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Comment by baron_harkonnen | Hacker News Reader

$250k total comp is pretty common for software engineers with a bit of experience. I’ve found Blind is the best place to get actual TC numbers. But even outside of the Bay area and outside of faang $250k should be your target at this point if you’re software engineer with ~5 years of experience.

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Whoa, so I have about 20 years professional experience (19-39), 10 years non-professional (ages 8-18), what should I be making right now? Because it's not 250

Yeah, same here (nowhere near 250). This thread is depressing. ;_;

I used to see salary threads like this and be depressed too, but don't be. You not getting paid what you're worth does not mean you are not worth more. Next time you go out and interview be bold. Absolutely some companies will balk at a high salary requirement, but others will take it seriously. Even if you don't get $250k you'll get closer than you think and do much better than you are right now.

I was making a lot less not long ago. Then I went to an interview, knocked it out of the park, and when the ask TC reqs I just said $250 would work, and they made it happen. This is not in SF-area or NYC either.

Thanks, and good advice about being bolder with future salary asks. :)

That money does not come without cost: competitiveness at work, imposter syndrome, unreasonable deadlines, on-call rotations. Not to mention that you'll very likely be working for a mega-corp trying to improve some abstract metric for your division by 4% so they can sell more ads for more dollars. I don't know what your current situation is, but consider carefully what you would be giving up to get those dollars.

That's good perspective, thank you. <3

Yeah that parent comment was highly delusional. That’s not Sr. Dev money in northern Virginia / MD / DC which is definitely above median across US.

You could easily touch around 250k total comp at one of the FAANGs. Depending on location and company:

~150k salary

~15k bonus

~100k stock

Good 401k match

This is the average of anecdotal evidence I have seen from friends and acquaintances with around your experience.

If you manage to get a job at Google, Facebook, Apple etc, you should expect to be making north of $200k.

You should. I had the same realization not long ago. Small companies and start ups will have a hard time getting there but any publicly traded tech company should definitely be giving you total comp approaching that range.

Honestly it really depends on skillset, location, company, project history. You've got 10yrs exp, I'm guessing you're a strong senior engineer (which again, overloaded term, but IMO it means you can solve problems on your own and can unblock your teammates vs. block them) - I'd ballpark 175 -> 225. Go to a FAANG and you can stretch total comp up into the mid-250s.

If your skills and what's shiny in the market right now are all concentric, you can add 100k's on top. (Just left FB on the internal React team? Been on Netflix's recommendation model team? SRE working with core Kubernetes? Cha-ching!)

At Google or FB you’d earn upwards of 300-400K in a senior role. I don’t think being on the shiny stuff t your previous company will help unless you’re known in the industry, as in you’re brought out as a Distinguished engineer or similar VP/ equivalent IC role - source: I interview at a FANG.

Experience matters (much) less than being able to survive a day or more of whiteboard algorithm questions. The other option is sliding into something development-adjacent that's paid better than developers almost everywhere except FAANG (management, software architecture, that kind of thing) so might pull almost that much comp, and has interviews that are more about speaking well and job-relevant experience & knowledge than memorizing Introduction to Algorithms and operating for hours on end under a microscope. Also don't be old (30+) and without some existing FAANG or otherwise "impressive" employers, or it'll be assumed you've been wasting your life, your experience must just be "one year repeated x times", and you don't belong.

I'm trying to work toward the tech-adjacent side because developer comp tops out around 150k or 160k total in my area—and the top end of that's usually got one foot in management. Remote comp seems similar, unless you can do the hardcore algo interview thing—and even some of those don't pay especially well, if they're offering remote and feel like they're already doing you some kind of favor.

In my experience remote jobs (especially at smaller companies) seem to care more about your experience and ability to do the job than the Leetcode trivia questions. And although "impressive" employers might help, they're definitely not a prerequisite. Most engineers working remotely have never worked at a FAANG type company.

What is "Blind"?

The Blind app used for anonymous work discussions: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blind-anonymous-work-talk/id73...

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