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Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

In other news, if you aren't in the valley or working for one of the big tech companies, you're probably making 100-150K as a mid/senior developer. There's a pretty sizable leap.

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Yeah I just wrapped up a job search m after hearing how hot the market was. 5YOE, in a relatively large state with a shockingly weak martlet. The highest number I heard was around 140k. I did have some Amazon recruiter reach out, which potentially would have been higher, but I cannot relocated atm, and they would not offer a high enough relocation bonus.

Just a few observations from my job search.

1) I was targeting remote roles, but almost every recruiter that reached out was local, at least to the state I was in. This probably greatly affected the numbers available to me. Again, Amazon was the exception.

2) Basically all of the jobs I applied to directly either screened me out or never got any response. This makes sense, as I very much find myself stuck in the “enterprise” world, and even worse the legacy section of it, and the only companies that are interested in me are those. I attempted to put some non-work projects on my resume, but people are uninterested in those even in interviews.

I ended up settling once more (I really didn’t want to settle again, but it would take too long to even figure out my way out of this issue) for $121k with even that being a significant increase over my current comp (non-tech too 100 F500 company local to the area)

Probably but not necessarily. Don't aspire to be most software engineers if you don't want to get paid like most software engineers haha.

I'll add a data point. I live in a 90 COL index city(I don't live in a 90 area though) and will clear >300k this year total cash comp at a non-FAANG company working remote. Earlier this year I had a 200k base salary offer for a staff full stack eng role at a startup(that just raised a bunch of money). The money is out there.

How many YOE do you have? Any suggestions for finding these re mote jobs?

Well, just about everyone is hiring remote now.

I have some general advice and that is perception is reality. Starting with the resume and focusing on outcomes and value add actions taken, to talking the talk in interviews for the next position. Adopt patio's mindset. I'm not a "programmer". Programming is one tool I use to create value for the business. I have other tools and perhaps the most valuable of which is my mind; decision making.

Anecdote; I am leaving my company for smaller pastures but I turned down that staff pos I mentioned. I'm starting at a new place but was a bit lazy during the interview process with selling myself(was only talking to a couple places and was going to take time off if I didn't find a place I was interested in). Got low balled, maybe under leveled, and took the job anyway haha. I'm a staff full stack at one company worth 200k base, but perhaps not here. Perception is reality.

P.S. I'm also just really lucky in many regards. I got really early(just after high school) resume and business thinking advice from a good friend who is an MBA, for one.

How much experience do you have and what sort of work do you do?

I generate value by solving business and user problems.

11 years of experience in roles where I applied software engineering to problems.

Agreed, there are plenty of people, clearly, that are doing significantly better. My data comes from my own experience, and it may vary. I have been in management, and with that I had access to comp information for a variety of engineers in our organization located at offices across the U.S. I also have a network of former coworkers and friends throughout the Pacific Northwest and we share (roughly, not specifics) how we're doing for comp.

I'm getting old enough to worry about ageism myself (mid-40s) and my total comp is just a bit over 200K this year. That's not bad for Portland, but when I see the numbers tossed about on HN it makes me want to take Facebook up on their interview requests. Probably amount to nothing, but I'm thinking I really ought to open up and start renewing my interview experience before it gets any harder.

Yeah no kidding. I was shocked at the numbers in this article. A 15-year engineer in aerospace gets you ~120k.

I'm not surprised. I'm guessing the aerospace industry is relatively stable in size (we don't suddenly need a lot more planes, spacecraft, or weapon systems than in the past), so employers in that industry don't need to offer big compensation packages to lure away scarce employees from competitors in order to enable that growth.

I would guess the opposite. There is a ton of new stuff going into space, and by a larger variety of organizations than in the past.

from talking to friends I think its more that there are really only 2-3 viable employers in the US, so there is little option to jump ship for higher salary. This keeps salaries artificially low. For example a friend of mine worked at raytheon, jumped to lockheed for a raise, back to raytheon for another raise, and then back to lockheed. You can only do that so many times before companies stop hiring you. Whereas in my field (IT consulting) there are an almost infinite amount of small companies to work for

There is a lot more to aerospace than just the primes (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics). There are thousands of smaller companies that produce the parts and services that are used for the big projects.

I've seen fpga engineers pull down $150k

Real drought of senior talent in that area

A lot of the fpga talent is going towards Finance and ML companies nowadays from what I have seen, that's probably causing the salaries to bump up in non finance world.

I don't know if this was anomalous, but I was making a smidge more than that in the aerospace industry with 5 years experience

what region, if you don't mind me asking?

Los Angeles area

At my first job in financial software, one of my coworkers was an MIT-grad aeronautical engineer with ~5 years experience in aerospace, ~6 months software. He took a pay cut (though not much of one - I think he went from about $90K -> $75K) to get into finance, because aeronautical engineering doesn't really pay you enough money to have a decent life in the Boston area. Within 2 years he'd jumped ship to a hedge fund and was making about double his aerospace salary.

And people wonder why we don't make things in the U.S. anymore...

Coincidentally I currently work in aerospace (in a software engineering role) and I have 15 years experience.

I wish I made $120k/year.... :(

Makes me wonder if it’s worth it to just say fuck it and leave software development for some other mediocre paying field I have interest in.

Sure, there’s probably gonna be big financial hit in some form, but I don’t see a good reasons to stay in software development anymore if I’m not someone who can command the massive salaries.

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