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> The so-called "10x" engineer, myth or not, is likely to make just 10% more than their peers, if even that, not 1000% more. That doesn't seem right. An entry
by treis 8y ago
> The so-called "10x" engineer, myth or not, is likely to make just 10% more than their peers, if even that, not 1000% more.
That doesn't seem right. An entry level programmer will make around $100k. There are definitely engineers out there that are paid more than a million a year
- aketchum 8y agoTo me, a 10x programmer is thought of in relation to their peers
- tabtab 8y agoIf you have a good development stack that is properly tuned to your niche, a good portion of the work should be domain analysis, not raw coding. If your bottleneck is coding, your stack is probably wasteful, bloated, and/or buggy, creating unnecessary busy-work. Orgs often over-follow fads or grab trends from industries that don't match their own, rather than tune or clean their existing stack. Rewarding those fast at unnecessary busy-work usually just multiplies unnecessary busy-work.
- distances 8y agoI know several programmers that are many times more productive than their peers, when compared to least-performing peers it's easily 10-20x. They make a little bit more, I'd guess 20-30%. Not in the US, but I'm sure this is quite common and compensation anywhere near reflecting the performance is a rare exception.
- maxxxxx 8y agoTotally agree. There are a few exceptions but for most people their pay is not much correlated with productivity.
- treis 8y ago>I know several programmers that are many times more productive than their peers, when compared to least-performing peers it's easily 10-20x. They make a little bit more, I'd guess 20-30%. I'm not saying the system is perfect at identifying who's the 10x engineer and who's the bum. But once identified there is definitely a gap in pay roughly equivalent to the difference in production.
- ultraluminous 8y agoWhich system is identifying the 10x engineer? What generates that gap in pay? It sorts of sounds like you are trying to fit reality into a model and not vice versa.
- treis 8y ago>Which system is identifying the 10x engineer? The compensation scheme at companies that employ them. >What generates that gap in pay? All companies are different but it's typical a difference in grade or rank.
- distances 8y agoSorry for a late reply. In most companies outside the US nobody, not even the CEO, makes 10x the income of an average low-performing engineer. A high performer has a chance of getting a respectable salary only by rising to CTO or similar roles, which obviously require skills other than just project contribution. There is literally zero chance a high performer would get even 3x salary compared to their peers. Those pay ranks simply do not exist.
- zanny 8y agoI don't know what bubble you are living in where 100k is an entry salary (besides the crazy high cost of living sf / NY metro areas) but in 90% of the US outside tech hotspots entry level programming jobs are as low as half as much, especially in the Midwest.
- sokoloff 8y agoFWIW, the Boston area is also ~$100K for new college grads at a "tech matters to us" company (which makes somewhat less sense to post now that the parent comment has been edited...)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]