4 ms·

Define large sums of money. levels.fyi has the salaries for FAANGs, but also other places. Plenty of juicy salaries in non-FAANGs. Sales -- esp. SaaS -- can

Define large sums of money. levels.fyi has the salaries for FAANGs, but also other places. Plenty of juicy salaries in non-FAANGs. Sales -- esp. SaaS -- can make crazy money. Close a big deal and walk home with 100k, and possibly residuals if they keep re-upping. Own any business, be it in tech, or whatever. I've personally known plumbers who own their own business and make over $300k a year and only go out in calls a couple of times a week -- their guys do the rest. Also know several lawyers -- rough field, btw -- but they have won cases and earned fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars (probate issues, IIRC). Not the story for a lot of lawyers, most don't make anything amazing, but that's true for most fields: for every startup angel who makes it big there are plenty of engineers and founders who don't get shit; a lot of baseball players never make it out of the minors...

idrathernot 4y ago
B2B/industrial sales can be huge if you can accept the insecurity of operating as an independent rep. 5-20% commission on sales where a single unit is $500k+. Generally speaking, you can make a ton of money in almost any field, but there is a trade off between “guaranteed” earnings and “opportunistic” income. The latter is often uncapped but is more random and requires the discipline to sustain yourself between opportunities and quickly capitalize when one appears.
ultrasaurus 4y ago
There's a lot to recommend sales as a place to make money -- it's where the money comes from :) But to make big bucks you need to grok 2 things: - How to optimize your comp structure (which could be fun for nerds) especially around accelerators. If you're going to land 2 huge deals in 2023 and you manage to get them both in the same quarter, you might make +25% over them being split across the year. - Selling the value to the customer vs the features (disclaimer, I have a startup to help with this) a lot of nerds are very aware of what the product does, but a little less eager to listen to the prospect's needs.

idrathernot 4y ago

B2B/industrial sales can be huge if you can accept the insecurity of operating as an independent rep. 5-20% commission on sales where a single unit is $500k+. Generally speaking, you can make a ton of money in almost any field, but there is a trade off between “guaranteed” earnings and “opportunistic” income. The latter is often uncapped but is more random and requires the discipline to sustain yourself between opportunities and quickly capitalize when one appears.

ultrasaurus 4y ago

There's a lot to recommend sales as a place to make money -- it's where the money comes from :) But to make big bucks you need to grok 2 things: - How to optimize your comp structure (which could be fun for nerds) especially around accelerators. If you're going to land 2 huge deals in 2023 and you manage to get them both in the same quarter, you might make +25% over them being split across the year. - Selling the value to the customer vs the features (disclaimer, I have a startup to help with this) a lot of nerds are very aware of what the product does, but a little less eager to listen to the prospect's needs.