Ask HN: How do you negotiate to get $100k/year as a SE? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you negotiate to get $100k/year as a SE?

I'm a software developer for more than 5 years now, the majority of the projects I worked web software and currently working for an outsourcing company working with US clients. I'd like to know how I'll be able to negotiate to get >= $100k/year of salary, despite me located and based in SEA? Thanks!

View on HN

(Personal capacity.)

SEA = Southeast Asia in this context?

Try to get hired into finance or directly by a US company which considers software crucial to their business, and give the company cause to believe they are reasonably in competition with other companies in that set during your recruiting process, so that they pull out their non-local pay scale. My ambient impression from knowledge of a few hiring markets in Southeast Asia is that $100k is either relatively high or prohibitively high on the local scales; this is materially untrue of software engineering for companies in the target set these days, but they are happy to economize at their non-US offices if they think they can get away with it. (Reporting, not endorsing.)

After that, standard advice for salary negotiation applies, but that's probably both the most impactful single thing you can do and about all that is necessary to hit $100k, since that's effectively below the floor for starting salaries in software engineering in the set of companies described above.

(At least some companies in that set hire engineers based in Southeast Asia.)

If you want to make $100,000 from anywhere you need one skill, sales. Learn how to sell. Read and watch everything you can on selling.

I recommend you start with "How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients" by Jerrfey J. Fox.

Also learn how to stop charging hourly for your services and see https://jonathanstark.com/

I have worked with several client organisations who use SEA based outsourcing companies. The main reason for their choice is the lower costs compared to using companies with staff based in Western Europe and USA.

So if you are already working for an outsourcing company that has clients in the USA, then you are most likely working for one of the more respected companies and thus probably earning near the upper end of the scale for your location. I doubt that your management will want to pay you more than they have to, no matter how good you are.

I am assuming that you mean USD100,000 p.a. not HKD. For that level of salary you will probably need to travel to countries where they do pay that much for your level of expertise. As @Annatar suggests, 5 years experience with web software, you probably won't be able to call yourself a senior SE in some markets.

You need to be a senior programmer: that means 20 - 35 years of experience. Provided you have that kind of experience you will easily be able to command that kind of a salary, although only in Western Europe and the United States. Writing from experience of working in both.

That’s basically table stakes for a senior engineer no? At that point you should ask for a bit more salary and a better bonus structure or RSUs

I actually think that we're underpaid since we live in a country where labor is cheaper even though we get more and more experience, we can't compete to get the same compensation as to the Western part of the world. How do you negotiate something like a raise that much even though there are these circumstances?

I don't understand your logic.

As a general observation, salaries reflect the costs of living. So given the exact same experience and qualifications a SE in San Francisco,CA will earn more than one in Little Rock,AK.

So living in SEA where labor is cheaper and living costs are lower than the USA, the salaries for SEs would also be lower.

Where is home? Maybe you compete for other things like better working hours, more work from home time, more vacation?

Philippines, I do work as a remote dev. Yes, we do have flexible hours but I still grind 40hrs/week.

You might be able to maximize your earnings going independent and becoming a contract worker.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com