4 ms·

The Salary Trap (2021)

14 points by amrrs 4y ago

ragnot 4y ago
"10x learning opportunity with only 50% reduction in salary" I already may be too cynical for this author but unless this new opportunity gives me a substantial equity stake I'm going for the money 100% of the time. Learning is great and all, but unless you are learning at a FAANG (in which case I'm sure you aren't getting a reduction in salary) at the end of the day cash is king. I've done my own fair share of startups and yeah I've learned a ton. Mostly I've learned that you very rarely get a payout with a startup and that you should just go for more money.
- flapjaxy 4y ago
  I see these type of posts as a hybrid of the "life is more about work" and "make your work meaningful" arguments. I can see how this is a valuable strategy, but the use cases are pretty narrow. It presumes greater knowledge translates into greater salaries at a later date. imo, better advice would be "don't make your income your self worth" and/or "salary is just one aspect of compensation; knowledge, skills, networks, and opportunities are some other ones."
throwmamatrain 4y ago
In god we trust, all others pay cash. Take the money, leave the cannoli.
faeriechangling 4y ago
Perhaps it's because of an obsessive love of games with an economic element, but I'm rather comfortable doing things like taking a paycut if I feel it's the right move. If anything I have an irrational bias towards such manoeuvres and feel I'm a bit "Greedy" valuing money tomorrow so much over money today. It's more exciting to gamble for the big bucks than to go for the boring stable route. Here's the issue with the strategy. If you can live off half your salary, why do you need 100x your salary? To buy a solid gold ass scratcher? In your current role you can likely expect your salary to increase anyways, lets say another 50%, so why suffer through living off half your salary into a potential recession? Additionally, how many opportunities are there genuinely to halve your salary and learn 10x to earn 100x? The job market is competitive, it's not like there's many oppertunities to make 100x your salary just laying around, somebody is going to jump on it.
- metadat 4y ago
  My experience has run contrary to this. No matter how good of a job I do at work, I've never gotten a significant pay bump, certainly nothing on the order of 50%. Your other points reasonate strongly - financial security is nice but for most of us, at some point it's overkill and just becomes money hoarding.
  - skinnymuch 4y ago
    I think they means overall? Like in the medium future. Based off standard and sometimes specific pay bumps. Otherwise the line is saying every one can get a 50% pay bump in the next year. Doesn’t make sense.
    - faeriechangling 4y ago
      Yeah that’s what I’m driving at… you start out a junior programmer and later become a team lead within the same career while jumping up in salary the entire way. I misspoke a bit.
      - skinnymuch 4y ago
        50% seems low then, no? For pay bump? I’m only starting to prep for my first software engineer job so I don’t have personal info on this
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    > My experience has run contrary to this. No matter how good of a job I do at work, I've never gotten a significant pay bump, certainly nothing on the order of 50%. And you most likely never will. That's when you realize you've out-grown your position and you jump ship to a new job.
    - metadat 4y ago
      Good advice, and timely. Thanks!
Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
It's all relative. Someone making $40K/year is going to be HEAVILY incentivized by a higher salary. Someone making $400K less so. There are plenty of people here on HN that have made enough money that they could take a 50% pay cut and not have a significant change of lifestyle. These ones are pretty unlikely to salivate over a job offer with a higher salary.
nunez 4y ago
> When you focus on learning over earning, it brings a sense of fulfillment that no money can buy. yeah but i can't buy the tesla model s i want and keep my lifestyle with the fulfillment of learning, and as long as there are engineers making enough more than me to do both of those things, i will continue to work to justify more money fortunately, learning pays off :)

14 points by amrrs 4y ago

"10x learning opportunity with only 50% reduction in salary" I already may be too cynical for this author but unless this new opportunity gives me a substantial equity stake I'm going for the money 100% of the time. Learning is great and all, but unless you are learning at a FAANG (in which case I'm sure you aren't getting a reduction in salary) at the end of the day cash is king. I've done my own fair share of startups and yeah I've learned a ton. Mostly I've learned that you very rarely get a payout with a startup and that you should just go for more money.

flapjaxy 4y ago
I see these type of posts as a hybrid of the "life is more about work" and "make your work meaningful" arguments. I can see how this is a valuable strategy, but the use cases are pretty narrow. It presumes greater knowledge translates into greater salaries at a later date. imo, better advice would be "don't make your income your self worth" and/or "salary is just one aspect of compensation; knowledge, skills, networks, and opportunities are some other ones."

throwmamatrain 4y ago

In god we trust, all others pay cash. Take the money, leave the cannoli.

faeriechangling 4y ago

Perhaps it's because of an obsessive love of games with an economic element, but I'm rather comfortable doing things like taking a paycut if I feel it's the right move. If anything I have an irrational bias towards such manoeuvres and feel I'm a bit "Greedy" valuing money tomorrow so much over money today. It's more exciting to gamble for the big bucks than to go for the boring stable route. Here's the issue with the strategy. If you can live off half your salary, why do you need 100x your salary? To buy a solid gold ass scratcher? In your current role you can likely expect your salary to increase anyways, lets say another 50%, so why suffer through living off half your salary into a potential recession? Additionally, how many opportunities are there genuinely to halve your salary and learn 10x to earn 100x? The job market is competitive, it's not like there's many oppertunities to make 100x your salary just laying around, somebody is going to jump on it.

metadat 4y ago
My experience has run contrary to this. No matter how good of a job I do at work, I've never gotten a significant pay bump, certainly nothing on the order of 50%. Your other points reasonate strongly - financial security is nice but for most of us, at some point it's overkill and just becomes money hoarding.
- skinnymuch 4y ago
  I think they means overall? Like in the medium future. Based off standard and sometimes specific pay bumps. Otherwise the line is saying every one can get a 50% pay bump in the next year. Doesn’t make sense.
  - faeriechangling 4y ago
    Yeah that’s what I’m driving at… you start out a junior programmer and later become a team lead within the same career while jumping up in salary the entire way. I misspoke a bit.
    - skinnymuch 4y ago
      50% seems low then, no? For pay bump? I’m only starting to prep for my first software engineer job so I don’t have personal info on this
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  > My experience has run contrary to this. No matter how good of a job I do at work, I've never gotten a significant pay bump, certainly nothing on the order of 50%. And you most likely never will. That's when you realize you've out-grown your position and you jump ship to a new job.
  - metadat 4y ago
    Good advice, and timely. Thanks!

Sohcahtoa82 4y ago

It's all relative. Someone making $40K/year is going to be HEAVILY incentivized by a higher salary. Someone making $400K less so. There are plenty of people here on HN that have made enough money that they could take a 50% pay cut and not have a significant change of lifestyle. These ones are pretty unlikely to salivate over a job offer with a higher salary.

nunez 4y ago

> When you focus on learning over earning, it brings a sense of fulfillment that no money can buy. yeah but i can't buy the tesla model s i want and keep my lifestyle with the fulfillment of learning, and as long as there are engineers making enough more than me to do both of those things, i will continue to work to justify more money fortunately, learning pays off :)