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Some senior engineers at big tech companies make more than a million US per year, so someone with an excellent diverse C++ skill set and an entrepreneurial bent

Some senior engineers at big tech companies make more than a million US per year, so someone with an excellent diverse C++ skill set and an entrepreneurial bent could well make much more than that.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ketzo 4y ago
I don’t know about much more. The last time I saw the top ends of Google’s IC pay scale, it was ~$1.5 million TC, and that was for, like, two people. I’m being nit picky. But big tech isn’t THAT insane. 7 figure TC is incredibly, incredibly rare. It’s not just “senior engineer”, it’s “senior senior senior senior” or more.
- vidarh 4y ago
  For C++ the top end of the market is more like trading systems and the like than Google. Still rare, though, but the C++ market has lots of weird little very high paid niches.
  - n0tth3dro1ds 4y ago
    HFT firms require lots of domain knowledge on top of “just” C++. Those quants are elite mathematicians and highly knowledgeable in finance in addition to being great at C++ (or OCaml). I would say that C++ expertise is often actually “underpaid” compared to its level of difficult. If you’re doing OS stuff in C++ you’re working on something embedded. If you’re doing embedded, you’re probably selling hardware, which has low margins (compared to pure software plays). Meanwhile a Ruby on Rails dev who can iterate their web app quickly can start getting PMF and basically print money.
    - vidarh 4y ago
      It may well be underpaid compared to it's difficulty level, but the jobs exist. Meanwhile I've yet to see a Rails job that pays enough to be worth my while, despite Ruby being by far my favourite language. I get to use Ruby a lot (rarely Rails; don't like the thing), but because I am typically in senior enough positions to have autonomy in what I choose for my projects - the moment a job is advertised as a Rails job, the pay is accordingly low.
      - n0tth3dro1ds 4y ago
        That's surprising for me to hear (as a non-Ruby/Rails guy that doesn't know that sub-market), given how many massively successful startups were built on Rails. I get that Rails isn't the hot new thing anymore, but Airbnb pays quite well and still uses it, right? Are there just tons of smaller fish paying peanuts?
        vidarh 4y ago
        It's worth adding to this I've been developing software professionally for 27 years, so there being few Rails jobs meeting my expectations does not mean there aren't well paid Rails jobs. But Rails does best in a chunk of what used to be the PHP market for quick and dirty websites. Once companies scale, only a relatively small portion of their dev work tends to be Rails related, and not the most interesting/best paid parts of their dev work. The roles you can use Ruby in are wider and there is some juicier stuff there, but most of that isn't advertised as Ruby. E.g. in a lot of devops roles you may come across quite a bit of Ruby tooling.
    - pencilguin 4y ago
      If you think C++ is underpaid, check out electrical engineering. If you think electrical engineering is underpaid, check out chemistry. If you think chemistry is underpaid, check out biology.
      - Test0129 4y ago
        If you think chemistry is unpaid check out math :P. But seriously, outside of quant work or certified actuaries mathematicians do not make as much as one would think.
- Aeolun 4y ago
  I regularly see people with 600k though. That’s already beyond crazy.
- exikyut 4y ago
  "How much I made as a really good Engineer at Facebook" (2018): https://medium.com/@anyengineer/how-much-i-made-as-a-really-good-engineer-at-facebook-9366151b52db https://medium.com/@anyengineer/how-much-i-made-as-a-really-... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25286487 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25286487, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24443497 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24443497) ...is this a pile of hot air? Genuine question.
  - disgruntledphd2 4y ago
    It seems pretty exaggerated, but within the bounds of possibility.
ipaddr 4y ago
Those million dollar engineers are not being paid for there c++ skills they are being paid for their leadership
- mtnGoat 4y ago
  Or their knowledge the payer doesn’t want the competition to acquire. My understanding is that most of these really high wages are more strategic than anything else. If they are an IC, they probably wouldn’t be leading anything except maybe thought leadership.
quickthrower2 4y ago
You also need the “willing to work high up in big tech” trait, and probably jump through leetcode loops too.

Some senior engineers at big tech companies make more than a million US per year, so someone with an excellent diverse C++ skill set and an entrepreneurial bent could well make much more than that.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

ketzo 4y ago

I don’t know about much more. The last time I saw the top ends of Google’s IC pay scale, it was ~$1.5 million TC, and that was for, like, two people. I’m being nit picky. But big tech isn’t THAT insane. 7 figure TC is incredibly, incredibly rare. It’s not just “senior engineer”, it’s “senior senior senior senior” or more.

vidarh 4y ago
For C++ the top end of the market is more like trading systems and the like than Google. Still rare, though, but the C++ market has lots of weird little very high paid niches.
- n0tth3dro1ds 4y ago
  HFT firms require lots of domain knowledge on top of “just” C++. Those quants are elite mathematicians and highly knowledgeable in finance in addition to being great at C++ (or OCaml). I would say that C++ expertise is often actually “underpaid” compared to its level of difficult. If you’re doing OS stuff in C++ you’re working on something embedded. If you’re doing embedded, you’re probably selling hardware, which has low margins (compared to pure software plays). Meanwhile a Ruby on Rails dev who can iterate their web app quickly can start getting PMF and basically print money.
  - vidarh 4y ago
    It may well be underpaid compared to it's difficulty level, but the jobs exist. Meanwhile I've yet to see a Rails job that pays enough to be worth my while, despite Ruby being by far my favourite language. I get to use Ruby a lot (rarely Rails; don't like the thing), but because I am typically in senior enough positions to have autonomy in what I choose for my projects - the moment a job is advertised as a Rails job, the pay is accordingly low.
    - n0tth3dro1ds 4y ago
      That's surprising for me to hear (as a non-Ruby/Rails guy that doesn't know that sub-market), given how many massively successful startups were built on Rails. I get that Rails isn't the hot new thing anymore, but Airbnb pays quite well and still uses it, right? Are there just tons of smaller fish paying peanuts?
      - vidarh 4y ago
        It's worth adding to this I've been developing software professionally for 27 years, so there being few Rails jobs meeting my expectations does not mean there aren't well paid Rails jobs. But Rails does best in a chunk of what used to be the PHP market for quick and dirty websites. Once companies scale, only a relatively small portion of their dev work tends to be Rails related, and not the most interesting/best paid parts of their dev work. The roles you can use Ruby in are wider and there is some juicier stuff there, but most of that isn't advertised as Ruby. E.g. in a lot of devops roles you may come across quite a bit of Ruby tooling.
  - pencilguin 4y ago
    If you think C++ is underpaid, check out electrical engineering. If you think electrical engineering is underpaid, check out chemistry. If you think chemistry is underpaid, check out biology.
    - Test0129 4y ago
      If you think chemistry is unpaid check out math :P. But seriously, outside of quant work or certified actuaries mathematicians do not make as much as one would think.
Aeolun 4y ago
I regularly see people with 600k though. That’s already beyond crazy.
exikyut 4y ago
"How much I made as a really good Engineer at Facebook" (2018): https://medium.com/@anyengineer/how-much-i-made-as-a-really-good-engineer-at-facebook-9366151b52db https://medium.com/@anyengineer/how-much-i-made-as-a-really-... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25286487 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25286487, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24443497 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24443497) ...is this a pile of hot air? Genuine question.
- disgruntledphd2 4y ago
  It seems pretty exaggerated, but within the bounds of possibility.

ipaddr 4y ago

Those million dollar engineers are not being paid for there c++ skills they are being paid for their leadership

mtnGoat 4y ago
Or their knowledge the payer doesn’t want the competition to acquire. My understanding is that most of these really high wages are more strategic than anything else. If they are an IC, they probably wouldn’t be leading anything except maybe thought leadership.

quickthrower2 4y ago

You also need the “willing to work high up in big tech” trait, and probably jump through leetcode loops too.