5 ms·
Even in New York and Boston there are a lot of programmers and other midlevel ICs making making ~$150k. Not everyone is lucky enough to work at Google.
by nerdponx 3y ago
Even in New York and Boston there are a lot of programmers and other midlevel ICs making making ~$150k. Not everyone is lucky enough to work at Google.
- bla3 3y agoIn NY at least, you can do into Fintech. That pays _better_ than Google/Meta.
- astrange 3y agoNow, or doing zero interest rates? I'm not sure I've ever seen a useful customer fintech company, except maybe Betterment if you ignore half the features.
- samtho 3y agoPeople always crap on tech for being useless while ignoring that 95% of fintech companies exist solely and completely as a vehicle to generate money for a very small group of people.
- astrange 3y agoI thought they existed to create customer lists for Chase to acquire.
- eyelidlessness 3y agoUseful for tiny fraction of people who could benefit from use is a kind of useful, but probably not a kind to write home about.
- justsocrateasin 3y agoper hour salary is usually drastically worse though.
- biztos 3y agoSecond prize is a set of steak knives…
- janejeon 3y agoGenuinely curious - is that now, or back when rates were low?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Patrol8394 3y agoWhat makes faang special are rsu refresh, that makes a huge difference.
- tdeck 3y agoASIC design is a much more ratified skill set than you'd need for a normal programming job. I always found it sad that salaries in the hardware industry are so comparatively low.
- Workaccount2 3y agoIt's even crazier when you consider that readily available knowledge for cutting edge hardware is much more scarce compared to software. There are no massive communities of knowledgeable people all trying to show you what you are doing wrong. Especially for something like silicon design, there is virtually zero knowledge available outside of institutions.
- DontchaKnowit 3y agoI think in some ways this actually is better though. I find that when I want technical info about hardware-specific topics, I do not find the same kind of dumpster-fire articles like I would about say, ReactJS, or something similarly trendy. Its always some basic html/css website with extremely well written technical information from an old-head that is a master of whatever he is talking about.
- johnwalkr 3y agoI understand what you mean by better but you have to admit the much lower compensation is weird given how much higher the bar is to be an SME and how many fewer the engineers are.
- DontchaKnowit 3y agoI meant that it might be better that there aren't massive communities of them. Didn't mean anything about compensation.
- wbl 3y agoSoftware doesn't require a few billion in capital as a complement.
- rngname22 3y agoI work in New York at a tech company with more than 200 employees that's a household name among below 50s and considered a hot brand and I only get paid 150.
- Scoundreller 3y agoNYC metro or Rochester/Buffalo? 150k goes a lot further in the latter.
- nerdponx 3y agoLast I checked, $150k/year was enough to afford a decent house in a place like Penfield. It's a completely different world. I'm talking about NYC metro. Interestingly it seems like just about all of New England is more expensive than comparable areas in Western NY.
- numbsafari 3y agoIt pays to be on the coastal plains, east of the Appalachian mountains.
- nsporillo 3y agoI bought a house in a suburb of Rochester on a $80k salary in 2021. Same house 2 years later would be double the monthly payment :)
- throwaway2037 3y agoWait, is that due to interest rates or capital appreciation? There is a big difference.
- eyelidlessness 3y agoBasically all places in the US with anything resembling urban density and don’t have a reputation for decline have been on this housing cost trajectory for several years now.
- hadlock 3y agoHousing in the NE isn't amazing, but it's dramatically better than the bay area. You need to make 225+ (300 realistically) in the bay area to be a home owner, and even then you're living in a marginal area with a lot of compromises
- Patrol8394 3y agoI don’t think 225 or even 300 would be enough. Especially if you have kids. I don’t think people truly realize how home ownership has become completely out of reach for most, even for tech workers.
- lotsofpulp 3y agoI would want minimum two $200k+ incomes in case of income loss for one person.
- abustamam 3y agoMy wife and I live in a suburb of the Sacramento, CA area and have a combined household income of $400k and we have 20% saved for a $700k house (avg price in this area). But the mortgage costs would still be insane. We could either pay $2500/to rent a nice house (3-4bed 2b 2000sqft,we have no kids) or $4000-5000/mo for pretty much the same. At this point in the housing market, buying makes no sense. I wish people would stop pushing the "American dream" of NEEDING to own a home. Homeownership is not a necessity, it is a luxury. This American dream philosophy has caused very unfair policies where people who make $60k qualify for housing assistance and can buy houses for 0 down because the govt pays for some of their down payment[0]. If I can't enjoy the luxury of owning a home, why do my tax dollars pay for that luxury for those who earn less? I'm not anti socialism at all, either. I'm just stating that home ownership is a luxury in this day and age. Pay for people to live somewhere, yes. Provide them with mental health care, yes. I don't mind my tax dollars being used for those necessities. Helping with home ownership? In a market that already has fierce competition and low inventory? It's ridiculous. [0] https://abc7.com/amp/california-housing-finance-agency-down-payment-assistance-program-in-calhfa/13114933/ https://abc7.com/amp/california-housing-finance-agency-down-...
- ksec 3y agoThis does not align with 2018-2022 mainstream HN and Twitter narrative. 1. You should be paid the same regardless where you work. 2. ~150K is significantly underpaid for any programmers.
- usaar333 3y ago#1 is only true for remote work.
- danaris 3y agoHell, I've been programming (among other things) for 20 years now and never even come close to $100K. Granted, I live in a rural area, so CoL is lower, but still, that doesn't entirely balance out. Not every tech worker works at a tech company, and not every tech worker makes bank, in either relative or absolute terms.