5 ms·

being just a regular IT person with 15+years experience and getting paid fairly well for what the local market is, whats the chance of a normal person working a

being just a regular IT person with 15+years experience and getting paid fairly well for what the local market is, whats the chance of a normal person working at a place that pays $700,000 as a SWE? How do you even approach that? Does someone mid career have a chance to pivot?

woodruffw 3y ago
Almost nowhere pays $700k for a SWE. These numbers come from stock grants or similar financial instruments; that money gets realized eventually, but it's not guaranteed in the same way that a fortnightly bank deposit is.
- whimsicalism 3y ago
  If we are discussing the levels.fyi pay report, then they are only including the numbers you get in a single year, you are incorrect. $700k is obviously top top band, but this is referring to annual pay.
  - idontpost 3y ago
    [dead]
- zyang 3y ago
  Yes stock grants is a big part of it but I don't think they are counting unvested stocks. It's your gross income on w-2.
- calvinmorrison 3y ago
  Ok 356k then?
- hilbertseries 3y ago
  Stock grants are typically vested quarterly, sometimes after an initial waiting period of 1-2 years. RSUs are just cash, I don’t see how they would not be considered being paid. They certainly show up on my W2.
  - woodruffw 3y ago
    I didn’t say they aren’t considered being paid; I said that they’re speculative instruments in a way that a paycheck isn’t. In other words: 700k is 700k when realized, but there’s no particular guarantee that so-and-so many units of stock are worth that much; it depends on the market. Comparing TC as if 700k is guaranteed is misleading.
    - whimsicalism 3y ago
      You could also get fired even with salary income.
- cdf 3y ago
  Amazon in particular has RSUs 80% vesting only in the 3rd and 4th years resulting in these spectacular TCs.
1-6 3y ago
To answer your question on how to make lots of money mid-career, think about how you're scaling yourself. Are you an IT person supporting a 20-100 person team at a small company? You gotta learn how to scale your time and effort by impacting more than that. You'll have to impact more than 2 million people to get to 700k.
edmundsauto 3y ago
I went from making barely $100k to a senior engineer at a FAANG simply by passing the interviews. No special background, I worked at the same function at a 50 person local SEO marketing company before that. I did take 1 year off to "find myself" and do some hobby projects that helped catch recruiting attention - nothing anyone would have ever seen here, but enough materiel to discuss in an interview Didn't get up to $700k -- that's L7/Director territory (hard to reach) -- but it's definitely possible to get into the $300-400k range just by being a run of the mill engineer at big tech.

woodruffw 3y ago

Almost nowhere pays $700k for a SWE. These numbers come from stock grants or similar financial instruments; that money gets realized eventually, but it's not guaranteed in the same way that a fortnightly bank deposit is.

whimsicalism 3y ago
If we are discussing the levels.fyi pay report, then they are only including the numbers you get in a single year, you are incorrect. $700k is obviously top top band, but this is referring to annual pay.
- idontpost 3y ago
  [dead]
zyang 3y ago
Yes stock grants is a big part of it but I don't think they are counting unvested stocks. It's your gross income on w-2.
calvinmorrison 3y ago
Ok 356k then?
hilbertseries 3y ago
Stock grants are typically vested quarterly, sometimes after an initial waiting period of 1-2 years. RSUs are just cash, I don’t see how they would not be considered being paid. They certainly show up on my W2.
- woodruffw 3y ago
  I didn’t say they aren’t considered being paid; I said that they’re speculative instruments in a way that a paycheck isn’t. In other words: 700k is 700k when realized, but there’s no particular guarantee that so-and-so many units of stock are worth that much; it depends on the market. Comparing TC as if 700k is guaranteed is misleading.
  - whimsicalism 3y ago
    You could also get fired even with salary income.
cdf 3y ago
Amazon in particular has RSUs 80% vesting only in the 3rd and 4th years resulting in these spectacular TCs.

1-6 3y ago

To answer your question on how to make lots of money mid-career, think about how you're scaling yourself. Are you an IT person supporting a 20-100 person team at a small company? You gotta learn how to scale your time and effort by impacting more than that. You'll have to impact more than 2 million people to get to 700k.

edmundsauto 3y ago

I went from making barely $100k to a senior engineer at a FAANG simply by passing the interviews. No special background, I worked at the same function at a 50 person local SEO marketing company before that. I did take 1 year off to "find myself" and do some hobby projects that helped catch recruiting attention - nothing anyone would have ever seen here, but enough materiel to discuss in an interview Didn't get up to $700k -- that's L7/Director territory (hard to reach) -- but it's definitely possible to get into the $300-400k range just by being a run of the mill engineer at big tech.