5 ms·

Leverage. If your work improves the productivity of 100+ other people, you're surely worth the price. If your work saves $500k+ in annual costs, you're surely

Leverage. If your work improves the productivity of 100+ other people, you're surely worth the price. If your work saves $500k+ in annual costs, you're surely worth the price. If hiring you cripples key competitors, you're surely worth the price. If you can enable new revenues streams through knowledge that only you have, you're surely worth the price. If hiring you does not increase productivity, reduce costs, fend off competition, or bring in more revenue, then you'll be fighting an uphill battle to justify that salary. But if you do, talk about it. People gossip and those companies who have the biggest multiplier to benefit off your work will be working hard to reach you. In my opinion, remote or not is less important than you think. The key decisions will be based on whether hiring you at that price is a net positive for the company or not. EDIT: And if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business. That'll make it much easier to hire you across borders. And at that price, you can surely afford the $1000 annually for a tax advisor retainer.

Lordarminius 5y ago
> ...And if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business.... This has to be one of the top ten best pieces of advice I have seen on HN.
- haint 5y ago
  Would you mind sharing the remaining 9? Thanks.
jacknews 5y ago
> EDIT: And if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business. By local, do you mean a US-based company (eg delaware), or local to where you are?
- mongol 5y ago
  Good and relevant question! Hope to see an answer to it
- nh2 5y ago
  Local to where you are is enough for companies to treat you like an independent contracting business. The key thing is that you _are_ an independent contracting business.
- hirako2000 5y ago
  I'm also wondering. but I would guess some companies only or more easily treat with locally based LLC than foreign entities. And those dealing with foreign entities probably favor those located in juridiction they feel comply with their rules. E.G only a few will deal with an entity based in Iran or China. Some industries are not even allowed to trade with a list of countries.
  - jdmichal 5y ago
    > Some industries are not even allowed to trade with a list of countries. To be clear, in the US, that would also limit dealing with any LLC who's beneficial ownership is sanctioned.
- z3t4 5y ago
  The local government will most likely have an issue with you working for an foreign company that you own yourself, and it will likely be more complicated when you deal with taxes and banks. It will be easier if you are like most other companies in your country, easier to find information about government laws and tax rules, and easier to find people for advice.
- Brajeshwar 5y ago
  I believe he do mean a US LLC, most defaults to Delaware or Nevada. It has become much easier for NON-US residents to form such entities these days. Doola (formerly StartPack, a YC Company) is a good option. Not affiliated with Doola but the founder is a nice guy. https://www.doola.com https://www.doola.com
amelius 5y ago
Most work is done in teams, so it's difficult to say whether you are e.g. responsible for saving $X.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> If your work improves the productivity of 100+ other people, you're surely worth the price. > If your work saves $500k+ in annual costs, you're surely worth the price. This is only half of the story, though. The real question is whether or not the company can accomplish the same thing at similar quality in a similar timeframe by hiring someone with a lower compensation request. The value you produce for a company sets the ceiling for your compensation, but not the floor. The floor is set by market rate compensation that other developers are asking for the same job. Developers also tend to forget that the features they code and ship require input from a lot of other people along the way: Managers to manage it, QA to test it, security team to review it, devops to help monitor it, designers to design it, and so on. If you look at a single feature, estimate the revenue, and then assign 100% of that upside to your own work then an experienced hiring manager is just going to roll their eyes at the hubris. What you really need is an ability to show that you, specifically, have a track record of accomplishing these things better, faster, and with less headaches than the other people applying for the job. A track record of professionalism, upward movement through notable companies, and references helps greatly. The key isn’t just to show that you can do these things. It’s to show that the company will benefit significantly by hiring you, at a premium, relative to hiring any one of the tens or hundreds of average developers they can find who will do similar work for less. The ideal highly paid candidate is one who can show a track record of self-managing and big picture thinking as much as possible. If I’m paying someone a premium salary, I expect they will require less hands-on management time and will streamline their interactions with the rest of the team, saving us both time and money. Find a way to show that in the interview.
- fxtentacle 5y ago
  I agree. At that price point, I expect that I can just forward emails from a customer complaining about an issue and said developer will understand the underlying problems, come up with a plan, talk to related coworkers, and self-manage rollout of the patch. In short, they save me time and effort because I don't need to babysit them where cheaper and less experienced developers would need my planning and guidance.
oikawa_tooru 5y ago
Can I use the LLC as a migration chip?
Benjamin_Dobell 5y ago
> if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business. That'll make it much easier to hire you across borders. And at that price, you can surely afford the $1000 annually for a tax advisor retainer. In my experience you shouldn't need to do this. In fact, I suspect doing this creates both a taxation and legal nightmare. You should have a registered company (or any other trading entity) so you can bill as an independent contractor. However, it should be registered in your country of residence. Services like Deel exist specifically to facilitate this sort of arrangement, it's a breeze. If you register a company in the US, you can't just arbitrarily transfer the money to yourself internationally. You'd need to pay yourself as an international independent contractor anyway. Except then you create legal issues, since there are likely legal issues with a company you run hiring another company you run. Additionally, by operating two companies, you're presumably filing two company tax returns, and paying yearly registration fees for two companies.
- vivekv 5y ago
  Can you elaborate on Deel please. How does it help? I cant seem to find a link online. appreciate the help.
  - agustif 5y ago
    Domain it's letsdeel.com, they act as intermediaries and you invoice through them.. I've worked for american startups, and the contract/invoicing was through them remote.com is another such similar service.
- indymike 5y ago
  > In my experience you shouldn't need to do this. In fact, I suspect doing this creates both a taxation and legal nightmare. Have worked with both arrangements. Much easier to deal with a US based LLC than anything that is managing payroll. For the contractor the LLC arrangement may end up being better, too because at least in the US corporations pay tax in arrears, and individuals have money withheld in advance. > Except then you create legal issues, since there are likely legal issues with a company you run hiring another company you run. For a simple business, this is actually simple (at least the US part of it). Revenue - Cost yields a very modest profit in the US so there's probably not going to be a lot of tax liability. Not sure what the nightmare is. For the group I used, their books were super simple in the US, and equally simple at home.
larrymyers 5y ago
The most straight forward way to go about this is applying for jobs with real leadership responsibility, and having the experience to confidently interview for such a position. If you join a company in a position to impact the productivity of the entire engineering org, then getting $250k base and full-time remote is reality. Getting an IC position at those comp levels is far more difficult.

Lordarminius 5y ago

> ...And if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business.... This has to be one of the top ten best pieces of advice I have seen on HN.

haint 5y ago
Would you mind sharing the remaining 9? Thanks.

jacknews 5y ago

> EDIT: And if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business. By local, do you mean a US-based company (eg delaware), or local to where you are?

mongol 5y ago
Good and relevant question! Hope to see an answer to it
nh2 5y ago
Local to where you are is enough for companies to treat you like an independent contracting business. The key thing is that you _are_ an independent contracting business.
hirako2000 5y ago
I'm also wondering. but I would guess some companies only or more easily treat with locally based LLC than foreign entities. And those dealing with foreign entities probably favor those located in juridiction they feel comply with their rules. E.G only a few will deal with an entity based in Iran or China. Some industries are not even allowed to trade with a list of countries.
- jdmichal 5y ago
  > Some industries are not even allowed to trade with a list of countries. To be clear, in the US, that would also limit dealing with any LLC who's beneficial ownership is sanctioned.
z3t4 5y ago
The local government will most likely have an issue with you working for an foreign company that you own yourself, and it will likely be more complicated when you deal with taxes and banks. It will be easier if you are like most other companies in your country, easier to find information about government laws and tax rules, and easier to find people for advice.
Brajeshwar 5y ago
I believe he do mean a US LLC, most defaults to Delaware or Nevada. It has become much easier for NON-US residents to form such entities these days. Doola (formerly StartPack, a YC Company) is a good option. Not affiliated with Doola but the founder is a nice guy. https://www.doola.com https://www.doola.com

amelius 5y ago

Most work is done in teams, so it's difficult to say whether you are e.g. responsible for saving $X.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> If your work improves the productivity of 100+ other people, you're surely worth the price. > If your work saves $500k+ in annual costs, you're surely worth the price. This is only half of the story, though. The real question is whether or not the company can accomplish the same thing at similar quality in a similar timeframe by hiring someone with a lower compensation request. The value you produce for a company sets the ceiling for your compensation, but not the floor. The floor is set by market rate compensation that other developers are asking for the same job. Developers also tend to forget that the features they code and ship require input from a lot of other people along the way: Managers to manage it, QA to test it, security team to review it, devops to help monitor it, designers to design it, and so on. If you look at a single feature, estimate the revenue, and then assign 100% of that upside to your own work then an experienced hiring manager is just going to roll their eyes at the hubris. What you really need is an ability to show that you, specifically, have a track record of accomplishing these things better, faster, and with less headaches than the other people applying for the job. A track record of professionalism, upward movement through notable companies, and references helps greatly. The key isn’t just to show that you can do these things. It’s to show that the company will benefit significantly by hiring you, at a premium, relative to hiring any one of the tens or hundreds of average developers they can find who will do similar work for less. The ideal highly paid candidate is one who can show a track record of self-managing and big picture thinking as much as possible. If I’m paying someone a premium salary, I expect they will require less hands-on management time and will streamline their interactions with the rest of the team, saving us both time and money. Find a way to show that in the interview.

fxtentacle 5y ago
I agree. At that price point, I expect that I can just forward emails from a customer complaining about an issue and said developer will understand the underlying problems, come up with a plan, talk to related coworkers, and self-manage rollout of the patch. In short, they save me time and effort because I don't need to babysit them where cheaper and less experienced developers would need my planning and guidance.

oikawa_tooru 5y ago

Can I use the LLC as a migration chip?

Benjamin_Dobell 5y ago

> if you're outside of the US, set up a local LLC so that US-based companies can treat you like an independent contracting business. That'll make it much easier to hire you across borders. And at that price, you can surely afford the $1000 annually for a tax advisor retainer. In my experience you shouldn't need to do this. In fact, I suspect doing this creates both a taxation and legal nightmare. You should have a registered company (or any other trading entity) so you can bill as an independent contractor. However, it should be registered in your country of residence. Services like Deel exist specifically to facilitate this sort of arrangement, it's a breeze. If you register a company in the US, you can't just arbitrarily transfer the money to yourself internationally. You'd need to pay yourself as an international independent contractor anyway. Except then you create legal issues, since there are likely legal issues with a company you run hiring another company you run. Additionally, by operating two companies, you're presumably filing two company tax returns, and paying yearly registration fees for two companies.

vivekv 5y ago
Can you elaborate on Deel please. How does it help? I cant seem to find a link online. appreciate the help.
- agustif 5y ago
  Domain it's letsdeel.com, they act as intermediaries and you invoice through them.. I've worked for american startups, and the contract/invoicing was through them remote.com is another such similar service.
indymike 5y ago
> In my experience you shouldn't need to do this. In fact, I suspect doing this creates both a taxation and legal nightmare. Have worked with both arrangements. Much easier to deal with a US based LLC than anything that is managing payroll. For the contractor the LLC arrangement may end up being better, too because at least in the US corporations pay tax in arrears, and individuals have money withheld in advance. > Except then you create legal issues, since there are likely legal issues with a company you run hiring another company you run. For a simple business, this is actually simple (at least the US part of it). Revenue - Cost yields a very modest profit in the US so there's probably not going to be a lot of tax liability. Not sure what the nightmare is. For the group I used, their books were super simple in the US, and equally simple at home.

larrymyers 5y ago

The most straight forward way to go about this is applying for jobs with real leadership responsibility, and having the experience to confidently interview for such a position. If you join a company in a position to impact the productivity of the entire engineering org, then getting $250k base and full-time remote is reality. Getting an IC position at those comp levels is far more difficult.