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Comment by giantg2 | Hacker News Reader

I updated to multi-millionaire. The idea was that people would have enough money to quit their job and live very comfortably.

I think the network effect is highly overblown for the average person. Sure, networks can be good for the people in the top 10%, but I don't see it really helping most of us because what are the chances our average friends will be in a position to hire us to a high position.

I don't see an average developer being even a millionaire after a decade. Average salary is about $100k, but might be skewed due to the high cost areas. That's $1M before tax, living expenses, etc. Maybe you could hit $1M after 2 decades if lucky.

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> live very comfortably.

The single highest ROI thing you can do for your life is to drop that "very".

But then it wouldn't be consistent with the use of Gates as an example. That's basically the point.

Is the average for a developer really that low (in the US)? In the Boston-area market (now remote, but same pay scale), we're paying more than that for fresh college hires.

Get hired, contribute to your 401(k), buy a house, and do that for 15 years and in most markets I think your change in net worth over the 15 years is more likely to be >$1MM than less.

Yes. I make under $100k with 9 years experience and a masters as a midlevel.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/software-developer-salary...

GlassDoor is notorious for having salary data that's consistently lower than reality. Compare any individual company's GlassDoor and levels.fyi

Levels.fyi is skewed to the top paying tech companies though.

BLS shows median as $110k

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

Right, but that's not an issue if you're looking at a single company on GlassDoor and levels.

That median includes QA and Testers, do folks in these job titles always code? If not I wouldn't call them SWE/SDE.

Then I guess I'm just a loser.

Depends how much you value salary..wouldn't necessarily measure yourself by it

Well, I have to support a family on it. I dont get time to do anything enjoyable. I don't have any upward mobility. All with no end in sight for when I'll be able to quit this job I hate.

I don't really know your personal situation, but that sucks I hope things improve for you.

Start working some l33tcode problems and applying to other jobs. If you hate your job, it pays poorly, you have no upward mobility, and you don't get to do anything enjoyable, get another job. The companies on levels.fyi are all hiring, go do what it takes to get hired by them.

There really aren't any job options in my area. I don't consider remote an option for a new job since it's much more difficult to onboard virtually. I dont have time to LeetCode due to family constraints.

> buy a house In my neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, a 1 bedroom is approximately a million dollars. COL in the area where your job is is critically important as well.

Yeah, same issue in the Bay Area.

It’s frustrating because increasing housing supply has so many positive effects for the group. It’d make life so much easier.

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Stats May 2018 for the job category "Software Developers, Applications" mean salary is $108K. They provide percentiles 10% at 66K and 90% at 161K.

https://www.bls.gov/oes/2018/may/oes151132.htm

> I think the network effect is highly overblown for the average person. Sure, networks can be good for the people in the top 10%, but I don't see it really helping most of us because what are the chances our average friends will be in a position to hire us to a high position.

Your friends don't need to be in a position to hire you into a high position. They just need to be in a position to recommend you for a good job that might be a step up. Or put in a good word for you when you apply at their company.

They don't even need to be friends. In fact, most of the time I get my back-channel references from people who simply worked at a company at the same time as another person.

Network effects aren't always obvious. I can't tell you how many times I've changed my mind on a candidate (in either direction) due to a friend of a friend giving me some more info about their experience working with the candidate.

All I know is that it's never helped me.

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