I second this wholeheartedly. Unless you are specialized in some vertical with locally or nationally recognized skills, you are going to hit the ceiling. I'm no

I second this wholeheartedly. Unless you are specialized in some vertical with locally or nationally recognized skills, you are going to hit the ceiling. I'm not commanding 200-300K salary yet. But story is true for someone earning 150-160K. It seems like 150K is the beginning of the ceiling. From a company's point of view, it's legit to not offer high salary for individuals with generic skills and experiences. They can always hire 2 at the cost 1 engineer. Then pay thru slower productivity, buggy software, inefficient architecture and so on.