Example: Netflix (+200k/y base salary with no extra)
Right now software engineers with AI and Deep Learning experience or Big Data experience are in demand and they can easily clear 200k.
Outside of the US a base salary of 200k less common, but still possible for senior software engineer type roles, or more commonly for CTO or Director of Engineering level roles.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/01/12/googl...
I guess you could spend your money that way. $200k is considered affluent, at least around Texas. I imagine it's not really a lot if you live out on the west coast.
This does not mean that you are jet setting around the world either or that you can quit your job tomorrow, but you are well on your way to Financial Independence/Retire Early, and probably a fat one at that.
$200k salary alone is solidly middle class.
For posterity, if you did this for 30 years you'd have over $8MM and a SWR of over $320k/yr.
As another posted mentioned, if you invest it is widely considered what you should have as a target for your average (some years better, some years worse)
Haha.
$200k isn't as much as people make it out to be. It's enough to not worry about monthly commitments, but it's not enough for much else. A new construction home in a middle class part of Dallas runs $700k, or $3300/month + another $13k in tax = $50k annually. Add your 5-Series for $500/month for another $6000. Plus insurance. Meh.
And as I said before, at $200k, you can utilize a 401(k).
While I was in law school and my girlfriend was in medical school, we were pretty damn broke and racking up debt. That was miserable.
Fast forward. I start working, and she is a resident. We're making $200k combined and it's a struggle. Student loan debt allowed us to realize these salaries, but they also inhibit financial growth. Trust me, there were no luxurious purchases or apartments.
And then ... I brokered a deal that netted me 8-figures and paid off all debt, bought a house, etc. The end.
For others making $200k while paying off student loan debt, the struggle is real. You'd be able to considering focusing on retirement after 10, 15, or even 30 years of student loan repayment. But I figure that the LAST thing a person would want to do is willingly continue to divert large sum of income to future financial well being after so many years of pinching.
I'm talking about +200K/y base salary, no stocks, bonuses etc.
This is three promotions for a new grad software engineer to reach this level, but if you are good, it is reasonable to get 3 promotions in 9 years. I assume other companies pay comparably at this level of seniority.
Also, Staff engineer at google = at least 8 years working at google as an engineer (while being a rock star over there). What if you join google now with 10 years of exp? Would you make $200k base salary? Not sure...
Also, I don't think it is unreasonable for someone with the equivalent experience of 8 or 9 years at Google to get hired as a Staff Software Engineer. Of course, this is ultimately dependent on how well you perform in your interviews and the hiring committee.
Anyway, if you only care about cash compensation rather than bonuses or stock, Netflix is where you want to go: https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Netflix-Senior-Software-Eng.... Their compensation package is basically all cash, no stocks, no bonus or anything like that. Note that Netflix hires all software engineers as "Senior Software Engineers": https://jobs.netflix.com/jobs
For every person earning 200k base there are many people earning 150k base. And with 150k base + bonus + stock you still end up with 250k in total compensation. We engineers got a good thing going here.
Typically 10+ years experience and a some specific experience we felt was relevant to the team.
The problem is that housing so much expensive there that it's not clear it's actually worth it.
To put it another way, salary isn't the important thing. It's salary minus expenses, adjusted for local cost of living (really just another form of expenses). While maximizing income is good, cutting your expenses is far more useful (and easier) once your income is high enough: https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/08/living-below-your-me...
You can't ignore stocks because they will often cap your base salary and pay the rest in stocks. For example, a VP at one of these may have their annual compensation at $X,XXX,XXX per year but only receive $1XX,XXX in base salary. This is true for developers as well, but the ratio of base to total compensation is skewed more towards base compared to a VP.
Also note that there are some very distinguished engineers at these companies whose role isn't people or business manager who would receive as much as, and sometimes more than, a highly compensated VP.
Salary is much more straightforward, and more predictable.
The hot new thing is to do continuous vesting with annual refreshes. That way you're constantly accruing and the only time you can't exit is during company blackouts.
Obviously market demand does influence the salary, but there are many fields in software development where top skill will command this wage. Generally though, you have to really love what you specialize in to develop the kind of skill and expertise that will earn you this salary, it is not something you do by rote.
Though, at that level it is extremely competitive, and you will be working on solving some extremely challenging problems that you would never encounter outside the government contracting industry.
You can also work for high end service agencies, or startups, or if you want to make way more then that financial institutions would be a good start. Though note, the pace is very fast in many of those companies and the hours may not be worth the large sums of money you will get paid for putting them in if you cannot handle stress very well.
Would you mind explaining what this is? You've mentioned that twice in this thread and it's something I've never heard before.
I think you're supposed to use it to refer to people who are evaluated by their own work output as opposed to measuring the output of a team (even though I think for senior engineers it's totally valid to evaluate whether they're boosting the team and nudging them towards better solutions).
Experience is necessary for that base, but not sufficient though. Have you built a good product? Are you a top notch engineer? Can you pass a facebook/google type interview? If yes, you can demand. In the worst case, you can get a fat RSU package, and a fat sign on bonus, even if you are offered $170K base.
$200k RSUs on signing, with the expectation of yearly top-ups. Not sure what the cash bonus will be, haven't been here long enough to find out.
10000% possible in management, sales and executive positions.
That's my observation anyway. That's also the reason why I'm making the move into this territory.
200k$ base salary
50k$ performance bonus
1% ISOs (after considering dilutions. Company is ~1y post Series B)
- age: 29 base: ~150k, RSU package: 1.8M negotiated upon joining (4y vesting)
- age: 34 base: ~250k, RSU package: 3M, same terms
Both are very solid individual contributors, smartest guys in my personal network for sure.
It's really not hard to believe. Another acquaintance of mine works at a very big Hadoop startup here in the bay (guess name) as a product manager, and her total compensation is around 350k a year. It's not surprising to have a very solid engineer get some multiple of that.
Also, I can personally testify how important negotiating the offer is. I routinely (every ~2y) interview to discover my market value and, from a position of power (e.g. "Well I'm happily employed at the moment so the incentive has to be good" or "I have a higher offer"), is very easy to negotiate additional stocks. I've been able to improve the offer by a good $100k yearly RSUs (!!) just by negotiating with HR. It also helps that I kind of like the process (I'm that weird person who gets thrilled by buying a new car and making a car salesman lose his patience by constantly asking a better offer and absolutely be ready to leave if it doesn't happen)
How do you respond when they insist on knowing your comp details?
The only case where it can be beneficial to disclose something about your compensation is if you have deferred compensation (e.g. stock options) that you want your potential new employer to somehow consider in the offer. In that case, sharing a copy of the grant is the easiest thing to do, and doesn't hurt much
Do you postpone comp-talk until an offer is on the table? Or is it safe to assume that large companies generally have an extremely elastic range?
Do you think it's a good idea say something like "If you can offer $OBVIOUSLY_EXTREMELY_HIGH, i will immediately accept. For lesser offers, i will evaluate them on a case by case basis."
Did you ever read Chaos Monkey? (https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Monkeys-Obscene-Fortune-Failure...)
The author was a founder of a very little startup (3-men shop) and after 6 months tried to approach Facebook to be acquired, and Facebook told him: we don't want your technology, but since you have proven to be capable of building something exceptional, we want you to join (and you can throw away your product), and we'll offer you $2-3M (don't recall the exact number) in RSUs with a 4y vesting schedule, which he clearly accepted.
Now, those "acqui-hires" happen all the time among those big companies. Since the acquiring company is clearly not interested in the product but just in the talent, how is that different than getting in the door as a really solid individual contributor with terrific experience in getting stuff done (of course, your resume and interview skills need to reflect that, and also, probably even more importantly, your negotiation skills). You can choose to not believe me, but the answer is that there is no difference at all.
If you live in the valley, I can't believe you don't have an acquaintance who followed exactly the path of being individually "acqui-hired" as a talented individual contributor (but not being part of a real acquisition, mind you), which is exactly what happened to my two friends described above (no direct reports, purely technical gig). They are very very good in their fields and managed to sell themselves very well to the right teams inside those big companies.
10 years experience. Cloud / Security background. Finance Infra job.
Here => https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses?revenue=Over%20%2425...
If you read their individual stories, you will find that 8 or 9 out of 10 started as a side-project.
Here => https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses?revenue=Over%20%2425...
If you read their individual stories, you will find that 8 or 9 out of 10 started as a side-project.
Also not all are 200K. But like OP says, if you have a $140K job and not having to work your ass off like the $200K jobs expect you to, then you can make the extra $60K in a well thought out and executed side-project.
You could create mobile apps, informational web sites that generate Google traffic, niche SaaS services, a YouTube channel in a popular topic, sell physical goods on Amazon, open an Etsy store.
Ideas are the easy part, especially if you already have an expertise in some area. The hard part is the five years of building.
Full of profitable side-projects => https://www.indiehackers.com/
You need
1) Discipline
2) A side-project that solves a "pain point" or atleast alleviates some of the pain in "pain point", so you can monetize from day 1
3) Ship, and refine.