5 ms·

Currently making ~$300k/year in total comp. 31 years old. 5 years of experience as a hardware engineer, and 2 years as a software engineer (back-end). Master'

by throwaway198511 10y ago

Currently making ~$300k/year in total comp. 31 years old. 5 years of experience as a hardware engineer, and 2 years as a software engineer (back-end). Master's degree from Stanford. Practice hackerrank, cracking-the-coding-interview, read a programming/architecture book every few months, till you can ace programming interviews and understand your field really well. Living in NYC, where the financial companies have driven comp levels really high for software-engineers. Working at a big-4 software company. Currently at my 4th company. Interview and negotiate aggressively at many different places every time you switch, so you can get 20-40% increases. Don't know how much this helped me, but do a side-project and blog about your experiences.

toephu2 10y ago
what's your base salary?
- bsvalley 10y ago
  probably $150k like everyone else :) If you're base salary is $200k and you only have $100k stock/RSU's, then there's a problem somewhere...
HeavenBanned 10y ago
>financial companies >do a side-project I'm trying to make a unique programming side-project that would get me in the door with financial companies.
i_r7al 10y ago
Do you mind if we contact? I just graduated from school with hardware engineering degree and experience on software engineering. I would love to have a conversation with someone who is ahead on my field and can tell me more on how to improve. You can reach me on twitter same username if you will. Thank you.
rainhacker 10y ago
> NYC, where the financial companies have driven comp levels really high for software-engineers I disagree, majority of financial firms see tech employees aka 'IT' workers as a cost center. After '08 there is a major focus on cost cutting as overall industry is not doing well. With the exception of a few high risk and small (few 100 people) hedge funds you barely would see someone with 5-7 years of experience touching 200k salary.

toephu2 10y ago

what's your base salary?

bsvalley 10y ago
probably $150k like everyone else :) If you're base salary is $200k and you only have $100k stock/RSU's, then there's a problem somewhere...

HeavenBanned 10y ago

>financial companies >do a side-project I'm trying to make a unique programming side-project that would get me in the door with financial companies.

i_r7al 10y ago

Do you mind if we contact? I just graduated from school with hardware engineering degree and experience on software engineering. I would love to have a conversation with someone who is ahead on my field and can tell me more on how to improve. You can reach me on twitter same username if you will. Thank you.

rainhacker 10y ago

> NYC, where the financial companies have driven comp levels really high for software-engineers I disagree, majority of financial firms see tech employees aka 'IT' workers as a cost center. After '08 there is a major focus on cost cutting as overall industry is not doing well. With the exception of a few high risk and small (few 100 people) hedge funds you barely would see someone with 5-7 years of experience touching 200k salary.