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Comment by metabagel | Hacker News Reader

Outside the Bay Area, $250K is top dollar.

Not really, even in the Midwest, such as the Metro Detroit region, 250k is definitely attainable. I’m in that band and live there.

Base or with bonuses?

I find it hard to get roles in the midwest (large metro in Ohio) clearing 200k, though sometimes bonuses get you up there.

TC, my base isn’t that high.

It definitely is not.

WTF. I worked on some high exposure projects as a senior dev and never a final offer above $130k USD. Even after haggling hard at a company I had been at for 3 years and they told me I was their top, highest paid engineer and it led me to quit. Then I got approached by Facebook to work in London HQ and the offer they were dangling was £100GBP which was about $130k USD. Highest offer I ever got before I even got to the final round of interviews was $160k USD from a well known crypto company but for some reason the head of engineering didn't show up to the final interview at the last minute after I flew through all the tech tests as those devs who interviewed admitted. It was weird.

I always assumed the reported 250k plus salaries were fake news or only reserved for children of powerful people.

I just quit a $180k job for a $125k job. I did it to join a team that I want to work with, and people that I can trust. I used to waddle out of bed around 9am and quit at 2-3pm after hours or boredom. Now I jump out of bed at 5am and don't quit until 4 pm--sometimes I spend all day traveling. I about cry at night because I love my job so much.

To be fair, I think the 250k mark usually implies some kind of specialization.

Why would you assume that? Look up levels.fyi

$250k total comp isn't even particularly high at one of the big companies.

gotta keep in mind that this sounds like pre-COVID times, and even big companies weren't going to pay San Fran Salaries to low CoL areas.

It definitely isn't easy to find those numbers if your CoL doesn't require them. You'd need to move to those areas.

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