5 ms·

100k being "low paying" - certified HN moment. That's almost peak career level anywhere outside the US.

iExploder 5y ago
its a peak career moment in europe where tax rate is as high as 50% and commodities are more expensive than in the US due to VAT among other things... its an unheard of salary in rest of the world yeah, first world issues confirmed! :)
- orf 5y ago
  100k USD is “only” 76k GBP, which is high but not peak especially somewhere like London. You’d take home ~70k$ of that 100k.
  - jstx1 5y ago
    London salaries are such a mystery. I still have no idea what the high range of salaries is, or how difficult it is to get there.
    - durnygbur 5y ago
      Haven't seen the "London salary" in real life. All I get is recruitment spam from co.uk addresses: "contract position 300 GBP per day, 3 months contract onsite, we don't care how you relocate". Daily commute and hotel alone are 150-200 GBP per day in Londongrad. Bugger off mate.
      - durnygbur 5y ago
        ...and I've received another one just after this post. HN you evil feckers.
    - rosndo 5y ago
      300k GBP/yr TC is pretty normal with some years of experience. How to get there? As always it’s more about your networking ability than specific technical skills.
      - jstx1 5y ago
        This what I mean by mystery... some people drop insane numbers like £300k which is way above stuff that you see on levels.fyi - https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/London/ https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/London/ and those levels.fyi salaries are already skewed because they overrepresent the bigger tech companies. Then I go on the market and anything above £90k seems almost impossible.
        pydry 5y ago
        levels.fyi looks accurate to me - £300k is not completely unheard of but still far from normal. That said theres a weird schism between finance and everything else in London. Whats normal for finance isnt normal elsewhere and finance is often a bit insular.
        rosndo 5y ago
        Yeah well, if your job searching is limited to submitting online applications as opposed to going out and interacting with people it makes sense that your opportunities will be limited. The best paid people I know have those jobs because they chatted up some random person outside a restaurant, at the airport, on the plane or at some event like Serpentine gallery’s “future contemporaries”. London of all places is full of ludicrously good networking opportunities. Anyone with basic social skills who can create websites can hustle their way into an Annabel’s membership. The people who actually put in some real effort will land those jobs, often regardless of their actual skills. I’m an eastern European tech worker from a poor family that deliberately forced my way into situations where I’d be surrounded by the rich and powerful. After a few years most of my friends were such people, after a few more I found myself married to the daughter of a billionaire. A lot of tech people just don’t understand is that this kind of bullshit is exactly how you win. People working in finance or law mostly seem to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - iExploder 5y ago
    I was talking about Europe in general here. And ... I would argue that living, working and thriving in London as software engineer with a salary north of 75k GBP is, in fact, a peak of one's career, hence my argument still stands..
- krageon 5y ago
  > commodities are more expensive than in the US Eating food that doesn't make you very sick in the US is very expensive. It is very much not as simple as you state here.
  - AlchemistCamp 5y ago
    Staples in the US are very cheap and many older generations ate them into old age. The real risk is eating at restaurants and eating snacks that didn't exist 50 years ago.
    - krageon 5y ago
      Many older generations smoked into old age. This doesn't mean that smoking doesn't make you very sick.
  - blaser-waffle 5y ago
    Most food in the US doesn't make you very sick. And food that doesn't make you sick is not very expensive.
Rastonbury 5y ago
You can also look at it as a 66% paycut. I can make 30k and be richer than like 95% of the world, I doubt saying this would comfort anyone who did
nonprofit_ta 5y ago
I never said that 100k is "low paying". I'm well aware of the facts that it's roughly 2x the median household income and is clearly a good paying job. The question isn't "how does somebody survive on 100k", it's "how do you have to adapt your lifestyle when you start making 200k less".

its a peak career moment in europe where tax rate is as high as 50% and commodities are more expensive than in the US due to VAT among other things... its an unheard of salary in rest of the world yeah, first world issues confirmed! :)

orf 5y ago
100k USD is “only” 76k GBP, which is high but not peak especially somewhere like London. You’d take home ~70k$ of that 100k.
- jstx1 5y ago
  London salaries are such a mystery. I still have no idea what the high range of salaries is, or how difficult it is to get there.
  - durnygbur 5y ago
    Haven't seen the "London salary" in real life. All I get is recruitment spam from co.uk addresses: "contract position 300 GBP per day, 3 months contract onsite, we don't care how you relocate". Daily commute and hotel alone are 150-200 GBP per day in Londongrad. Bugger off mate.
    - durnygbur 5y ago
      ...and I've received another one just after this post. HN you evil feckers.
  - rosndo 5y ago
    300k GBP/yr TC is pretty normal with some years of experience. How to get there? As always it’s more about your networking ability than specific technical skills.
    - jstx1 5y ago
      This what I mean by mystery... some people drop insane numbers like £300k which is way above stuff that you see on levels.fyi - https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/London/ https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/London/ and those levels.fyi salaries are already skewed because they overrepresent the bigger tech companies. Then I go on the market and anything above £90k seems almost impossible.
      - pydry 5y ago
        levels.fyi looks accurate to me - £300k is not completely unheard of but still far from normal. That said theres a weird schism between finance and everything else in London. Whats normal for finance isnt normal elsewhere and finance is often a bit insular.
      - rosndo 5y ago
        Yeah well, if your job searching is limited to submitting online applications as opposed to going out and interacting with people it makes sense that your opportunities will be limited. The best paid people I know have those jobs because they chatted up some random person outside a restaurant, at the airport, on the plane or at some event like Serpentine gallery’s “future contemporaries”. London of all places is full of ludicrously good networking opportunities. Anyone with basic social skills who can create websites can hustle their way into an Annabel’s membership. The people who actually put in some real effort will land those jobs, often regardless of their actual skills. I’m an eastern European tech worker from a poor family that deliberately forced my way into situations where I’d be surrounded by the rich and powerful. After a few years most of my friends were such people, after a few more I found myself married to the daughter of a billionaire. A lot of tech people just don’t understand is that this kind of bullshit is exactly how you win. People working in finance or law mostly seem to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- iExploder 5y ago
  I was talking about Europe in general here. And ... I would argue that living, working and thriving in London as software engineer with a salary north of 75k GBP is, in fact, a peak of one's career, hence my argument still stands..
krageon 5y ago
> commodities are more expensive than in the US Eating food that doesn't make you very sick in the US is very expensive. It is very much not as simple as you state here.
- AlchemistCamp 5y ago
  Staples in the US are very cheap and many older generations ate them into old age. The real risk is eating at restaurants and eating snacks that didn't exist 50 years ago.
  - krageon 5y ago
    Many older generations smoked into old age. This doesn't mean that smoking doesn't make you very sick.
- blaser-waffle 5y ago
  Most food in the US doesn't make you very sick. And food that doesn't make you sick is not very expensive.

Rastonbury 5y ago

You can also look at it as a 66% paycut. I can make 30k and be richer than like 95% of the world, I doubt saying this would comfort anyone who did

nonprofit_ta 5y ago

I never said that 100k is "low paying". I'm well aware of the facts that it's roughly 2x the median household income and is clearly a good paying job. The question isn't "how does somebody survive on 100k", it's "how do you have to adapt your lifestyle when you start making 200k less".