Some background : I worked at a small company in a small town for 11 years out of college during which I went from 75kTC to 140k TC. I thought I was overpaid when I reached the 140kTC and used to feel really good about it. This is before I knew of Blind ofcourse. Then got a bad manager and had to leave. Came to Bay area and within 1.5 year went from 140kTC to 170TC to 220kTC and I'm just about to sign a offer letter from Google for 305k TC. But it all seems like a dream to me. Really...305k ?? What is so special about me that the company is spending $1300/day + benefits. Some people are getting almost double that. Ok you maybe a rockstar and you may bring more value than your pay to your employer but do you really deserve to get this much money? How did your life style change when you suddenly had more money that you didn't know what to do with?
Let me add that if you’re not continuously keeping up with new tech stacks for fun and also learning to just learn this might not be the profession for you and if you are you should self Bill those hours as they’re part of your overall overhead. It’s bringing both you and your company wealth.
When I was in school, I thought I’d be baller if I could break 6 figures. My TC is $375k now and all I can think about is the people making $600k+.
Same. High tc changed me - I want to chase higher tc, not really happy.
Username checks out!
He is your teammate
Google/Apple/fb all pull in $1mil in revenue per employee per year. Per engineer? Probably like $2mil or more, but they only pay you 500k. They are making a profit off you. Which is expected, otherwise why would they hire you? It’s just what multiplier do you think is fair? Should they make 5x, 2x or 1.5x off you?
Similar experience - worked almost 10 years before tech. Now making double and can’t believe the income difference between tech and rest of the world
Actually, in the 1950's and 1960's, it was as if everybody in the USA worked in tech. What has happened is, tech salaries have not increased. EVERYBODY ELSE'S SALARY has been nuked due to international competition and The Walmart Effect (importing dirt-cheap shit from China). The outcome of winning world war II is that in the 1950s a secretary in washington DC (my mom) made more than a computer science PhD in at national lab in the UK (my dad).
No one deserves shit. It's all just the market, the fact that we ended up in a high demand field doesn't say anything about us as people. The people working their asses off in other career paths don't "deserve" 40% less than you, that's just how capitalism works
Exactly, it's just the market trying to incentive more people focus on the area that needs talent right now.
Amen to that, we are just lucky
Money brings the hunnys 🍯
So let's flip the situation. Let's say that because of these salaries every tom dick and Harry becomes a SE or AI learns to write code and basically capitalism drives the wage to below average vs the current way above average. What will happen to your mental health and lifestyle when you need to adjust to that massive paycut ?
The amount of competition based on the number of people would mean only the top drivers got the top pay. Not dissimilar to where we are now. It wouldn’t be a rewarding field though—I picked up that c++ book because I saw contemporaries getting rich and then I saw how fun it was. If I can’t make good money off this profession I would do something else.
lol at thinking companies ever pay us more than they absolutely have to it’s just the market, not like they’re being generous out of the compassion in their hearts
For every dollar paid they should be making 10 at least
I’m going to put it in simple terms. We are underpaid. Depending on our positions and the stacks we use we are either under paid or massively underpaid. At 75k you were getting robbed. If you think of this as a job and not a profession you’re part of the problem. Being a developer should take overhead in many forms: reading materials, schooling, hardware, hobbies (mental health is important for any professional), and vacations. That should be continuous in your life as well. This is how lawyers do it and even then add margins. Same as being a doctor. This is why those professions look down on us. Being an engineer our lack of knowledge and proper implementation won’t kill someone, or land someone in jail, but it eventually is known and you and your company suffer. The next time you think we are overpaid for making “300k” I would get that thought out of your head as you can’t even afford a house in the valley with that much. Companies outside the valley rarely pay that much unless a person is mission critical and competent. Comp sci needs to add business classes to their curriculum. Take out the useless cobol classes lol.
Underpaid ? Wow. Some people just love in a bubble. Just bcoz you can't afford a house didn't mean you are underpaid. Jobs don't pay you to afford houses.... It's a transaction of supply demand. When that dynamic changes our party will too
No one said you deserve anything. Dollar for dollar we are underpaid compared to most white collar professions. Ask anyone who works as a swe in a financial company this. So is this meant to be a troll communist post?