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These threads always invite the outliers (i.e. those who want to humble brag). Here's mine outside Washington/California/Silicon Valley/NYC: - $40K: 2010-2013,

These threads always invite the outliers (i.e. those who want to humble brag). Here's mine outside Washington/California/Silicon Valley/NYC: - $40K: 2010-2013, "DevOps" at small startup. No ownership/shares. - $45-72K: 2014-Current, Programmer (various job titles) working for state's education department Even management here only make $90K capping out around $115K~. But cost of living is low. These threads never have people posting their boring salaries from low cost of living areas, I'm trying to buck that trend.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
pc86 8y ago
Low cost of living checking in, primarily due to food and housing, which are ~50% and ~15-20% of the Bay Area respectively. A <$950 mortgage payment for a house with a yard is a huge QOL boost. Started professional software dev in 2010 after freelancing for $45, raise/promotion to low $50's before getting a new job for $72, raise/promotion to high $70's before getting a new job for $98, promotion to $115 + 10% discretionary/performance bonus. All web development to start, last promotion put me in architecture/pseudo-management roles that includes more backend systems and integrations. Tech roles at my current job top out in the low to mid $130's + 10%, non-Exec management seems to be in the $125-185 range but obviously that info is pretty hard to get reliably. If you don't have any desires to be in management or architecture roles and you just want to be in your IDE coding all day, you can get to $90-100k reliably, and in this area that's enough to max out your 401k, a Roth IRA, and save. I'd love to move to a city and get companies on my resume that people have heard of outside of a 30 mile radius, but SF/NYC are nonstarters as they'd be a 50%+ effective pay cut, and even the less mainstream ones like Chicago, Boston, Dallas, San Diego would be 30% or more.
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  If you think you’re better than average, especially top quintile, then moving to a big city will offer so many more opportunities it will more than make up for the temporary pay cut or hit to quality of life. Of course this all depends on your goals and situation such as having dependents and age. But it could pay off big by giving you more chances to network, start businesses, meet a high income earning spouse, etc.
  - pc86 8y ago
    I do think I'm better than average (most people do, don't they?) but probably not top quintile. One thing stopping me from doing it is that I don't have any desire to start or run a business. I'd do a CTO role somewhere with profitability or funding, but not as a co-founder. Just not an interest of mine at this point in my life, 32, single no dependents.
kamarg 8y ago
Also in a pretty LoC area. 2007: $35k (First job out of school. I didn't know to negotiate better. Also my favorite job I've had) 2008: $60k 2012-2015: $80-$115k 2016-2017: $117.5k 2018: $100k + quarterly bonus based on company profits It's not crazy FAANG level income but the cost of living out here is low enough that I'm pretty sure I make out decently well in comparison.
neogodless 8y ago
Started out in a LCOL area (Central PA). Dropped out of Comp. Sci. program. ColdFusion -> ASP -> .NET (with lots of Web Development). All the different titles. But typically just a member of the team; not the team lead or architect. All figures W2 gross pay and 40 hour / week jobs (No on call, paid OT or I didn't play!) 1998-1999 $9/hr -> $13/hr 2000-2003 $27k -> $33k 2003-2006 $40k -> $50k 2006-2011 $55k -> $63k (nice job, raises not-so-much) 2012-2014 $75k, $72k, $80k (job hoppin' fool) Moved to a higher COL area (closer to Philly) 2014-2015 $88k -> $91k 2016-2017 $100k -> $103k Took first Corp-to-corp 1099 job 2017+ $160k
scarface74 8y ago
Also in an effort to counter the humble brag, here is my salary with the years changed slightly as not to dox myself. I’m also not in Washington/California/SV/NYC. I hope this also shows that the best way to make money is by frequent job hopping. My salary is about average for the area. 1995 - 2000 wanted to get out of the small town where I’m from and my best opportunity was based on an internship I had the year before as a computer operator. Soon they had a programming project and I was the only programmer they had. I was also in graduate school at the time - starting $10/hr - ending salaried at $35K. 2000 - 2007 Software Engineer mostly doing C/C++ — starting $52K ending $70K. The bonuses steadily were cut and the raises were abysmal 2008-2012 Software Engineer at a small company that went out of business. Mostly doing C# with a little C++. Starting $77K, Ending $84K 2012-2015 Senior Software (in reality a mid level .Net developer) - starting 90K, ending 93K 2015-2016 Full Stack Developer - mostly .Net with some Angular. Starting $115K - Ending $115K 2016-present “Architect” at a small company - starting 63hr (contract - I took it for the learning opportunity and there was a position that I was eyeing) - present $135K. Next on my agenda is to be an overpriced “implementation consultant”/“Digital transformation consultant”, etc. after my youngest graduates in 3 years.
dclowd9901 8y ago
Don’t shame people for making more money than others. The idea of this is we all see what we make. The outliers are making what we should all make.
- scarface74 8y ago
  It's not about shaming people. HN is full of West Coast FAANG SV employees who are outliers. It's easy for people to feel that their perfectly normal salaries are low.
  - xapata 8y ago
    On the positive side, if we all feel like our salaries are low, we'll collectively ask for more money. Don't be jealous, but do ask for a raise.
    - scarface74 8y ago
      Outside of Silicon Valley/NYC/DC, no one is going to pay your "full stack web developer", 200K. Full stack developers are a dime a dozen and you can outsource your typical CRUD Software As A Service app overseas or "rural source" it to Middle America.
      - C1sc0cat 8y ago
        Really capable of working at all 7 OSI layers :-) many "full stack" developers don't know that databases have a CLI.
        scarface74 8y ago
        That’s true. I’ve interviewed “full stack developers” who when you asked them to write a query they started writing C# Linq statements as if they were using Entity Framework. It only takes one of two steps above the average “full stack developer” to be the one eyed king.
      - 8y ago
ddevault 8y ago
I think I'm underpaid, but not grossly so. I earn $115,000/yr with 8 years of professional experience in Philadelphia. I have equity currently valued at ~$5,000. I also make an additional ~$10,000/yr in donations to my open source projects and an additional ~$5,000/yr through the occasional side gig. https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/pennsylvania/philadelphia https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/pennsylvania/... I started my career at $30,000 in Colorado Springs. https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/colorado/colorado_springs https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/colorado/colo...
- jpmoyn 8y ago
  Do you like your company? I'm also in philly but can't seem to find a cool company to work for (I have a software job as is but have been looking). The city feels somewhat dry of interesting software companies.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
    I do like it, yeah. Shoot me an email: sir@cmpwn.com.
- scarface74 8y ago
  I know that I’m “underpaid” based on what I could get if I were willing to trade a relatively stress free job to either be a team lead (been there done that) or work for a consulting company. If I made an extra 20K to 30K right now, it wouldn’t change my life significantly. I could reach a few long term goals quicker but I’m really in no rush.
- hoaw 8y ago
  > I think I'm underpaid, but not grossly so. I wouldn't necessarily call that underpaid. Being underpaid is when you have to choose between the present and the future. If you can both have good and sustainable living conditions, job security and pension with a decent margin you aren't generally underpaid as such. The exception being if your relative wage affects things worth caring about, like being valued by the people around you.
bowlich 8y ago
This thread's making me feel much better about my starting salary of $35k back in 2011. It always seemed to bug me, the nagging feeling that I had way under billed myself for the first two years of my career (looking at all the big salaries everyone was always claiming). My salary's pretty much followed the same progression that other's have posted for outside of the high-cost-of-living hubs.
- wernercd 8y ago
  I started at $21k in 2010 as a programmer * 2000-2005 USMC * 2005-2008 various (Unable to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up) * 2008-2010 A.A.S. Computer Information Systems * 2010-2015 Backend Developer, 21k => 50k * 2015-2016 DevOps/System Admin, State of Delaware 60k => 68k * 2016-2017 Backend .Net Developer, small company 70k => 85k * 2017-Pres Backend .Net Developer, major bank 100k I live in Delaware - in the sticks - and commute to Wilmington, DE. I probably make under market, but I'm limited on my relocation options and don't have a 4 year degree - so I'm happy with my current position.
  - chad_strategic 8y ago
    Nice to see another devil dog in the coding world. Don’t see it that often... Salaries are great, but my best job is still my most underpaid: USMC S/F
    - mcnichol 8y ago
      Oorah Devil, I think tech is a good world for us. Pure logic separating the emotion. My hard-headedness and willingness to sit in front of the problem longer than most civilian team members has given me a ladder to climb and respect without the degree. It's been hard but worth it. I miss the brotherhood but I feel life as software engineers in today's age, we have an opportunity to make just as much (and debatably more) impact although maybe not as directly as when we were in the streets overseas.
      - wernercd 8y ago
throwaway33441 8y ago
My path is one of the underappreciated hybrid: started in major metro (DC/NY/Boston) and moved to small town in the south after many years, finding good gigs offering remote work for DC-, NY-, and SF-based companies. Found a nice niche in security/ops/development in gov & healthcare tech. So, here goes: DB/Ops Engineering 1999: $60K base. Fresh out of masters program, large F50 DC gov tech firm (#1) 2001: $100K + $5K bonus. After building a successful practice area (still #1) Independent Consulting, Security Ops & DB Architecture 2002-3: $150/hr, ~$200K/year. Small, rapid-growth Boston healthcare company (#2) System/Security Architecture 2004-7: $150K base, $50K-$80K bonus. (full-time salaried at #2) 2008-12: $180K base, $10K bonus. Mid-sized DC gov tech firm (#3) 2012-14: $200K base, $20-40K bonus. Mid-sized DC gov tech firm (remote #4) Security Architecture/Product Security 2015: $150K base, $20K bonus. Startup (NYC, remote #5) 2016 - 2018: $200K base, $20K bonus, $100K options. Large tech (SF, remote #6) I know half a dozen co-workers (senior engineers or technical directors) whose net annual comp is also in the $300K range. It's not common, but if you're pulling <$100K with 6+ years experience in software or security engineering, you're getting screwed. (Throw away account, but happy to respond in thread; edited for formatting)
- el_benhameen 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing. After you (I assume) went remote while working for the same company, how did you go about getting new remote gigs at large tech companies? I’m remote now and would like to stay so, but I’m finding that companies that pay the sort of comp I’m looking for are often remote-averse.
  - throwaway33441 8y ago
    every job (literally every job) has been through networking. I have never had a successful outcome by submitting through the normal HR channels. To your specific question, introduced to people I met online and at conferences. If you're okay traveling a few weeks every quarter, there are lots of opps. Check out, e.g., ops or dev advocate roles at MSFT, Google, GitHub, Cannonical, et al
- lurker123 8y ago
commandlinefan 8y ago
> invite the outliers Yep, reading that guy's salary history almost made me want to go jump off the roof, but I figure he lives in CA and probably went to an "upper-echelon" college. Here's mine, from somebody who went to a college that didn't make the US News top 100: (Georgia) - 1992: $25,000 (Internship), mostly Cobol - 1995: Graduated with BSCS, no-name college, 3.5 GPA (Illinois) - 1995: $28,000 (got a raise to $35000, the only raise I've ever gotten without switching jobs), Cobol - 1996: $40,000, C++ (North Texas) - 1997: $50,000, C++ - 1998: $60,000, C++/Java - 1999: $100,000, Java - 2002: $100,000, Web programming/Java/Javascript ("lateral" job change, old company went out of business) - 2008: Graduated MSCS, sort-of-name college, 3.9 GPA - 2011: $120,000, Objective-C, iOS - 2014: $120,000, Java/Javascript (another "lateral" change) - 2018: $140,000, Java/Javascript
- jordache 8y ago
  Dude you do know who Zakas is right? The guy wrote so many advanced JS books, and is essentially a rockstart in the JS world. His compensation is actually less than I anticipated, given that he is in the bay area...
  - fdchn2017 8y ago
    I agree with you. His books on JavaScript are really great. They treat JavaScript as a first class programming language and not a scripting language and teach you from first principles without naming any of the bad actors in the JavaScript world and no biases. His Books are amazingly well written. I too am surprised how less he was paid compared to what I believe would be his calibre. The other interpretation would be that the absurd salaries that we hear of are the outliers and most very good engineers flatten out at around 200K USD
    - jordache 8y ago
      >The other interpretation would be that the absurd salaries that we hear of are the outliers and most very good engineers flatten out at around 200K USD :(
sanderjd 8y ago
Personally neither what you call the humble brags nor your post are very useful. What is interesting is cost-of-living-adjusted salary, but nobody knows how to calculate it, so we just get a bunch of numbers without enough context to figure out what they actually mean. It's like posting a bunch of price data points from the last 500 years without any knowledge of inflation.
wsc981 8y ago
I'm a remote working iOS / Android dev located in the countryside of Thailand. Currently working for 40 USD / hour for 32 hours a week, so that means around 65.000 USD per year. This year I started fully working remotely and decided to start a bit at the low end, earnings-wise. When working previously as a freelancer in The Netherlands my last rate was around 80 USD / hour. I intend to raise my rate to at least 50 USD per hour in 2019 and perhaps working 5 days a week, which would mean earning around 100.000 USD per year.
odorousrex 8y ago
Similar - 15 years experience in DevOps, I make $100k at my current job ($20k less than my previous job which was in Los Angeles, I'm still in CA, but away from the metros.) But...and this more than makes up for it...my hours are capped at 35 a week. (I usually work between 30-35). And I love it. The tradeoff has been completely worth it for me.
braindouche 8y ago
I'll go so far as to say here's my College Drop Out Self Taught In The Rust Belt Salary: 2006-2016: $25k-$45kyr, $40-$120 per hour. The first half I ran a very small agency that maxed out at 4 people and I wrote all the code, the latter half I was a PHP freelancer. Most expensive WordPress consultant in my city! 2016: $52k. Agency web dev. I've never hated a job more. Mostly wrote hacky jQuery and supported an awful laravel app the boss was enamored with. 2017: $65k. Front End Engineer. worked on converting a legacy SaaS product into Angular SPA. My boss begged me to ask for a raise (the recruiter screwed everybody), and then I got laid off two weeks later with like 25 other people. Loved that job, sad to lose it. 2018(current): $87k + bonuses. Senior Front End Developer. My job is to hack .net with javascript. I think the salary trend is moving nicely. I'm suddenly the richest person among all my friends and the third-highest earner in my extended family. (My family isn't even in the rust belt, they're from a much wealthier region in the country.)
westmichigan 8y ago
Here is my list, cost of living is relatively low in west Michigan. 2004-2006 $30k->54k, company went out of business, career path was help desk to infrastructure engineering 2006-2011 $40k->50k, 45 Days PTO, public sector, little room for advancement, rewarding work, great time off, education 2011-2018 $65k->95k + 12% bonus, 20 PTO days, infrastructure engineering, private sector. 80% remote. 2018 $145k, bonus up to 20%, IT Consultant, 20 PTO days, private sector. 100% remote, 30% travel. Never had any job offer stock options.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

pc86 8y ago

Low cost of living checking in, primarily due to food and housing, which are ~50% and ~15-20% of the Bay Area respectively. A <$950 mortgage payment for a house with a yard is a huge QOL boost. Started professional software dev in 2010 after freelancing for $45, raise/promotion to low $50's before getting a new job for $72, raise/promotion to high $70's before getting a new job for $98, promotion to $115 + 10% discretionary/performance bonus. All web development to start, last promotion put me in architecture/pseudo-management roles that includes more backend systems and integrations. Tech roles at my current job top out in the low to mid $130's + 10%, non-Exec management seems to be in the $125-185 range but obviously that info is pretty hard to get reliably. If you don't have any desires to be in management or architecture roles and you just want to be in your IDE coding all day, you can get to $90-100k reliably, and in this area that's enough to max out your 401k, a Roth IRA, and save. I'd love to move to a city and get companies on my resume that people have heard of outside of a 30 mile radius, but SF/NYC are nonstarters as they'd be a 50%+ effective pay cut, and even the less mainstream ones like Chicago, Boston, Dallas, San Diego would be 30% or more.

lotsofpulp 8y ago
If you think you’re better than average, especially top quintile, then moving to a big city will offer so many more opportunities it will more than make up for the temporary pay cut or hit to quality of life. Of course this all depends on your goals and situation such as having dependents and age. But it could pay off big by giving you more chances to network, start businesses, meet a high income earning spouse, etc.
- pc86 8y ago
  I do think I'm better than average (most people do, don't they?) but probably not top quintile. One thing stopping me from doing it is that I don't have any desire to start or run a business. I'd do a CTO role somewhere with profitability or funding, but not as a co-founder. Just not an interest of mine at this point in my life, 32, single no dependents.

kamarg 8y ago

Also in a pretty LoC area. 2007: $35k (First job out of school. I didn't know to negotiate better. Also my favorite job I've had) 2008: $60k 2012-2015: $80-$115k 2016-2017: $117.5k 2018: $100k + quarterly bonus based on company profits It's not crazy FAANG level income but the cost of living out here is low enough that I'm pretty sure I make out decently well in comparison.

neogodless 8y ago

Started out in a LCOL area (Central PA). Dropped out of Comp. Sci. program. ColdFusion -> ASP -> .NET (with lots of Web Development). All the different titles. But typically just a member of the team; not the team lead or architect. All figures W2 gross pay and 40 hour / week jobs (No on call, paid OT or I didn't play!) 1998-1999 $9/hr -> $13/hr 2000-2003 $27k -> $33k 2003-2006 $40k -> $50k 2006-2011 $55k -> $63k (nice job, raises not-so-much) 2012-2014 $75k, $72k, $80k (job hoppin' fool) Moved to a higher COL area (closer to Philly) 2014-2015 $88k -> $91k 2016-2017 $100k -> $103k Took first Corp-to-corp 1099 job 2017+ $160k

scarface74 8y ago

Also in an effort to counter the humble brag, here is my salary with the years changed slightly as not to dox myself. I’m also not in Washington/California/SV/NYC. I hope this also shows that the best way to make money is by frequent job hopping. My salary is about average for the area. 1995 - 2000 wanted to get out of the small town where I’m from and my best opportunity was based on an internship I had the year before as a computer operator. Soon they had a programming project and I was the only programmer they had. I was also in graduate school at the time - starting $10/hr - ending salaried at $35K. 2000 - 2007 Software Engineer mostly doing C/C++ — starting $52K ending $70K. The bonuses steadily were cut and the raises were abysmal 2008-2012 Software Engineer at a small company that went out of business. Mostly doing C# with a little C++. Starting $77K, Ending $84K 2012-2015 Senior Software (in reality a mid level .Net developer) - starting 90K, ending 93K 2015-2016 Full Stack Developer - mostly .Net with some Angular. Starting $115K - Ending $115K 2016-present “Architect” at a small company - starting 63hr (contract - I took it for the learning opportunity and there was a position that I was eyeing) - present $135K. Next on my agenda is to be an overpriced “implementation consultant”/“Digital transformation consultant”, etc. after my youngest graduates in 3 years.

dclowd9901 8y ago

Don’t shame people for making more money than others. The idea of this is we all see what we make. The outliers are making what we should all make.

scarface74 8y ago
It's not about shaming people. HN is full of West Coast FAANG SV employees who are outliers. It's easy for people to feel that their perfectly normal salaries are low.
- xapata 8y ago
  On the positive side, if we all feel like our salaries are low, we'll collectively ask for more money. Don't be jealous, but do ask for a raise.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Outside of Silicon Valley/NYC/DC, no one is going to pay your "full stack web developer", 200K. Full stack developers are a dime a dozen and you can outsource your typical CRUD Software As A Service app overseas or "rural source" it to Middle America.
    - C1sc0cat 8y ago
      Really capable of working at all 7 OSI layers :-) many "full stack" developers don't know that databases have a CLI.
      - scarface74 8y ago
        That’s true. I’ve interviewed “full stack developers” who when you asked them to write a query they started writing C# Linq statements as if they were using Entity Framework. It only takes one of two steps above the average “full stack developer” to be the one eyed king.
    - 8y ago

ddevault 8y ago

I think I'm underpaid, but not grossly so. I earn $115,000/yr with 8 years of professional experience in Philadelphia. I have equity currently valued at ~$5,000. I also make an additional ~$10,000/yr in donations to my open source projects and an additional ~$5,000/yr through the occasional side gig. https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/pennsylvania/philadelphia https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/pennsylvania/... I started my career at $30,000 in Colorado Springs. https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/colorado/colorado_springs https://www.bestplaces.net/cost_of_living/city/colorado/colo...

jpmoyn 8y ago
Do you like your company? I'm also in philly but can't seem to find a cool company to work for (I have a software job as is but have been looking). The city feels somewhat dry of interesting software companies.
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y ago
  I do like it, yeah. Shoot me an email: sir@cmpwn.com.
scarface74 8y ago
I know that I’m “underpaid” based on what I could get if I were willing to trade a relatively stress free job to either be a team lead (been there done that) or work for a consulting company. If I made an extra 20K to 30K right now, it wouldn’t change my life significantly. I could reach a few long term goals quicker but I’m really in no rush.
hoaw 8y ago
> I think I'm underpaid, but not grossly so. I wouldn't necessarily call that underpaid. Being underpaid is when you have to choose between the present and the future. If you can both have good and sustainable living conditions, job security and pension with a decent margin you aren't generally underpaid as such. The exception being if your relative wage affects things worth caring about, like being valued by the people around you.

bowlich 8y ago

This thread's making me feel much better about my starting salary of $35k back in 2011. It always seemed to bug me, the nagging feeling that I had way under billed myself for the first two years of my career (looking at all the big salaries everyone was always claiming). My salary's pretty much followed the same progression that other's have posted for outside of the high-cost-of-living hubs.

wernercd 8y ago
I started at $21k in 2010 as a programmer * 2000-2005 USMC * 2005-2008 various (Unable to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up) * 2008-2010 A.A.S. Computer Information Systems * 2010-2015 Backend Developer, 21k => 50k * 2015-2016 DevOps/System Admin, State of Delaware 60k => 68k * 2016-2017 Backend .Net Developer, small company 70k => 85k * 2017-Pres Backend .Net Developer, major bank 100k I live in Delaware - in the sticks - and commute to Wilmington, DE. I probably make under market, but I'm limited on my relocation options and don't have a 4 year degree - so I'm happy with my current position.
- chad_strategic 8y ago
  Nice to see another devil dog in the coding world. Don’t see it that often... Salaries are great, but my best job is still my most underpaid: USMC S/F
  - mcnichol 8y ago
    Oorah Devil, I think tech is a good world for us. Pure logic separating the emotion. My hard-headedness and willingness to sit in front of the problem longer than most civilian team members has given me a ladder to climb and respect without the degree. It's been hard but worth it. I miss the brotherhood but I feel life as software engineers in today's age, we have an opportunity to make just as much (and debatably more) impact although maybe not as directly as when we were in the streets overseas.
    - wernercd 8y ago

throwaway33441 8y ago

My path is one of the underappreciated hybrid: started in major metro (DC/NY/Boston) and moved to small town in the south after many years, finding good gigs offering remote work for DC-, NY-, and SF-based companies. Found a nice niche in security/ops/development in gov & healthcare tech. So, here goes: DB/Ops Engineering 1999: $60K base. Fresh out of masters program, large F50 DC gov tech firm (#1) 2001: $100K + $5K bonus. After building a successful practice area (still #1) Independent Consulting, Security Ops & DB Architecture 2002-3: $150/hr, ~$200K/year. Small, rapid-growth Boston healthcare company (#2) System/Security Architecture 2004-7: $150K base, $50K-$80K bonus. (full-time salaried at #2) 2008-12: $180K base, $10K bonus. Mid-sized DC gov tech firm (#3) 2012-14: $200K base, $20-40K bonus. Mid-sized DC gov tech firm (remote #4) Security Architecture/Product Security 2015: $150K base, $20K bonus. Startup (NYC, remote #5) 2016 - 2018: $200K base, $20K bonus, $100K options. Large tech (SF, remote #6) I know half a dozen co-workers (senior engineers or technical directors) whose net annual comp is also in the $300K range. It's not common, but if you're pulling <$100K with 6+ years experience in software or security engineering, you're getting screwed. (Throw away account, but happy to respond in thread; edited for formatting)

el_benhameen 8y ago
Thanks for sharing. After you (I assume) went remote while working for the same company, how did you go about getting new remote gigs at large tech companies? I’m remote now and would like to stay so, but I’m finding that companies that pay the sort of comp I’m looking for are often remote-averse.
- throwaway33441 8y ago
  every job (literally every job) has been through networking. I have never had a successful outcome by submitting through the normal HR channels. To your specific question, introduced to people I met online and at conferences. If you're okay traveling a few weeks every quarter, there are lots of opps. Check out, e.g., ops or dev advocate roles at MSFT, Google, GitHub, Cannonical, et al
lurker123 8y ago

commandlinefan 8y ago

> invite the outliers Yep, reading that guy's salary history almost made me want to go jump off the roof, but I figure he lives in CA and probably went to an "upper-echelon" college. Here's mine, from somebody who went to a college that didn't make the US News top 100: (Georgia) - 1992: $25,000 (Internship), mostly Cobol - 1995: Graduated with BSCS, no-name college, 3.5 GPA (Illinois) - 1995: $28,000 (got a raise to $35000, the only raise I've ever gotten without switching jobs), Cobol - 1996: $40,000, C++ (North Texas) - 1997: $50,000, C++ - 1998: $60,000, C++/Java - 1999: $100,000, Java - 2002: $100,000, Web programming/Java/Javascript ("lateral" job change, old company went out of business) - 2008: Graduated MSCS, sort-of-name college, 3.9 GPA - 2011: $120,000, Objective-C, iOS - 2014: $120,000, Java/Javascript (another "lateral" change) - 2018: $140,000, Java/Javascript

jordache 8y ago
Dude you do know who Zakas is right? The guy wrote so many advanced JS books, and is essentially a rockstart in the JS world. His compensation is actually less than I anticipated, given that he is in the bay area...
- fdchn2017 8y ago
  I agree with you. His books on JavaScript are really great. They treat JavaScript as a first class programming language and not a scripting language and teach you from first principles without naming any of the bad actors in the JavaScript world and no biases. His Books are amazingly well written. I too am surprised how less he was paid compared to what I believe would be his calibre. The other interpretation would be that the absurd salaries that we hear of are the outliers and most very good engineers flatten out at around 200K USD
  - jordache 8y ago
    >The other interpretation would be that the absurd salaries that we hear of are the outliers and most very good engineers flatten out at around 200K USD :(

sanderjd 8y ago

Personally neither what you call the humble brags nor your post are very useful. What is interesting is cost-of-living-adjusted salary, but nobody knows how to calculate it, so we just get a bunch of numbers without enough context to figure out what they actually mean. It's like posting a bunch of price data points from the last 500 years without any knowledge of inflation.

wsc981 8y ago

I'm a remote working iOS / Android dev located in the countryside of Thailand. Currently working for 40 USD / hour for 32 hours a week, so that means around 65.000 USD per year. This year I started fully working remotely and decided to start a bit at the low end, earnings-wise. When working previously as a freelancer in The Netherlands my last rate was around 80 USD / hour. I intend to raise my rate to at least 50 USD per hour in 2019 and perhaps working 5 days a week, which would mean earning around 100.000 USD per year.

odorousrex 8y ago

Similar - 15 years experience in DevOps, I make $100k at my current job ($20k less than my previous job which was in Los Angeles, I'm still in CA, but away from the metros.) But...and this more than makes up for it...my hours are capped at 35 a week. (I usually work between 30-35). And I love it. The tradeoff has been completely worth it for me.

braindouche 8y ago

I'll go so far as to say here's my College Drop Out Self Taught In The Rust Belt Salary: 2006-2016: $25k-$45kyr, $40-$120 per hour. The first half I ran a very small agency that maxed out at 4 people and I wrote all the code, the latter half I was a PHP freelancer. Most expensive WordPress consultant in my city! 2016: $52k. Agency web dev. I've never hated a job more. Mostly wrote hacky jQuery and supported an awful laravel app the boss was enamored with. 2017: $65k. Front End Engineer. worked on converting a legacy SaaS product into Angular SPA. My boss begged me to ask for a raise (the recruiter screwed everybody), and then I got laid off two weeks later with like 25 other people. Loved that job, sad to lose it. 2018(current): $87k + bonuses. Senior Front End Developer. My job is to hack .net with javascript. I think the salary trend is moving nicely. I'm suddenly the richest person among all my friends and the third-highest earner in my extended family. (My family isn't even in the rust belt, they're from a much wealthier region in the country.)

westmichigan 8y ago

Here is my list, cost of living is relatively low in west Michigan. 2004-2006 $30k->54k, company went out of business, career path was help desk to infrastructure engineering 2006-2011 $40k->50k, 45 Days PTO, public sector, little room for advancement, rewarding work, great time off, education 2011-2018 $65k->95k + 12% bonus, 20 PTO days, infrastructure engineering, private sector. 80% remote. 2018 $145k, bonus up to 20%, IT Consultant, 20 PTO days, private sector. 100% remote, 30% travel. Never had any job offer stock options.