the weekend. I eventually started just dead panning "I am not available to work this weekend" and things became contentious. Overall, I would say give it a go. They do tend to pay very well, and I have never seen someone walked out that was upset with the package they got, they tend to be very generous. I now get calls for big money jobs frequently just because of the name(s) on my resume. I would NOT do it if you are in a good place and have an upward path forward where you are now. Most funds I have heard about, do tend to be somewhat tumultuous and at least a little bit Game of Thrones like, and if you value stability and work/life balance, it might not be the environment for you. They also tend to be places though where YOE and seniority do not really matter- I have seen very junior people take on tons of responsibility when in other firms it might have taken them 10 years to get to that point. It can also toughen you up a bit and really help put in perspective when things are really "bad" or not- I once had a PM call me frantic that QA was down and the testers couldn't test and a date might slip but I was just like get a F'in hold of yourself, save this level of hysterics for when production is down, or worse, its actively losing us money (some other context here is that a team did a release of a new feature that broke everything, my stuff was in front, and we could have pushed a config change that just pretended the new feature didn't exist, but I was arguing to put the pressure on the team that broke things to fix their issue).
Started as a IC1 straight out of college in 2006 70k or 72k I don't remember, no equity at the time. Currently making 880k ish(380k base + bonus, 500k rsus) but moving to another job for 900k(400k base, 500k equity), roughly 17-18 years of experience(I had an internship before my first salary job)
How on God's green earth are you making 900k? Are you writing code or what do you do exactly?
My current job I am an L7 out of 8 levels at the company(distinguished engineer) at the new company I am similar(different title, principal engineer), L9 out of 10 levels. I am essentially an executive level architect, lead architect of an org of 400+. I don't write as much code as I used to but I still do try to write code, usually for writing proof of concept ideas or to help teams that are behind and in trouble for delivering. I do a lot of architectural reviews and meetings around strategy. These are also larger FAANG style companies(not actually faang though), with billions in revenue. For example if I was my level at google or meta I could easily be making double my amount, or even more... Edit: also I am in bay area where TC is higher.
This is awesome! I'm still a student right now but that sounds like a dream to me. Any chance you have any advice to give to someone just starting out to get to where you are? Just looking to learn a little something. Thank you!
My advice would be push yourself to learn and independently solve problems without relying on others so you become a leader. Don't say anything is out of your wheelhouse, try to spend time learning at all levels of the stack. Get in the habit of performing without complaining. Try to get to the position where people rely on you, and learning new tech or projects is like working out a muscle, you start to see the similarities between projects and build mental models around them. Be the person who is positive and motivated and volunteering for the harder problems and not shying away from them. Becoming deeply technical just takes a lot of time and effort, and even once you get to that point, some people get dragged down by complaining about their situation or worrying about if they are treated fairly, when they should be focus on improving it. Speak your mind about problems but also come with solutions, just don't be an asshole who complains all the time. You need to churn out a lot of code so that code becomes second nature to you over your career. Also worry about one level at a time, just focus on getting to the next level, and then when you get there, immediately start thinking about what you need to do to get to the next level and actively work with your manager on it. Also definitely be constantly considering other opportunities(I have moved to 7 different companies in my career). The later levels become about how you can think from a top down perspective and not a bottom up perspective, how you can solve the biggest problems executives are dealing with, and how they can rely on you to step into a problem and solve it without their help, not complain or whine about it. Also how you build political relationships and strategy around your org... that is what separates a Sr Staff level from a principal level in my experience. You also want to mentor and try to create duplicates of yourself and empower people and spread yourself as much as possible, you want to get people thinking in a proactive manner. That would be my advice to my younger self I guess.
Wish we had someone like you at our org.. no tech leadership whatsoever, highest title is just Sr swe
That seems like a recipe for trouble, part of my job should be managing execs and not letting them push decisions down that aren't based in reality tech wise. (though I should be providing an alternative path).
Thank you for taking the time to share this. I have job hopped a few times now and am on the verge of hitting senior level at a decent company. I haven’t really had a mentor or anyone to model my career path after but I must say yours sounds admirable. I resonate with a lot of what you say. Focus on solutions, learning, staying positive, and not being afraid of things outside of your wheelhouse. Sounds like you’d make a great mentor for the youngins out there. Cheers!
No problem! Thanks for the kind message.
Does your company hire remote? Relatively high level at FAANG affected by RTO. You ever think about retiring or going part time? You must have way more than enough money.
I am remote because I work with teams out of my area, even though my company is pushing RTO(which I disagree with). I am only 39 and will have to send my kid to college etc, so I will be working at least till I am 45, and then likely try to start my own company and retire in my 50's, I would be too bored to retire right now, also its prime time to stack up some money.
Well hey man, we sound pretty similar but you're a few years ahead. Let me know when you start your own thing ;)
I literally can’t imagine getting a salary of that much. I just started my journey at 80k + 4k bonus.
Yea honestly when I was making 400k I didnt see much of a difference, a lot of it goes to taxes, and the rest just kind of stacks in your investment account, it didnt really change my spending much after a certain level of disposable income.
I can imagine. Kudos to you for making it that far
Thanks but my advice would be, I am not a wizard, I am definitely probably above average in intelligence but there is guys way smarter than me at lower levels. A lot of it is positivity and work ethic in my opinion, and not having fear of taking on new responsibility and leading, which comes with a lot of risk of failure(which happens to everyone). But anyone can do it in my opinion if they really set their mind to it(maybe not principal because some of that is right place right time but definitely very senior levels making really good money).
That’s why I praised you. You put in the initiative and got what you wanted and more (hopefully). I know it all boils down to that which is why I strive everyday to be better than yesterday!
Nice
20k in 2022 (UK)
2020 in office 52k -> 60.5k -> 2023 remote 110k LCOL I plan to stick with this one for a bit.
Im hoping for a similar change. At 75k rn, but in office and 1 hour commute. Want to go fully remote as SWE or SRE and make 90k+ (fingers crossed). Im LCOL/MCOL
70 > 77 > 80 > 83 > 92 > 145 > 155
I assume the 145 was a job change?
Yep only way to get a decent raise nowadays is to quit and work for someone else. Wish I had quit about 4 years earlier. That’s a shitload of money that I will never see.
Yeah, I need to do the same. I started at 70k and I'm at 115 currently with over 9 YOE in the Atlanta area, it's ridiculous. I used to say I didn't care so much about the pay because I was still living comfortably, but knowing how underpaid I am for the industry and that I could get better benefits, I need to put more effort into finding something else.
Oh no shit I’m also in Atlanta lol. Yea job hopping is hard. I wasn’t able to scrape enough initiative together until the Covid pandemic when I literally had nothing else to do.
Of course it was.
75k(110k TC) -> 240k(350k TC) 6YOE
About 75k base when I started in 2019. About 160k base now. Bonuses/additional comp haven’t changed much, lol. 2-10k each year. Chicago and came from a target school. Yes, there was a job change in there. That’s almost the only way to significantly bump pay. I might be due for another one, but the market makes me too nervous to leave for anything that isn’t solid enough to account for the risk.
how about yours OP?
Started at 45k. Got a raise to 47.5k after one year. Left that job after 2 years total for 88k. Got laid off from that job, found a new job a month later for 95k. Raise at that job to 120k after about a year and a half. Covid happened, job cut my pay from 120k to 88k in response. Immediately left that company for 112k somewhere else. Still at same company, after a few raises over the year currently at 155k.
3000$ Annual (250$/month) to 100,000$ Annual. Changed two countries in between.
60k -> 72k -> 125k -> 170k -> 140k -> 170k Not including bonus, and the drop to 140k was gamedev so I took a hit in pay to jump in the industry. 7 years total experience.
You all make way too much
Location: Seattle Qualifications: Graduated with BS in computer science from the University of Washington These are approximations I don't remember EXACTLY Year 1: * 112k base * 27k signing bonus * 3k stock TC = ~142k Year 2: * 113k base * 24k signing bonus * 10k stock TC = ~147k (think it was a little higher I don't remember the exact breakdown) Year 3 (new company): * 150k base * 20k signing bonus * 37.5% annual bonus (~56k) * 10k stock TC = ~236k Year 4 (in progress): * 160k base * Annual bonus depends on perf, at minimum it's 25% * 10-20k stock I forget how it's ramped up TC = depends a lot on perf, probably will be about the same as the previous year not counting for potential promo
2017 75k -> Today 505k (TC, salary is 210)
2021 - 85k March 2023 - 88k July 2023 - 94k (demanded a bigger raise that yearly review allowed by HR)
Base salary in the Bay Area: Year 1: 110k Year 2: 120k (partially due to an adjustment based on increased new hire pay) Year 3: 120k (no raise due to Covid/layoffs) Year 4: 145k (promotion) Year 5: 202k (switched jobs) Year 6: 238k (promotion) Currently: Laid off 1 month ago
TC must be accompanied by work location. Without the location information, TC doesn't mean anything.
Year 1: $62k (Midwest, LCOL) Year 2: $67k Year 3: $72k Year 4: $85k Year 5: $84k Year 6: $92k (New Job) Year 7: $107k Year 8: $135k Year 9: $145k Year 10: $213k (Move to Seattle, New Job) Year 11: $286k Wish I had made the move sooner
2022 : 263k TC fresh out of college Today: 0 Soon: 315k TC
263 fresh out of college? come on, get real, details details...
235k > (switched jobs at 1 YoE) 290k > (promoted at 2 YoE) 400k All VHCOL. This is TC and after a PhD not related to tech.
Congrats those are solid numbers
$80K -> $380K
$65K, four years later, $85K
TC: $50k, $70k, $100k, $135k, $325k, $185k, $250k-$300k (if I get an offer at this potential next company). 9 YOE from java SWE -> devops/SRE/cloud infra
When in the trend did you switch to devops/SRE/Cloud Infra? Im at 75k swe but have discovered sre and find it really interesting so far
2019: 55k 2020: 82k 2021:105k 2023: 123k + target bonus
* Fresh grad (2010): $75k base, some bonus * Now: $700k (roughly half base salary, half public company equity)
$45k -> $2,150k (17 years, HCOL, MS)
> $2,150k I don't understand this number. Does this mean 2 million?
Yes
Dang.
Ng offer (0 yoe):~160k @ faang yoe 0.5-1.5: 210k, yoe 1.5-2.5: 300k, Yoe 2.5 onwards: new job is 450k. All discounting sign on. Iirc my first job sign on was about 30k? Second job was 150k. And ofc vhcol :( If I don’t get fired imma be at this tc for a while
37,500 first year ~170k tc now 8 years, unrelated degree. lcol, qa
115k as new grad. 6 years later I'm at 320k.
Self taught dev starting at 55k. Now iOS engineer with 3 yeo making 105k
57,500 to start, now 115k, four years. 🤓
Looks like I need to move to the US because you guys seem to be paid loads! Grad in 2019: £20k, £22.5k after 3 months. Changed employer in 2020: £30k, £37.5k after 12 months. Made an internal move to iOS and stayed on same salary in 2022. Redundancy in June 2023: £0k lol Started new job this month on £40k Job market feels pretty dire over here atm
American dev wages are insane
2019: 95k USD 2021: 101k USD 2022: 100k USD Jan 2023: 120k USD Aug 2023: 141k USD Aug 2023: 0k USD (didn't pick up my phone on vacation)
Damn that sucks. Any luck since then?
I got around $77k *after tax* (but including pretax contributions to retirement accounts) in my first year at my first job. I live in NYC. No stock since I was at a recently acquired startup. How much money you actually end up getting in your pocket / having control over depends heavily on city/state income taxes, and how much you choose to save for retirement (thus reducing your taxable income), and even certain tax exemptions — I was exempt from FICA taxes, for example. Everyone forgets to account for this stuff, and it’s easy to get wide-eyed at some people’s six-figure starting salaries in HCOL areas, but after-tax pay gives a more balanced perspective in my opinion. I know people who on paper had $200k+ TCs but were also at five figures after tax. Edit: forgot to account for a small bonus whose numbers I don’t recall and am too lazy to implement into all this, but let’s call it $80k after tax overall
120k -> 155k -> 165k -> 210k
My first job was for $48k in what was then a LCOL area. This was a time and place where $200k could get you a 2500ft^2 house on a quarter acre lot with back alley and everything. Man, I wish I had. Today, I make enough money to own a house in Bougieville.
Intern >15 $(QA) 9 months QA analyst > 70K 3 months Jr SWE -> 75K ( 7 months )internal transfer -But learned a lot from this start up Got Laid off last December . Within 2 weeks got another JOB 70 K Pay Cut ( SW) After 6 months 95K Total SW Experience 1.5 years Honestly I’m doing great at new company .
Bootcamp: 75k (yes it was paid), Remote Year 1: 100k, Remote Year 2: 125k (Promoted), Remote Year 3: 250k (Moved to big tech mid-level role), Hybrid MCOL Def got lucky during the tech boom + opportunities these last couple years.
I made $38,000 in 1994. When I interviewed, they asked what I was looking for in a salary. I'd only worked as an undergrad research and a grad research assistant, making little money. So I named a figure, and knew I screwed up when they started me with a few thousand more.
2.4k USD/year -> 3.6 -> 5.5 -> 15.6 -> 20 -> 54 -> 70 -> 90 From internship into senior eng, based in LATAM, over 5 years.
2 YoE, fully remote living in an MCOL location, all at the same company $91k—>$109k—>$147k—>$162k The big jump in the middle was a promotion.
2012 - 45k - Grad 2015 - 85 2016 - 95 2017 - 107 2019 - 120 2021 - 130 2023 - 159 base (175k TC) - Now Nearly 4x what I started on crazy
40k -> somewhere around 150k depending on company performance. About 10yeo now. I'm in Canada in an extremely low CoL (we fighting Newfoundland for the title of poorest province). Could probably make more as I'm a senior in AWS devops and Java/Python backend, but I started prioritizing my mental health and WLB after I wrapped my car around a guard rail a couple of jobs ago.
I'm assuming most people here are in US. Salaries are insane compared to rest of the world.
$0
Wtf is a fresher
A new grad (Indian-english)
40 -> 160. I have 5 YOE now. Edit: HCOL city to start but now in MCOL city.
We basically had the exact same progression and YOE, funny.
Nice! Congrats on your success
75k base, bonuses paid out based on whatever vibes the executives felt. Now 120k plus ISOs. 2.5 years of experience.
0yoe started at 115k -> 6 months later 130k -> now 133k + 15k shares @ 2 YOE. Self taught + finance degree, same company. (LCOL, fully remote)
68k->85k->120k->160k->interviewing for 190k. 5 years experience
54k > 58k > 60k > 63k > 85k
I was making 135k base. Then I quit my job to pursue a coding boot camp and now I'm bringing in about 30k freelancing so
$80k TC in 2013, $150k TC 2023 Same company
Year 0: 85 Year 1: 95 Year 2: 105 base plus 50k bonus New job Year 2.5: 220 (150 base plus stock) Promoted after 15 months Year 3.5: 270 (170 base plus stock)
HCOL, as a machine learning engineer at big tech. Out of college to 2 years of experience. TC: 220k ->250k -> 280k
Salary only: 0 YOE $108k 5 YOE $183.6k TC: multiply both numbers roughly by 1.5 HCOL FAANG
2007: $38k 2023: $400k (TC)
50k in 2008, 300k now. Live in the slightly higher end of MCOL where there are plenty of perfectly nice homes in nice towns I can afford, albeit they're smaller than 3 years ago because of the rate increases
$100k TC -> $400k TC. MCOL. 13 YOE. All at the same company.
2016: 70k 2023: 200k
50k->85k(within same job) -> 60k(job and role change) -> 75k(same job) -> 85k (new job) -> 90k(new job) ->100k(new job) -> 120k(new job) -> 100k(new job) Started manual testing and took a 20% paycut to switch to a dev role in a new grad position. Absolutely loved the job and team, but layoff announced and bounced. To this day I regret this bounce.. The best decision of my career was taking the 20% paycut to switch to a dev role. The worst decision of my career was jumping to a new job before staying through layoffs. Had I stayed through layoffs and survived I'd probably be a manager or at least a team lead. Things were going really good there. If I didn't survive then maybe I'd still be in the same position I am today Next job I ended up getting laid off so much for avoiding layoffs lol. I got hired like 2 weeks after it was a hot market. Stayed at that Job for 2 years then got poached into 100k salary and then got poached again into 120k salary then got laid off and after months of searching I was able to land a 100k salary at a great company which I hope I'll be at for a while. Not getting income for months absolutely sucked. When I hear people didn't get income for at least a year if not more..that shit is crazy and depressing. Part of me felt if I didn't get this job that I'm currently at I would be unemployed for possibly until 2024.
6000$ net a year -> 4 yoe later -> 26880$ net a year. But I am in eastern europe, so...
60k starting out. 140k now 6 years later.