2. I got a job for 130k 6 months later and my mind was blown. But this is still a few months for recognition within the team (scale of 5-10 people) and a few years for within the company/department (scale of 100-300+ people). Don't work 80 hr weeks more than a few times a year. So house prices aren't included, just imputed rent. Are engine/graphics programmers in a similar boat? Software engineering can rely heavily on analytic skills, problem solving, and teamwork. My latest has been a course in human physiology, which turned out to be quite a challenge though I passed. Making a statement that actuaries make over 200k is very misguided and you are naive to think that all actuaries make this. One of the things I have found helpful is to read the otherwise often ignored first two chapters of books in multiple domains. We might be having an issue with the definition of the word consultant here or the Dutch market might just be different. If you want to do consulting, as opposed to traditional work, you can get to $200k, but you'll probably need to bill out around $120/hr or so. What level (in the hierarchy) were you? I'm with you there. Regarding work, try hard to get onto a team that as a group is happy, gets along, and is reasonably productive. So I'll say "Hmm, interesting, why do you say that". Edit: it occurred to me that I left the definition of "peak" unspecified. I looked for your contact info in your profile, since a buddy of mine who is brilliant is looking into getting into quant/finance work. Do you think you would have trouble staying 100% utilized if you were charging $100/hr as originally mentioned? I didn't know that programmers in the gaming industry could get paid that much. Change jobs every 3 years. $30k $110k $230k. If you're 30, take some risks. Still working on this myself. The extra work that comes with consulting is well worth it. Porn (the well-regulated with paid actors kind) is quite often more honest. Software engineers can work in companies of all sizes. Software Engineer salaries are based on responses gathered by Built In NYC from anonymous Software Engineer employees in NYC. You can buy almost anything from Amazon now, from electronics to clothing, ebooks, streaming TV shows and movies, and even web services like servers and distributed databases. Ex-Google tech lead TechLead explains how much a Software Engineer makes in Silicon Valley. Take it up a level. > you are naive, and uninformed. It took about 3 years of non stop pushing myself (80/hr a week or more) to get here. 182k. I'm never sure whether my instinct of just treating people/clients well and keeping their interests at the forefront of my mind is yound/naive thinking or whether it pays off. When factoring in bonuses and additional compensation, a Senior Software Engineer at … It's 99% nonsense and it manufactures stress solely for the sake of manufacturing stress. House prices aren't part of inflation, are they? 10 years at a big 4 - lots of technical success, but also a lot of learning about how to play the game. I agree with seeing freelancing as a way to avoid paying a third party for doing sales (marketing & negotiation) and finances (bookkeeping & buffering) for you. Disagree. It's easy to obsess about salaires when it's the "reality TV" of our industry but, as you hinted in your question, most of it is BS. Some of the best programmers I know were self-taught. You could probably get there with less total stress by outsourcing cooking, cleaning, etc and working in 3 hour chunks with 1 hour breaks in between. By age 30, I hoped to have the experience and talent of at least a 40 year old, but have my 30's to chase what I wanted. clients do not need highly paid (senior, architects, etc.) There's plenty of companies who have built very complex solutions to simple problems and they need someone that knows how the wiring is supposed to work. The world is your oyster if you can master the following: - doing difficult technical things Sure you can make that, but you have to get to a good group, or you have to have psychopathic personality. Most developers, no matter how good they are, don't get a 50% raise, but it wouldn't be hard to start around $60k, then jump to $85k, then to $110k, then to $140k. In a way, either consulting pays for one's learning/growth, or VC funding can, or bootstrapping can. All this time the main thing is that I kept working on all my skills, everything big and complex I could get my hands on that is. You earn more, are able to expense much more and at the end of the day you feel like you are running your own business (because you are). I love coding. You may be able to rebuild the ball, but it'll never be the same. Conclusion. It doesn't even matter if all you did was help update the docs. Inflation have been crazy for the last decade, salary is finally starting to catch up, especially this year. It’s one of two security jobs with a salary range that tops $200,000. I can easily imagine that the people in such companies are well aware that the system they have is overly complex but they don't have the ability/will/breathing-room to change. First, constantly improve throughout your 20s. I have 2-3 clients that put me well over 100% utilization for a couple years going strong now. I'm a RoR developer making 450k a year. I just turned into a software dev, after about a decade split between help desk and system administration. Contractor != Full time software engineers, which is what the topic is. Your career ball is like a rubber ball and if you drop it, it will bounce back. - As for chances of getting in, I'd say that it's definitely still possible but harder than it was. The most successful that I've seen has always been one of three things. 1- About hitching myself to great growing clients -- I think it's important to help them grow. The rest was primarily rolling stock grants vesting. See 65 salaries from all locations Now of course I don't get 100% utilization, but in practice my holidays and illnesses have had a much bigger impact on that than availability of engagements has. Form an LLC and pitch as a business. The real challenge at those companies is to get promoted beyond that cap. I take every single Friday off, and I don't work extra hours the other days. While everyone who knows me tells me that I should be in high demand, most of the jobs do not demand that broad an expertise, which often means (1) they are not ready to pay :-) for it, and (2) the job does not excite me enough. 200k+ base, 400k total. same with SAP or anyone who has done large Microsoft installations / integrations. Permanent. 30? $215 OTE plus stock awards. There are architect-level jobs which are an ideal fit but they are not most of the jobs statistically. What does a $150k+ engineer know? Custom middleware to speak between any combination of legal, workflow, shipping, accounting, logistics, retail, and beyond. These types of packages are what are known as golden handcuffs. Software engineers have extensive knowledge of programming languages, software development, and computer operating systems, and they apply engineering principles to software creation. The jobs requiring this skill have increase by 6.76% since 2018. But you could be on way way way more like 100k or even 200K + when you have more experience. With equity packages, base and bonus, many Google/Facebook employees crack the 200k figure. Most enterprise shops will think about it like this; "Either we hire Bob who did some spring work for x-corp, or we pay an additional 40k and we get Lisa who helped write Spring. Sorry, I have no idea how I thought 'traditional' should be used as a modifier for the word "porn.". I'm going to guess which peak someone is likely to fall in varies with factors like years of experience, when you entered the workforce, how often you changed jobs, luck or whatever. > Whenever I am a hiring manager, I am pretty openly biased against hiring PhDs. Checkout glassdoor.com to find those companies. Thanks for sharing. I wasn't the smartest person in any of my classes, but I got my work done well and didn't blow it off. Please follow the conventions. Not all contractors are consultants. Your ability to deal with realities to make and leave it better is an important skill to always work on. Coder is an engineering-first organization. I'm fairly unknown as a developer, so I'm not one of the bigger names. A good percentage of developers make close to $200k after bonuses. After having interviewed thousands of candidates over 15 years, if I see a tilde in your URL on your resume, I'm immediately a little bit less interested. An artist isn't a "paintbrush mover", and you're certainly not a typist. In my experience as an employee at companies both large and small moving beyond $150K/yr base salary in a non-executive role is quite unusual. 110k 200k. The latter does not show up on your CV and so requires using your network and recommendations, which by itself takes several years to build. So in a reactionary fashion, they start attacking the other posters, calling them liars, non-employees, whatever. Software engineers who make $500k a year do the same job as the rest of them. That includes state, federal, CA SDI, Medicare, and SS. In my case, finance. At 30, make sure you have been networking well, as the vast majority of senior hires into good positions are done through networking your way to a hiring manager who then sets up the interview. 17. $20k $103k $180k. You're going to be that ninja who knows exactly how the memory manager works, or you're going to be that guy who shows up in a tux & a NSX when someone gets shot in the head to help clean up. Trends today are on mobility and security, but there are plenty of others. Maybe not with coding challenges but their high-level guys have been known to grill a few people I've worked with. Why can't someone vouch for you? I donno, I've seen up to $180k from LinkedIn spam, some of those are not listed jobs in very hot companies... Classy. The only skill I paid attention to learning was learning to take good care of my customers in their terms, not my lofty explanations trivializing them and their feelings. On the other hand, your income will be at least 3X the poverty line. As a consultant, I've billed nearly 500 an hour, so do your math on six hours a week of that. Good software engineers don’t call it a day until their code works and they can explain exactly why it works. It is like you tell yourselves this to justify not majoring in engineering or something. > [Moxie Marlinspike] was the chief technology officer and co-founder of Whisper Systems, which was acquired by Twitter for an undisclosed amount in late 2011. So even though I try to read up on new things eventually it does come down to some sort of web stack :) Maybe I read HN too much and its too web oriented. Below I've aggregated 5 lessons I learned along the way. I love solving complex problems. Get to know a few good recruiters. I encourage engineers who enjoy presenting about and helping others understand technology as much or more than creating or operating technology to consider this path. I doubt you'll ever get to this, but if you do, could you shoot me an email? If you are not creating sustainable revenue with your line of work but rely on bean counter tricks you are dead weight in terms of economic value, regardless of your nominal salary.