4 ms·

working at FAANG and making 300k tc is like 5-10% of engineers even in America, your experience certainly isn't true for the run of the mill engineers. Top 5-10

working at FAANG and making 300k tc is like 5-10% of engineers even in America, your experience certainly isn't true for the run of the mill engineers. Top 5-10% doctors probably pull in close to a million.

C1sc0cat 7y ago
I seem to recall reading a comment on hn a few months ago about over hearing (at the gym) a transplant surgeon trying to recruit his friend saying that he could get several mill per year.
- mountainofdeath 7y ago
  Yes, but there are probably only a thousand or so transplant surgeons in the US. You are looking at a fraction of a fraction of all doctors.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  That sounds about right. I sometimes deal with surgeons through work and also through someone close to me and these surgeons seem quite wealthy considering the types of cars and houses they are talking about. Must be way into the millions. there is also no ageism so they have a secure career for almost as long as they want.
- refurb 7y ago
  I chatted with a friend of a friend who had just completed his oral surgery residency. Once you've established your own practice and got a solid number of clientele (no easy feed), it's not unusual to net >$100K per month.
thedufer 7y ago
Getting into medicine is heavily gated (getting into med school, graduating, getting into residency, etc), ensuring that only the top N% of people who would like to do so actually can, while the only gate for devs is getting a job, and it seems that nearly everyone who wants to does so. So the top 5-10% of devs is not really comparably to the top 5-10% doctors, because the latter have effectively been allowed to drop the lowest-performing (100-N)% of their peers. I would ballpark that N is well under 50 for doctors, and well over 90 for devs.
0xB31B1B 7y ago
I work at a FAANG company and median TC for senior engineers (5+ years exp) is around 350k. If you can make staff (prob 1 in 4 L5 eng make it to staff) then you’re at 400 - 600k TC. The weird issue with medicine is that the top doctors usually work at university hospitals that get all the difficult cases, but due to the nature of medical billing, the complicated cases pay less and take longer, this these “top docs” usually make the same or less than their counterparts at a private hospital working on more mundane procedures. At that point, the money comes in from the side gigs I listed above (expert witness, consulting, books, speaking, patents on devices/drugs etc). Some university docs also pull in money through small private practices where they do cosmetic procedures etc.

C1sc0cat 7y ago

I seem to recall reading a comment on hn a few months ago about over hearing (at the gym) a transplant surgeon trying to recruit his friend saying that he could get several mill per year.

mountainofdeath 7y ago
Yes, but there are probably only a thousand or so transplant surgeons in the US. You are looking at a fraction of a fraction of all doctors.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
That sounds about right. I sometimes deal with surgeons through work and also through someone close to me and these surgeons seem quite wealthy considering the types of cars and houses they are talking about. Must be way into the millions. there is also no ageism so they have a secure career for almost as long as they want.
refurb 7y ago
I chatted with a friend of a friend who had just completed his oral surgery residency. Once you've established your own practice and got a solid number of clientele (no easy feed), it's not unusual to net >$100K per month.

thedufer 7y ago

Getting into medicine is heavily gated (getting into med school, graduating, getting into residency, etc), ensuring that only the top N% of people who would like to do so actually can, while the only gate for devs is getting a job, and it seems that nearly everyone who wants to does so. So the top 5-10% of devs is not really comparably to the top 5-10% doctors, because the latter have effectively been allowed to drop the lowest-performing (100-N)% of their peers. I would ballpark that N is well under 50 for doctors, and well over 90 for devs.

0xB31B1B 7y ago

I work at a FAANG company and median TC for senior engineers (5+ years exp) is around 350k. If you can make staff (prob 1 in 4 L5 eng make it to staff) then you’re at 400 - 600k TC. The weird issue with medicine is that the top doctors usually work at university hospitals that get all the difficult cases, but due to the nature of medical billing, the complicated cases pay less and take longer, this these “top docs” usually make the same or less than their counterparts at a private hospital working on more mundane procedures. At that point, the money comes in from the side gigs I listed above (expert witness, consulting, books, speaking, patents on devices/drugs etc). Some university docs also pull in money through small private practices where they do cosmetic procedures etc.