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Comment by pbharrin | Hacker News Reader

The fact that he didn't have to complete high school, (he does have a GED) to get a job at Booz paying $200k/year should be speak to his intelligence. I know people with graduate degrees from Harvard that made less than that at the same company.

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Yes, this is something that should be mentioned more and stated loud and clear.

I gather he was also a CIA employee, which is not granted to everyone and which -I guess- is subject to deep scrutiny by the very government...

Unless the CIA is just like in the films: a bunch of retarded authocrats.

Booz says it is a much more plausible 122K: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/06/11/contractor-um-snowden-d...

ADDED: or The Guardian could have goofed, 122K in GB Pounds is 190K in US$.

A comment to the item I noted he'd only worked for Booz for 3 months.

GlassDoor says that BAH pays IT consultant bonuses up to $75k for some: http://www.glassdoor.com/Bonuses/Booz-Allen-Hamilton-Bonuses...

Plus the base salary won't include COLA allowances. Both pieces of data could be correct.

There is probably truth on both sides. Intelligence work is well funded by the government. Most government contracting companies hire at salary, but pay by the hour. So, if he was working a lot of overtime, he could have expected to bring in 200K for the coming year.

In my experience they really hate to pay overtime, instead, you must put down exactly 40 hours per week. Any less and they can't bill the government the full normal maximum, any more and they have to pay time and a half or more, which the government generally doesn't go for.

Actually, they love to pay overtime and the government doesn't care as long as they have money to spend. Their budgets are mandated by law. A government contractor can cost upwards of $200 an hour for a senior level engineer. Typically $140 an hour for level 2 and 3 engineers. Anyway, the company takes a huge cut off the top and leaves $50 to $70 an hour for the employee, their benefits, and payroll taxes. So, the more overtime they work, the more money the company gets to pocket.

122k is probably the salary. Firms like this often pay discretionary bonuses that can range from 30-60% of base rate pay, often based on company profit sharing. If Booz had a good year and it was toward the upper end of that range, 200k is not far off. For reference I knew several people at various management consulting companies a few years ago who would start off with base pay of 60-70k but had annual bonuses of 30k+.

I am not familiar with BAH's actual compensation scheme though.

> The fact that he didn't have to complete high school, (he does have a GED) to get a job at Booz paying $200k/year should be speak to his intelligence.

Alternatively, I'd read the smear this way: A guy who could not even finish high school could do this much damage to the NSA, which speaks to how broken the leadership is there. Many heads should roll.

A guy who could not even finish high school

A GED doesn't imply they couldn't finish. It demonstrates they didn't finish. Nothing more.

Fair enough, but my bigger point is:

<insert smear here> could do this much damage. Well you guys hire him and you fucked up, so I'm holding your butts accountable. Clearly you can't control the surveillance monster you created.

It speaks to his ability and/or issues with the explosion of government work done by private contractors. Both can be true.

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