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YOE: 2.5 years TC: 107k (100k base, 7% bonus) I enjoy my career (less so my job atm) but also know max TC in my field (industrial design) is ~280k if you're lucky. I'm still early in my career and honestly, it's hard to judge true TC in my field because it's so niche. Hardly any income stats on Glassdoor, or LinkedIn for jobs at Google, Apple, etc. and just hardly any high paying ID jobs it seems like. Wondering if transitioning to tech would be worth the time, risk, and effort. It feels like there's so much more compensation potential, but that comes at the risk of not knowing how proficient I could become, and whether I would ever even be able to compete for FAANG jobs. Obviously this wouldn't be a, "just quit my job and dive in," but interested to hear the sentiment from those working in software. Thanks! #tech #career
A lot of the tech industry, especially big companies, is working on projects that are killed. You don’t have to scroll far in the app on any given day to find people at FANG saying their work is boring or their projects relatively meaningless. (Killedbygoogle.com is an interesting rabbit hole for when you’re bored.) Those companies—mine included—are so big that throwing a bunch of engineers at random ideas for months/years at a time for nothing to come of it is pretty common. (I’ve been working on a proof-of-concept for something that could very well never be used since January.) That’s also why a lot of FANG engineers eventually go to small/medium sized companies or start their own. I’ve learned that, in general, making anything into your daily job is going to zap some of the joy out of it. That’s life. When your livelihood is tied to something—and you have no choice but to do it—it loses a lot of the appeal it had when it was just a passion. I’ve found that going to meetups, hacker hangouts, and mentoring at student hackathons help me engage with the community outside of work in a way that reminds me of my passion for it. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s what I’m currently doing. (meant to respond to the thread above oop)
All good. Thanks for the great response. I'll definitely check out "killedbygoogle." I think the issue is less that the projects are cancelled, and more the feeling of inflexibility in job options with ID. I would love to go to a design consultancy but feel like I would be killing myself working 11 hour days enjoying it but only getting paid 75k making it hard to go elsewhere. At Google or Apple, I feel I love the direction they're going with their hardware design and honestly do want to work at one of the two, but know I'll be in a similar situation as you mentioned, basically working on a tiny part of something or having less ownership over projects. That's one thing I enjoy about Logitech is that I'm paid fairly well for a designer and get a lot of ownership over production products. The only thing is, I don't necessarily believe in the direction some of the products end up going due to my more direct leadership and feel like Logitech is one of the only companies with this type of balance. Again, just back to this feeling of lack of options. The ability to go to FAANG, experience it, and then go to a small/medium company or starting something on my own sounds great! I also really like what you said about engaging in the community. This is definitely something I'll remember regardless of which direction I go. Thank you!
There’s a reason why some of the highest paid people here are unhappy/stressed/troubled. Money does not equal happiness. If you find tech interesting, by all means go all in. If it’s not interesting, you’ll be unhappy/stressed/troubled.
Doubling down on this, I question if the TC is worth my mental health all the time. If you love your job, I’d say stick with it for now at least
Thanks for the response. Tech definitely interests me but it's hard to say if it would hold my interest once getting into the complexities and stresses of tech in career form. Similarly, there's a lot I still enjoy about my current career but I'm struggling to find enjoyment at my current job. One of the biggest things is feeling like I have nowhere to go that will pay me a reasonable salary in my current field.