No degree, close to max TC in London, what next?
I’m a self taught engineer who has managed to hustle his way over the past 3 years (total professional experience in various companies, 10 years non-professional) into a non-FAANG senior engineer position in London with some management responsibilities. I’m making around 90k GBP a year and I have a fantastic WLB with a very flexible WFH policy and an outcome-focused work environment (which means I chill most of the time but can put in hours for deadlines and other important milestones). My question is, what next? I feel like it’s difficult to earn more than 90k as an engineer unless you’re doing low-latency stuff in finance or if you’re senior in a FAANG company. Is my next career step to move to NYC or something? I hear it’s hard to get into FAANG companies without a degree, so maybe I should rule them out.
Pretty nice TC but far from max. Join fang or financial, or migrate to Zurich or US if you want to further increase comp.
Do you have an idea what max TC is roughly in London? I thought it was around 100k. I know some contractors earn 150ish but that’s rare.
Max in what context. For mid career (3-5 yoe) you can make slightly more than that. Seniors can make well into 100Ks, I wouldn't be surprised if principals made in the 200k territory. There was one chap reporting circa 250k in London around here recently, look it up. Rumor is people can make ~400k in financial services. To be honest I think this is a bit of a myth. Personally I have only seen one offer of 'up to' 400k GBP for an investing firm. I'm sure those job exist, but they must be the very top of a very niche market. Bottom line, if it is purely money what you are after, probably the US is the easiest place to up your TC for the same experience.
There are engineers in faang in London making >200k. Personally, I dont think comp is all that matter, I dont believe in chasing it. But if that's what you're after, there are definitely opportunities like that where you are
What other reason would you work at FB for ?
Why? My colleagues are the best that I had in my career, the problems I'm solving are super interesting, scale of impact and independence is beyond what I thought possible, im a believer the work that I do (i k it is good for the world) and, yes, I also get paid really well. Tc is nice, but when you spend so much time in one place, you better enjoy it
Even entry-level at FAANG makes more than 90k
In the US yes, not sure if this is the case in London from what I’ve heard.
That’s right, 90k GBP is a decent salary for engineers in London.