Throwaway account for the purposes of workplace anonymity. I just wanted to add an anecdotal data point. I am also a mid-20s year old living in NYC working in

Throwaway account for the purposes of workplace anonymity. I just wanted to add an anecdotal data point. I am also a mid-20s year old living in NYC working in tech, although not for a large company. My cash compensation is currently around $200k/year, salary + bonus. I also have some options which may or may not ever be worth anything. I would parrot what a3voices said, and say that I probably got to where I am by having a slightly-more scarce specialty in tech, and also by being one of the people with a full grasp of the company stack.