There is absolutely no way to get 500k/year from being just an engineer in Europe.
I recall the React creator's base salary is 100k/year in London, and he works at Facebook.
I recall the React creator's base salary is 100k/year in London, and he works at Facebook.
The average salary for a Software Engineer is $66K per year in Germany (~61% less).
Source: indeed and payscale.
I always find a bit funny when US devs in HN talk about getting salaries above $200K/year... when the average US dev gets half of that. (I find it funny because everybody here thinks we are above the average dev level and can get a job at Facebook/Google/Amazon/etc... which is statistically incorrect).
- number of software engineers in the US: X - number of software engineers in HN: Y - number of software engineers working for FAANG-like companies: N
Where X >>>> Y >> N. So, yes, I also think that everyone here can't get a job paying 300K or higher not because we are not skilled enough but by simple math.
Well, yeah, luck certainly can factor in. There was a year I made around 1.35 million in total comp due to luck like this. Nowadays I mostly make around 150k.
I'm sure you can join one of the FAANGs and get, at least, $300k/year easily.
If I have a few millions in my bank, I'd definitely join an interesting startup with no regard to compensation.
1.3m/year definitely has some luck involved. 500k/year is probably less luck. Just joined one of the hot tech companies and stay for 4 years. You have to be unlucky to not get to 500k/year.
It's much easier to achieve 500k/year in Bay Area than in Europe.
500k/year can be achieved by being a senior engineer at one of the successful companies for a few years. The stock growth should take care of that, easily. There are probably like 100 of successful companies in Bay Area between 2010 to 2020.
There are thousands of people achieving this in Bay Area.
In Europe, the base salary is lower. The stock comp is also lower. If you are a regular IC, these 2 always go together. You would need a much higher stock growth. This level of compensation is rarely heard of that it seems impossible.
thousands ? out of how many ? seems like a tiny fraction
Way more attainable.
Proprietary trading shops in London at the top end or L6+ at Google Zurich can pay that in total comp.
> I recall the React creator's base salary is 100k/year in London, and he works at Facebook.
And what about stocks? There should be at least another 100k in them. Facebook is a publicly tradable company, its RSUs are as good as cash, unlike startup paper money.
That's like a new grad engineer at twitter if we simply compare base salary.
To be honest, given how Facebook works, all the work he does in React/Redux is probably hindering him in terms of getting promotions.
When I was a new grad 8 years ago, my base salary was $120k already.
Unless he got a special deal, for an IC, the stock is proportional to the base salary. If your base salary is low, your stock will also be low.