A few quick thoughts: > "I don't care about salaries persay, but I do care about being valuable." You should care about salaries, even if you don't care about

A few quick thoughts: > "I don't care about salaries persay, but I do care about being valuable." You should care about salaries, even if you don't care about salaries. Yeah that sounds insane, but salary is a signal for ability. It probably shouldn't be, but hey, I didn't make these crazy rules. Having a high salary opens doors to many interesting jobs doing really interesting work. For a long list of (very unfair) reasons, someone making $300k gets taken more seriously than someone making $100k (even at companies that can't afford you!). So yes, you're right about working with great mentors, at great companies, and with great teams - but you should also focus on getting paid more. They're all tied up together and each contributes to the others. As to how to break into the cycle of high salaries -> high impact work -> higher salaries -> higher impact work... That's a good question. Joining one of the AppAmaGooFaceSoft big corps is one way about it - the hiring processes at these companies are less network-reliant than many other jobs, and all are famous enough that it massively opens the door to further work. I had the good luck of starting my career at Amazon, which opened many doors. (I also had the great luck of not staying at Amazon)