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Point taken. I haven't thought about managers that way, but you are absolutely correct - tracks can not be parallel by definition. Next question is - is manag
by theflyinghorse 7y ago
Point taken.
I haven't thought about managers that way, but you are absolutely correct - tracks can not be parallel by definition.
Next question is - is manager the only logical progression for a dev at some point?
- encoderer 7y agoBuild a product, cover your salary. It's not easy, but it's doable. I've done it.
- bradleyjg 7y agoThere is an option to go into consulting. Outside of the top of the IC ladders at the giant tech companies, they are the highest paid ICs around. But that keep in mind you don’t have to keep progressing your career. There are risks to not doing so, but also rewards.
- opportune 7y agoI always hear about these people but I never hear about the profile of the places that hire these people to do consulting. Since you mention "Outside of the top of the IC ladders at the giant tech companies" which is about $600k or thereabouts, I am guessing this means they are billing for about $500/hr-$600/hr? So a week's rate is roughly $20k+. What kind of place is paying software engineer contractors that much?
- sophiebits 7y agoSome ICs at top tech companies get paid much, much more than $600k.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bradleyjg 7y agoIf you think you have a reasonable chance to become a Google Fellow or equivalent, then by all means ignore everything I’m saying here.
- seattle_spring 7y ago600k is staff level TC, not even close to fellow.
- opportune 7y agoOh really, I guess I was misinformed. Figured that was closer to 500-600. I hadn’t heard of anything well above $700k or so for positions like “Senior Staff”
- joshuamorton 7y agoWell the other piece is that after senior staff there's distinguished and principal, and then fellow.
- bradleyjg 7y agoThere are somewhere around 3.5-4 million software engineers in the US. What percent would you say will make $600k TC or more this year?
- seattle_spring 7y agoI was responding directly to a comment referring to Staff Google engineers. So in response to your goalpost moving question, I guess the percent would be (total number of staff engineers or higher at Google) / (your random estimate of the total engineering population)
- bradleyjg 7y agoI’m sure we are all very impressed by your insider knowledge of the details of a tiny portion of the industry irrelevant to most engineers. For the rest of us Google Fellow or equivalent is a reasonable way to sum up the entire niche.
- andrewnc 7y agoI wonder how many of these shops exist. And if they're mostly solo operations?
- lazyasciiart 7y agoMcKinsey and such, I expect.
- bradleyjg 7y agoThere’s the patio11 way of doing things which he’s written plenty about. But there’s also the more classic knows-where-to-put-the-screw consultant. Something is broken and bleeding money and after being jerked around by underlings for a few weeks some director is desperate to fix it. There’s are many many companies out there that can be losing tens of thousands of dollars a day or more because something isn’t working.