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Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

I have a sister-in-law that I recently learned is making $275k in a tech job in Seattle. She has no college degree or formal training. She has just learned things on the job over the years. I was frankly astonished. That is more than double what I make as a senior software engineer 3 hours away in Portland.

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I also live in Portland. I have a lot of friends in Seattle, and I would pretty strongly assert 275k in Seattle is definitely an outlier.

As a software dev just to the north in Vancouver, BC at 110k CAD: that's bananas money.

I am a software engineer in Vancouver as well, feels bad. My partner doesn't want to move so I am taking the pay cut. I have noticed that Vancouver dev salaries have been increasing the last few years, but no where close to +200K USD.

My end goal is to move to the Okanagan and get a remote job where I could get similar pay to Vancouver with much lower living costs.

That's not a bad idea, I love the Okanagan, though it might be a bit isolating. Salary is certainly one thing, but I wouldn't move for salary alone or that of my partner (I don't think). There just isnt enough personal value to be gained in salary increases enough to sacrifice being with or where you love to be.

When last did you change jobs? A year ago I did and set a hard minimum at 120, and managed 2 offers as high as 160 and took a lower one due to more interesting work and great environment. And had to cancel 3 more on site interviews that knew my range was 130-140. My previous job had a 2% raise over 3 years, with a salary out of touch with the current ranges. It seems the only way to get a raise much of the time is new work (and practice negotiating!)

Just a few months ago. What's your specific discipline and exp? It's good to hear that there's a lot of room to grow. I'm well aware of when/how the biggest gains are made, but I appreciate the insight nonetheless. I consider 110k at the moment to be pretty ok, just considering my extremely spotty track record atm. I'll stick around for now to rebuild my savings and get some current exp, but won't sit on it for too long especially if the compensation doesn't seem right.

And seven times as much as I make working as a compiler engineer with a double BSc and MSc in STEM. Salaries do vary a lot with location.

What job / company (or industry if you can't say)?

Something to do with cloud computing, but not for any of the FANG + Microsoft companies.

Well FAANG seems to be missing an A, and a certain company does cloud computing starting with an A

Well the company she works for doesn't start with an A. But what is the A I'm missing? Oh, Apple. Nope, not Apple.

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