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Comment by soulnothing | Hacker News Reader

Honest question has anyone else seen salary decreases. I peaked at ~190k w2 contractor so no benefits. But after death march after death march and canceled projects. I got down to ~105. One of my biggest stress right now is due to money. Contributed to by a foreclosure that has a monthly payment. I've been east and west coast and tried FAANG, but unless I waited the vesting it was a drastic pay cut, and the midst of the foreclosure I needed hard cash. I keep on looking at my career and wondering what I did wrong.

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I have. My gross is now about one-third of what it was a few years ago. Briefly, a really ugly divorce that I didn't see coming pretty much sucked the life out of me.

I'm inferring that you have a family to support. (If it's just you, I'd seriously consider declaring bankruptcy.) I can relate. For what it's worth, this can be the lot of men in our society. I don't think it's an indication that you did anything wrong. Good luck.

It is just me and bankruptcy was the way forward. Im amazed at how much harder it is to climb out after.

My condolences on the divorce. I wasn't married but went through something similar. And know that suck the life feeling.

I agree with your last sentiment. Alot of the career seems to be luck or right time right place. I know a number of phenomenal engineers in similar positions.

Most FAANGs pay well even without vested stock, Amazon in particular relies heavily on stock for compensation but provides bonuses the first couple of years to compensate.

What does vested stock mean exactly? You can't sell until after a certain period? If so, how long is that period?

Vest means you sign on you get 40 shares, but they become available over a delayed period. 5 vest in the first year 5 in the second 10 in the third 10 in the fourth

Vest means become available to sell or trade. You are also given stocks at bonus time. Encouraging you to stay around.

A certain number of shares of stock are set aside for you. When they "vest", that means you get them.

The vesting schedule varies, but probably the most common arrangement is that you get 1/4 of the shares per year for the next 4 years. Often you get nothing until you've been there for a year, then get a whole year's worth of stock in one big lump sum, and then get smaller amounts more frequently thereafter.

In the US, the stock is taxed as ordinary income on the day you get it. If its price goes up before you sell it, you also pay capital gains tax on the change in price that happened while you were holding it. (I sell all my stock immediately on general principle, so my capital gains taxes are tiny.)

I had made a comment in another thread, where I think my education hurt me, associates. I took about a 50K pay cut up front to go a FAANG. That came with a demotion as well. So I can see the pay cut not equaling responsibility. But I was in a immediate position and didn't have a choice to say no.

Given the numbers you mentioned (190k peak) this doesn't sound right at all. Was that software engineering in the Bay Area?

Philadelphia to Seattle.

Philly Team Lead Architect @ 185k w2 contract with health insurance and a week of PTO

Seattle System Admin -> 115K (There was an intent to promote, but we didn't agree on my career path).

It's not so much compensate as much as it is structuring their comp so that they can get away with never actually giving you a raise.

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