Comment by thinbeige | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thinbeige | Hacker News Reader

Slightly OT but maybe helpful: Don't focus too much on the salary. It's just one tiny part of the whole package.

Your dev job pays your rent, food and savings. I assume that most dev jobs do this quite well.

Beyond this, the main goal of a job is to increase your future market value, your professional network and to have fun. So. basically it's about how much you are worth in your next job and that you enjoy your time.

A high salary doesn't help you if you do stuff which doesn't matter in a few years.

A high salary doesn't help you if you work at an unknown company which goes bankrupt in a few months and you cannot show a finished product or that you can stay at one job longer than 12 months.

A high salary doesn't help you if your coworkers are toxic or not the smartest guys or their English is on such a basic level that the communication and not the coding is your daily challenge.

A high salary doesn't help you if your CTO is a passive-aggressive, clueless guy who doesn't talk.

A high salary doesn't help you if you just work on some side projects nobody cares about, in a programming language you weren't hired for.

A high salary doesn't help you if you are not happy.

Happiness is paramount. And especially early on having opportunities for growth matters.

But after a couple years in the industry? A high salary goes really far. Note that "high" means different things to different people, but choosing a 300k/year job over a 200k/year job is often a good idea, even if it's to do stupid shit and not change the world. That doesn't mean you should choose misery over happiness for money, but it's rare that the choice is that stark.

Most tradeoffs are ill-defined and uncertain when you're choosing the job. Salary, on the other hand, is directly comparable, and it translates to something very real and concrete.

Well, having had a few times the opportunity to do such a move, I stayed at my previous job. Good atmosphere, cool company (a big one), located in such a way that my 15 km bike commute is 70% in a forest, no travel, yell at my children every night so that they do their homework/wash teeth etc.

What would these 100k give me? Not much - I will comfortably retire when time comes. I would consider a 500k increase as it would change my life and probably help me to retire earlier.

I belive that what revenue brings in a set of plateaux. When you start every euro counts, then comes a plateau and you move up after a significant change of salary. Which brings some acceptable/bereable drawbacks.

What about working for 2 years then taking a break to work on side projects and travel for a year. With a high income you can do this; essentially working 66%

Beside the fact that I hate to travel (I accumulated 2+M miles in 8 years, I had enough) I have children. I want stability for them, a routine in which they will feel safe.

I like to work in an office because it gives me two separate worlds (office and home) which is good for my sanity.

Finally, I live in France where the costs of life are quite high and I will not be able to easily find a similar job (there are just a few) so when I retire, this is for good.

I am considering a sabbatical, though.

One of the primary reasons people are interested in high salaries is to stop paying rent and become homeowners, and to pay for things like travel, childcare, education, hobbies, etc.

If the only expenses you need to fund are rent and food, what are you doing in an industry this competitive and stressful?

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