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When I was 18 in rural America I had to do telemarketing and day labor in addition to webdev gigs to cover food and keep gas in the car I lived in. My income mo
by lrvick 4y ago
When I was 18 in rural America I had to do telemarketing and day labor in addition to webdev gigs to cover food and keep gas in the car I lived in. My income more than 10xed once I moved to Silicon Valley where my skills are in high demand. I do not think I know anyone technical making less than 6 figures here, with 200-600k being the norm for anyone with 10+ years of experience.
In a post-covid world you can normally move anywhere you want and keep your pay after you build a good network and reputation.
- vsareto 4y agoI feel like your definition and goalposts of "anyone who is technical" is probably incredibly high but you're trying to undersell it just to make a point. Is webdev somehow not technical?
- lrvick 4y agoI started off in the bay area as a webdev making low 6 figures, and do not know any webdevs in my circles here making less than that.
- yrgulation 4y agoTech pay is indeed high but not that high and it has a hard ceiling. Thanks to tech i manage to live a pretty decent life style, compared to shop assistants, or say daily construction workers. But going higher means i have to change careers and potentially go into tech business (which is not really tech, but business). A chartered accountant or lawyer, let alone surgeon, would earn as much as i do a day per hour without really “solving problems” in a saturated market (i.e. those jobs dont open source their ip to the point where its worthless).
- lotsofpulp 4y agoIn the US, a surgeon would, but a “chartered” accountant or lawyer would have higher probabilities of not having as high of a pay to quality of life ratio. Even the surgeon would have gone through hell during their 20s and maybe even lower 30s (their best years as a human) to command the $500k+ per year.
- lrvick 4y agoI have never hit a ceiling and most of my friends have not either. My income has increased significantly every year of my 20+ year career. There -are- ceilings within a given company though, which is why job changes every 1-2 years are pretty normal. Always another company willing to pay 30% more to gain niche experience you have that is stalling progress for them. When you do finally max out what any one company will pay but have broad experience, you can pivot to independent consulting where $300-1000/hr is normal, and work the number of hours you want.
- throw1234651234 4y agoHow do you jump jobs every 2 years if your shares don't vest for 4?
- lrvick 4y agoI have never paid attention to shares or vesting schedules in contracts. I would stay until I had made the improvements I sought out to make and was bored. I would leave with whatever has vested at that point. I do not acknowledge golden handcuffs ever. Leave when you do not enjoy the job anymore, or are not bringing maximal value you know you could elsewhere. Startup stocks are ephemeral lottery tickets unlikely to ever make as much as 30% base pay bumps every 2ish years. Now as an independent consultant I have no stock at all and still make more than the total comp of any FAANG friends.
- victor106 4y agoCan you provide any thoughts on what kind of activities and tools you use on a day to day basis? And how your clients measure your success?
- dml2135 4y agoQuestion for you, have you always moved directly from one job to the next? I'm contemplating leaving my current role and taking a couple months off before the job search, and while I'm not worried about landing a new job, I am concerned that being unemployed may result in lower offers.