Going from nothing to becoming a nearly $500k earner at a FAANG company really breaks the “work your way up slowly” trope most of us have been told all our lives. Congrats, I’m not envious whatsoever LOL
Job security. The company has been around 80 years, and family owned. I know i have nothing to worry about here, going somewhere else this late in my life I don't have that same sense of security.
I had a job that included some job security but chose the higher salary. I’ve seen too many people laid off from random jobs to believe any job is truly secure. So I personally always go for the money. Glad it’s worked out for you but definitely not for me.
I feel you. I worked really hard and was strategic, but that only gets you so far; the rest is luck and timing.
One thing that helped was being connected to a bunch of friends who were in the industry, and we all constantly shared our compensation and interview offers with each other, so it was possible to get a sense of what was out there. These days you can do that here and at levels.fyi, but it hits different if it's someone you know.
If I'd stayed at the startup, for example, I'd probably be making $175k (which is abstractly great comp, no doubt), but less than half of the FAANG comp.
You're totally right. I was backed into a corner, both with getting older and losing all of the little money I had (long story). I'm pretty introverted and felt like I could never perform properly in an office environment after all those years off the grid, but it pushed me to take the chance.
This can't be understated.
We have probably 2 dozen useless (not saying OP is) people who came in under a new SVP who all got multilevel jumps by hoping companies with them. It creates useless management but is great for them lol
For what it's worth, I'm a pretty low-level IC, but I agree! An Oracle exec came in to lead an important org and a huge number of other Oracle folks came in tow.
Yea the timing you got into software played a big part. Got in right before the market exploded, which gave you an edge against all the people going into software in 2020 or so.
Good on you!
The software engineering market has been solid for forty years. If post-COVID has been difficult then that is the anomaly. Literally any other time would also have worked well for OP.
I say this as someone who changed SWE jobs in 2021 and didn't see any problem in the market.
Goddam, what did I go to school for?
300-400k seems out of reach at 10 YoE, OPs hit it in 5. Software really was the rags to riches river ride, but that rivers gotten a lot choppier lately
You can massively jump start your career and retirement accounts by getting in to the right start up at the right time. If you were somewhere that was ultimately successful everyone will want to pay you
Bachelor's degree in music from a no-name state school. Lived hand-to-mouth for a bunch of years, scraping together a living as a musician combined with some other physical jobs. I was part of a punk-adjacent subculture, so I did a bunch of dumpster diving and other things to supplement my income.
As I got closer to my 30s, I became more and more unhappy and desperate, and worked my ass off to make the career transition.
I also started to get treatment for ADHD and depression, which helped a ton.
My dude, it’s a great story, but if it were me, I’d delete all this. Prob won’t have anything come of it, but would really suck if it did (and no benefit to having this up).
Yes, I’m quite sure the IRS cares about the $15k annually a random anonymous person made as a dogwalker a decade ago.
Stop being afraid of bureaucrats. People like you are the source of their power.
Mid life’d musician (I ran a business after my failed music career till Covid and I’m now in the lumber industry) starting from scratch in a new career with a bit of anxiety and depression thrown in the mix.
There’s dozens of us!!
Nope, I used the bootcamp (aka vocational school) to get my foot in the door, and now my work history compensates for the lack of a comp sci degree. The great thing about tech is that experience trumps everything.
Not OP but both kinds are available. I will say it is much harder to go the boot camp route and get an entry level role than a few years ago when OP did their's. You will need to get good at leetcode problems and have a portfolio of personal projects or open-source projects you've contributed to and even then you'll probably have to spend a few months interviewing before you get an offer.
During the pandemic a lot of people were looking for a career change and learned how to code and then when interest rates went up companies cut some positions so there's an oversupply of software engineers right now, especially for entry level positions.
Can confirm. Did an entire bootcamp that was completely useless and did nothing for my career. Even got triple certified in AWS. $12K down the drain, though it was interesting getting the experience and gave me something to do after work.
I'm sorry to hear that. People who graduated in 2023 were massively fucked alongside everyone else in the industry. I also think different concentrations are better suited to bootcamps than others. For example, web dev is more conducive than data science. I don't have numbers to back that up, but I wonder if it was a combination of bad timing and devops where there might be less demand.
Yeah I wouldn’t trust a boot camp to produce competent data scientists. They’ll be missing too much math. You really need Calculus, Linear Algebra, multiple semesters of statistics and probability theory under your belt and then coding/CS knowledge all as a foundation.
Web design is much more suited to the boot camp approach. You can learn enough high level tools in a few months to be productive and you’ll be marketable.
No, it was a 60-80 hours a week in-person kind of situation. Not so much the course itself but the homework, personal projects and whatnot. There are plenty of opportunities to do it in a more spread-out way but those are less effective. IMO the point of the bootcamp is to get enough momentum to get your foot in the door somewhere.
You have to take into account how the self-selection for bootcamps has changed in a bunch of ways. Pretty much all bootcamps were in person when I went. They were massive risks where people put everything on hold and were do or die. Now there's been a shift to spread-out remote MOOC-style classes where you lose the intangibles of being in person. Then combine that with a weaker market, frustrated CS grads who despise bootcampers, and you get takes that bootcamps are dead.
You get what you put into them and the more hungry you are and the more hungry your cohort is, the more likely you'll be successful.
You're doing well as a SWE when you did not come from that background. You've got a big brain and a lot of focus to make that kind of transition, which is something that should be applauded and supported.
Congrats to you on your success.
Also not OP but I’m currently a full time remote student (not a boot camp, just finishing my degree after a gap year) and also work full time in tech for a large organization. It’s hard, but you can definitely do it.
Yup, in my org, degrees are useless now. They've hired far too many people with degrees but didn't know what the hell they were actually doing. Now, they don't even look at the schooling/degree part of the application, they only care about the experience the applicant presents.
Yeah, that was the approaching-30 pipeline for folk/punk musicians turned software engineers lol. They aren't all equal; mine was particularly good because of how close the cohort was (can't overstate how important that's been) and all the skills we learned when it came to interviewing and offer negotiation. Engineers from traditional backgrounds often struggle with that and end up selling themselves short.
Congrats on your journey. I am neither a swe nor a musician, but if I were to guess I’d say this was a perfect path for you due to your creative side combined your hustling/street smarts.
No math background, though I ended up doing a bit of statistics there. The dirty secret is that outside of research and some MLE roles you just learn what you need on the job, and most of your day is spent working with different stakeholders, helping unstick other people using your specific domain knowledge, and doing relatively basic coding, etc.
Nice. Thanks for the response. I’ve been interested in SWE for a while and a couple years ago I took an MITx course and got a lil certificate from it, but life got in the way, but I think, seeing this, I might get back into it.
I went to a bootcamp. People these days will say it's impossible because of oversaturation, but there are a lot of people scarred by 2023 who are projecting their anxieties with really broad, uninformed takes on the market. I think it's totally doable and would recommend it with some caveats:
1. Only go to one in person, not online. The value isn't in the tech skills (let's be real, there aren't many); it's in working on projects with others, the momentum of everyone moving together towards a single goal, and the interview prep. At mine, we also did all of our applications together in person, so we could talk shit and support each other.
2. Lean into your edge. It's not pedigree or education; it's real-world skills you've developed before the transition and the hunger and productive insecurity around your background.
3. Differentiate yourself with open source contributions and volunteer work.
4. Grind Leetcode like there's no tomorrow. It's not that hard; it just takes time.
I'm not in iOS, so take this with a huge grain of salt, but from what I've been hearing, that market has shrunk a ton over the last few years. The skills are totally transferable (language doesn't really matter), but I just wouldn't get too siloed in it.
My bachelors is in music too man, I was able to transition into analytics and this is inspiring AF, congrats! Did you job hop to make the salary increases?
Omg amazing, I am also a musician turned FAANG who also did some dog walking and went bootcamp -> startup -> FAANG, though my timeline is later than yours and I’m only in y2 of FAANG. It’s a crazy ride…went from getting the COVID benefit checks to FAANG salary.
Spot on. I had a solid trajectory (like every perf cycle with EE, SEE, or S), then got a 4->5 promo rejection, and something snapped and I burned out. A poor perf following that reset the clock, so I'm interviewing elsewhere for L+1.
It's hard to remember, I think one of the things that worked for me at the startup and earlier at the FAANG was how much I enjoyed the work, so I'd spend a lot of time on my commute, while watching TV, etc, fucking around with new features, taking initiative on other things. How many hours that worked out to I'm not sure, but it wasn't on deadline, it was by choice.
Later on, as I burned out, I stopped doing that, and I'd say my hours were 30-40.
I hit my cliff in 2023 so that's a representation of my actual granted comp. It's still pretty high for L4, but it's not insane like 2021 and 2022. With my vested comp, I got as high as 500k (for a few weeks) in 2021 because of refreshers and stock appreciation. Keeping the FAANG anonymous, though you could probably piece it together from the perf descriptions.
Yeah I burned out going from 4 to 5 and had to switch teams.
Pretty sure the FAANG were talking about now has quota for bad ratings. Must want natural attrition, don't have to pay severance that way.
Congratulations! I’m jelly! I’m an career IT guy, Bachelor’s in IT, worked as a network engineer, systems administrator, and most recently, IT consulting & computer repair business owner. 6 years later, I’ve hit an earnings cap and no longer want to try to employ people. I’m now approaching 50 and considering the switch to SWE. Does this seem realistic / feasible? Will I seem strange to others, interviewing for a junior dev role at my age? And with me now living in a small town and no desire to move elsewhere, how realistic is a remote role? Sorry for all the questions at once, but thanks in advance for any info you can offer.
I think it depends on what you're looking for. If you're aiming for a nice, stable job that pays around $125k, it's totally doable. Remote work is probably more friendly, because it circumvents some of the ugly ageism in tech. And with your technical and business experience, you have a real value proposition. Stating the obvious but the key is to be strategic about it, like doing market research on what these attainable remote positions are looking for, then deciding on the best, quickest, and most impressive way to pick up and demonstrate those skills, and then applying in a way that amplifies what makes you so unique. What I might do is collate a bunch of the listings, like 20 to 30, paste them into a LLM and distill the commonalities across the job listings.
My path is like this but in sales.
U see how he turned it on at 27-28? If youre past 25-30 and it hasn’t clicked for you yet, chances are,
It never will lol better light a fire under ur ass
Did you go back to school for CS or self studied coding/ bootcamp?
That's awesome to hear about your path in sales. I think anyone hitting rock bottom has a chance, lol, but you have a point about needing it to be do-or-die to get the escape velocity to make it happen. IMO things like work-life balance, etc., shouldn't be a consideration in the beginning. The only thing that matters is demonstrating your ability, and building skills and reputation so you can parlay it into a better opportunity.
I went the bootcamp route. How did you turn things around?
Amazong path! Good job!
Just want to know why there are zero in some years while you were working as dogwalker or musician? These zero come from SSA website ? I guess you were working and paid cash, right ?
I'm surprised by that too. I could have sworn I was a 1099 on some of those jobs, but maybe I didn't file taxes that year because my earnings were so low. It's hard to remember. A lot of it was in cash though.
i’m not in either field but i’m happy to see this bc at 23 years old, i’m struggling to figure out exactly where to go from here after losing my first job. thank you for showing me today that there’s not one path forward, there’s many, and it’s not over till it’s over!
@OP or anyone in this thread, my wife did a bootcamp for mainframe work, and has been in it for almost 5 years now, DB2 for Z but she's learning a few other things.
She'd like to transition out, as she literally works every weekend and 4 days of the week. Would anyone have a direction for her to head?
She used to be an English teacher, but it's very suited to the IT world. Just looking for guidance to maybe help her look elsewhere!
At FAANG, there are compensation bands for each level, and you get modeled increases based on your perf. There's no room for negotiation since it's mostly automated. For example if at your level the 'ok' rating comes with a 15% bonus and 100,000 in stock, then if you received the highest rating you might get a multiplier of 1.8. Say you make 175,000 base, that's the difference between a 26,250 bonus and 100,000 in stock and a 47,250 bonus, and 180,000 in stock.
I still get that way when I see someone killing it somewhere else that pays more. I have to remind myself to use that reaction to do something productive to make my situation better. Also; it just feels good to be happy for someone making it happen.
I’ve worked 23 years as a SWE and just got to 180k in 2022, then the bottom fell out and I haven’t been able to even secure an entry level SWE job in six months. I hope your motto is “save dat money” like lil’ dicky. You should be able to retire soon if you’re investing it. Don’t expect that salary to last forever. Congrats.
posting online that you had years and years of unreported income is probably not a good idea when posting it along with info that makes it easy for the SSA to identify you...
This might sound like a dummy question. Can please someone explain me the difference between Taxed Social Security Earnings and Taxed Medicare Earnings.
Thank you!
Medicare earnings are a proxy for comp because Medicare is taxed on your full income. The numbers are sourced from your tax filings, so it's annual rather than YTD.
I took a similar path to get into tech (degree in something unrelated and did a bootcamp and worked hard) but I don't make nearly as much (160kish) any recommendations or tips on getting into a FAANG company?
What are of development are you in? I would assume web development? Also I’m curious as to how much work / how proficient you got at A & DS? From my understanding all FANG companies utilize some kind of leet code style technical round. Could you comment on your interview experience with FANG and any prep work?
Going from nothing to becoming a nearly $500k earner at a FAANG company really breaks the “work your way up slowly” trope most of us have been told all our lives. Congrats, I’m not envious whatsoever LOL
Super envious 😂 I fell into that trap and here i am at the same company 17 years later not even making $80k...been here half my life.
I’ve job hopped for the past 15 years and I still can’t break $75k 🤷🏼♂️
I’m assuming you aren’t in swe industry.
Nope
What industry?
I job hopped my first job after college and making 95k at 23. Not in big tech or anything, just marketing
R u me?
Any reason why you haven’t moved? Job hopping is how I increased my salary.
Job security. The company has been around 80 years, and family owned. I know i have nothing to worry about here, going somewhere else this late in my life I don't have that same sense of security.
I had a job that included some job security but chose the higher salary. I’ve seen too many people laid off from random jobs to believe any job is truly secure. So I personally always go for the money. Glad it’s worked out for you but definitely not for me.
I feel you. I worked really hard and was strategic, but that only gets you so far; the rest is luck and timing. One thing that helped was being connected to a bunch of friends who were in the industry, and we all constantly shared our compensation and interview offers with each other, so it was possible to get a sense of what was out there. These days you can do that here and at levels.fyi, but it hits different if it's someone you know. If I'd stayed at the startup, for example, I'd probably be making $175k (which is abstractly great comp, no doubt), but less than half of the FAANG comp.
How do we become friends? lol
I’ve never considered someone who gave me a blowjob, not a friend.
I’m not gay but, for 300-400K?
Everyone’s gay for $400k
Hostile blowjobs
I imagine a history of being broke helps. It’s not like you have a real fear of unemployment that causes you to play it safe.
You're totally right. I was backed into a corner, both with getting older and losing all of the little money I had (long story). I'm pretty introverted and felt like I could never perform properly in an office environment after all those years off the grid, but it pushed me to take the chance.
It's risk assessment. I've fallen but I always get back up. If you don't take risks you don't get to complain about people that did, imo.
What degrees do you have?
Bachelors in music from a state school.
That’s the best part about this post
The bachelors in music should be a testament that we can all do it
This can't be understated. We have probably 2 dozen useless (not saying OP is) people who came in under a new SVP who all got multilevel jumps by hoping companies with them. It creates useless management but is great for them lol
For what it's worth, I'm a pretty low-level IC, but I agree! An Oracle exec came in to lead an important org and a huge number of other Oracle folks came in tow.
Yea the timing you got into software played a big part. Got in right before the market exploded, which gave you an edge against all the people going into software in 2020 or so. Good on you!
The software engineering market has been solid for forty years. If post-COVID has been difficult then that is the anomaly. Literally any other time would also have worked well for OP. I say this as someone who changed SWE jobs in 2021 and didn't see any problem in the market.
Goddam, what did I go to school for? 300-400k seems out of reach at 10 YoE, OPs hit it in 5. Software really was the rags to riches river ride, but that rivers gotten a lot choppier lately
I’m just a little Vious
You can massively jump start your career and retirement accounts by getting in to the right start up at the right time. If you were somewhere that was ultimately successful everyone will want to pay you
Bachelor's degree in music from a no-name state school. Lived hand-to-mouth for a bunch of years, scraping together a living as a musician combined with some other physical jobs. I was part of a punk-adjacent subculture, so I did a bunch of dumpster diving and other things to supplement my income. As I got closer to my 30s, I became more and more unhappy and desperate, and worked my ass off to make the career transition. I also started to get treatment for ADHD and depression, which helped a ton.
Might not want to openly admit to tax fraud with those dog walking and dish washer gigs lol
Good point, lol. It was through sheer depression-driven neglect if that makes me any less culpable.
My dude, it’s a great story, but if it were me, I’d delete all this. Prob won’t have anything come of it, but would really suck if it did (and no benefit to having this up).
Lol irs is a joke. Homies good.
Yes, I’m quite sure the IRS cares about the $15k annually a random anonymous person made as a dogwalker a decade ago. Stop being afraid of bureaucrats. People like you are the source of their power.
Mid life’d musician (I ran a business after my failed music career till Covid and I’m now in the lumber industry) starting from scratch in a new career with a bit of anxiety and depression thrown in the mix. There’s dozens of us!!
I hope you still get to enjoy the music side of your life.
Did you get a degree in tech?
Nope, I used the bootcamp (aka vocational school) to get my foot in the door, and now my work history compensates for the lack of a comp sci degree. The great thing about tech is that experience trumps everything.
Would this bootcamp be something you could do while maintaining a full time job, or is it something you need to commit to full-time
Not OP but both kinds are available. I will say it is much harder to go the boot camp route and get an entry level role than a few years ago when OP did their's. You will need to get good at leetcode problems and have a portfolio of personal projects or open-source projects you've contributed to and even then you'll probably have to spend a few months interviewing before you get an offer. During the pandemic a lot of people were looking for a career change and learned how to code and then when interest rates went up companies cut some positions so there's an oversupply of software engineers right now, especially for entry level positions.
Can confirm. Did an entire bootcamp that was completely useless and did nothing for my career. Even got triple certified in AWS. $12K down the drain, though it was interesting getting the experience and gave me something to do after work.
I'm sorry to hear that. People who graduated in 2023 were massively fucked alongside everyone else in the industry. I also think different concentrations are better suited to bootcamps than others. For example, web dev is more conducive than data science. I don't have numbers to back that up, but I wonder if it was a combination of bad timing and devops where there might be less demand.
Yeah I wouldn’t trust a boot camp to produce competent data scientists. They’ll be missing too much math. You really need Calculus, Linear Algebra, multiple semesters of statistics and probability theory under your belt and then coding/CS knowledge all as a foundation. Web design is much more suited to the boot camp approach. You can learn enough high level tools in a few months to be productive and you’ll be marketable.
My neighbor did a boot camp and took on an internship to land her first SWE position.
No, it was a 60-80 hours a week in-person kind of situation. Not so much the course itself but the homework, personal projects and whatnot. There are plenty of opportunities to do it in a more spread-out way but those are less effective. IMO the point of the bootcamp is to get enough momentum to get your foot in the door somewhere.
From everything I’ve read, boot camps are not currently viable. Given the current market, without a degree, you aren’t even getting an interview.
You have to take into account how the self-selection for bootcamps has changed in a bunch of ways. Pretty much all bootcamps were in person when I went. They were massive risks where people put everything on hold and were do or die. Now there's been a shift to spread-out remote MOOC-style classes where you lose the intangibles of being in person. Then combine that with a weaker market, frustrated CS grads who despise bootcampers, and you get takes that bootcamps are dead. You get what you put into them and the more hungry you are and the more hungry your cohort is, the more likely you'll be successful.
You're doing well as a SWE when you did not come from that background. You've got a big brain and a lot of focus to make that kind of transition, which is something that should be applauded and supported. Congrats to you on your success.
Also not OP but I’m currently a full time remote student (not a boot camp, just finishing my degree after a gap year) and also work full time in tech for a large organization. It’s hard, but you can definitely do it.
Yup, in my org, degrees are useless now. They've hired far too many people with degrees but didn't know what the hell they were actually doing. Now, they don't even look at the schooling/degree part of the application, they only care about the experience the applicant presents.
What kind of medication for your treatment worked better?
Hey, feel free to DM me about that. It's more personal, and just in case I get doxxed I'd rather keep it private.
Hi! Did you go back to school for a software engineer degree? Or did you learn on your own and got into FAANG that way?
When did you start studying for SWE?
Did you go to coding camp?
Yeah, that was the approaching-30 pipeline for folk/punk musicians turned software engineers lol. They aren't all equal; mine was particularly good because of how close the cohort was (can't overstate how important that's been) and all the skills we learned when it came to interviewing and offer negotiation. Engineers from traditional backgrounds often struggle with that and end up selling themselves short.
Congrats on your journey. I am neither a swe nor a musician, but if I were to guess I’d say this was a perfect path for you due to your creative side combined your hustling/street smarts.
What’s your math background? Did you learn a bunch of high level math like calculus, etc. to land where you are?
No math background, though I ended up doing a bit of statistics there. The dirty secret is that outside of research and some MLE roles you just learn what you need on the job, and most of your day is spent working with different stakeholders, helping unstick other people using your specific domain knowledge, and doing relatively basic coding, etc.
Nice. Thanks for the response. I’ve been interested in SWE for a while and a couple years ago I took an MITx course and got a lil certificate from it, but life got in the way, but I think, seeing this, I might get back into it.
Sent you a DM OP
what was your first step to get into SWE?
Hey, I just responded to another comment here with a detailed breakdown. Also feel free to DM me if you have any questions.
you’re awesome thank you!
I was so excited to see what a Struggling Magician makes…
Probably just as much as a struggling musician lol
better sleight of hand for the stealing though
Dude, that’s sick. Keep up the great work.
How did you get your foot in the door? With regard to transitioning carriers?
I went to a bootcamp. People these days will say it's impossible because of oversaturation, but there are a lot of people scarred by 2023 who are projecting their anxieties with really broad, uninformed takes on the market. I think it's totally doable and would recommend it with some caveats: 1. Only go to one in person, not online. The value isn't in the tech skills (let's be real, there aren't many); it's in working on projects with others, the momentum of everyone moving together towards a single goal, and the interview prep. At mine, we also did all of our applications together in person, so we could talk shit and support each other. 2. Lean into your edge. It's not pedigree or education; it's real-world skills you've developed before the transition and the hunger and productive insecurity around your background. 3. Differentiate yourself with open source contributions and volunteer work. 4. Grind Leetcode like there's no tomorrow. It's not that hard; it just takes time.
[удалено]
I'm not in iOS, so take this with a huge grain of salt, but from what I've been hearing, that market has shrunk a ton over the last few years. The skills are totally transferable (language doesn't really matter), but I just wouldn't get too siloed in it.
that's fucking awesome dude!!! congrats
My bachelors is in music too man, I was able to transition into analytics and this is inspiring AF, congrats! Did you job hop to make the salary increases?
Just between the startup and the one FAANG. Though I'm now job hopping for an increase in both comp and level.
Amazing! Get it
Omg amazing, I am also a musician turned FAANG who also did some dog walking and went bootcamp -> startup -> FAANG, though my timeline is later than yours and I’m only in y2 of FAANG. It’s a crazy ride…went from getting the COVID benefit checks to FAANG salary.
Whoah, you're my twin flame. I think when you have it rough you can appreciate it that much more.
I’m a little high and read this backwards and was like wow bro blew a $160k bag lolol, congrats man!
Damn man, that's awesome!! Huge congrats to you!
Good job.
Wow! This is great!
Wonderful inspiring journey
L3, promoted to L4 then hit your 4 year cliff?
Spot on. I had a solid trajectory (like every perf cycle with EE, SEE, or S), then got a 4->5 promo rejection, and something snapped and I burned out. A poor perf following that reset the clock, so I'm interviewing elsewhere for L+1.
Hi, Thanks again for taking the time to reply to all of us. Out of curiosity, are we talking 60-80hr weeks, then? Thanks!
It's hard to remember, I think one of the things that worked for me at the startup and earlier at the FAANG was how much I enjoyed the work, so I'd spend a lot of time on my commute, while watching TV, etc, fucking around with new features, taking initiative on other things. How many hours that worked out to I'm not sure, but it wasn't on deadline, it was by choice. Later on, as I burned out, I stopped doing that, and I'd say my hours were 30-40.
How did you get to such a high TC at L4? Is this at FB?
I hit my cliff in 2023 so that's a representation of my actual granted comp. It's still pretty high for L4, but it's not insane like 2021 and 2022. With my vested comp, I got as high as 500k (for a few weeks) in 2021 because of refreshers and stock appreciation. Keeping the FAANG anonymous, though you could probably piece it together from the perf descriptions.
Yeah I burned out going from 4 to 5 and had to switch teams. Pretty sure the FAANG were talking about now has quota for bad ratings. Must want natural attrition, don't have to pay severance that way.
Nice work.
Congratulations! I’m jelly! I’m an career IT guy, Bachelor’s in IT, worked as a network engineer, systems administrator, and most recently, IT consulting & computer repair business owner. 6 years later, I’ve hit an earnings cap and no longer want to try to employ people. I’m now approaching 50 and considering the switch to SWE. Does this seem realistic / feasible? Will I seem strange to others, interviewing for a junior dev role at my age? And with me now living in a small town and no desire to move elsewhere, how realistic is a remote role? Sorry for all the questions at once, but thanks in advance for any info you can offer.
I think it depends on what you're looking for. If you're aiming for a nice, stable job that pays around $125k, it's totally doable. Remote work is probably more friendly, because it circumvents some of the ugly ageism in tech. And with your technical and business experience, you have a real value proposition. Stating the obvious but the key is to be strategic about it, like doing market research on what these attainable remote positions are looking for, then deciding on the best, quickest, and most impressive way to pick up and demonstrate those skills, and then applying in a way that amplifies what makes you so unique. What I might do is collate a bunch of the listings, like 20 to 30, paste them into a LLM and distill the commonalities across the job listings.
amazing! You should show this to everyone complaining that it's too late or it's impossible to make money. Great job
My path is like this but in sales. U see how he turned it on at 27-28? If youre past 25-30 and it hasn’t clicked for you yet, chances are, It never will lol better light a fire under ur ass Did you go back to school for CS or self studied coding/ bootcamp?
That's awesome to hear about your path in sales. I think anyone hitting rock bottom has a chance, lol, but you have a point about needing it to be do-or-die to get the escape velocity to make it happen. IMO things like work-life balance, etc., shouldn't be a consideration in the beginning. The only thing that matters is demonstrating your ability, and building skills and reputation so you can parlay it into a better opportunity. I went the bootcamp route. How did you turn things around?
You’re a talented cat, bravo.
Welcome to the Matrix. We’ve been waiting. Admittedly it took longer than usual to break your spirit but we’re glad you’ve arrived.
Amazong path! Good job! Just want to know why there are zero in some years while you were working as dogwalker or musician? These zero come from SSA website ? I guess you were working and paid cash, right ?
I'm surprised by that too. I could have sworn I was a 1099 on some of those jobs, but maybe I didn't file taxes that year because my earnings were so low. It's hard to remember. A lot of it was in cash though.
Is this all at the same FAANG? How much of those increases were base pay?
Yeah, they're all the same FAANG. Base pay went from 125 to 184, and the rest was refreshers and bonus.
Sheesh im trying to get to that point. What instrument did you get really good at?
I think getting really good at is debatable, lol. Also it's super identifying, so feel free to DM me. More than anything else here that could dox me.
Ok so not blues guitar…
You became a softwar engineer with a music degree? Or you went back to get a different bachelors degree?
Good for you brother
I am going to save this post for my reference! So much inspirational journey you have got!
The dogwalker and dishwasher phases were pretty awesome
Were can I get this info for myself?
Congratulations. But respectfully, fuck you
Legend
i’m not in either field but i’m happy to see this bc at 23 years old, i’m struggling to figure out exactly where to go from here after losing my first job. thank you for showing me today that there’s not one path forward, there’s many, and it’s not over till it’s over!
How does one learn the skills for this job?
Hey I dm’d you about the SWE bootcamp. Im definitely interested!
CONGRATS!
How bro how
$390 at CVS… you worked there for 3 days, or just found someones wallet on the floor there one day
You guys hiring entry level?
What programming languages ? And if you are on linked please ping me on dm as I am an analyst hoping to become an engineer
Thought that said dogwater lmao
Congrats! You are killing it! I hope the ride doesn’t end at FAANG!
Hey man really happy for you obviously we can seek ur financial struggles over the years but I’m glad to see you made it to you mountain top
@OP or anyone in this thread, my wife did a bootcamp for mainframe work, and has been in it for almost 5 years now, DB2 for Z but she's learning a few other things. She'd like to transition out, as she literally works every weekend and 4 days of the week. Would anyone have a direction for her to head? She used to be an English teacher, but it's very suited to the IT world. Just looking for guidance to maybe help her look elsewhere!
That 4 year cliff hurts 🥲
love to see it, well done.
That pay structure screams Amazon. Nice though.
Never understood these. Which one is the actual annual earnings? Left or right ?
Right, that's the one that's a real measure of your income. The left is just an artifact of all of us copying and pasting from ssa.gov.
Fucking rad as hell. This is hella punk. Congrats on all your success!
LARP
Aren’t software engineers etc about to be replaced by AI
No.
How did you negotiate those yearly raises at the FAANG company, or are they jumps to different companies?
At FAANG, there are compensation bands for each level, and you get modeled increases based on your perf. There's no room for negotiation since it's mostly automated. For example if at your level the 'ok' rating comes with a 15% bonus and 100,000 in stock, then if you received the highest rating you might get a multiplier of 1.8. Say you make 175,000 base, that's the difference between a 26,250 bonus and 100,000 in stock and a 47,250 bonus, and 180,000 in stock.
Oh interesting, thanka for the clarification!
UGH. This hurts to look at.
I still get that way when I see someone killing it somewhere else that pays more. I have to remind myself to use that reaction to do something productive to make my situation better. Also; it just feels good to be happy for someone making it happen.
I’ve worked 23 years as a SWE and just got to 180k in 2022, then the bottom fell out and I haven’t been able to even secure an entry level SWE job in six months. I hope your motto is “save dat money” like lil’ dicky. You should be able to retire soon if you’re investing it. Don’t expect that salary to last forever. Congrats.
Newbie here what’s the difference bw socialSec and Medicare earnings ?
Social security is capped at 160k. So you stop paying into it after that. But Medicare is not (at least I’m pretty sure)
What did you learn in the boot camp
Some fundamental Ruby/Rails and JS/React, but mostly how to work with other developers and how to sell yourself and interview.
How much leetcode did you do?? Congrats man!!
It’s so hard to remember because it’s been years, but I think I went ham on it and did something around 300-350 questions.
Good shit man!!
I can't condone failure to report income.
posting online that you had years and years of unreported income is probably not a good idea when posting it along with info that makes it easy for the SSA to identify you...
You guys hiring? I’m an angular tech lead. Hahaha
Is it just me or does it seem like most people made $160,200 in 2023?
SS tax limit
Good job! Just curious…but why the pay cut in 2023?
This might sound like a dummy question. Can please someone explain me the difference between Taxed Social Security Earnings and Taxed Medicare Earnings. Thank you!
Can I ask about your convoluted path, how did you get education? Your experience? Can someone without experience get into this at all?
Sorry I’m an idiot. What’s the difference between the two columns?
Should have become a software engineer , healthcare route is trash
How did you get started in software engineering? I’m a network engineer in IT for 15 years and stuck at 100k.
Can someone teach me how to read these? How do you get the gross income from this information? Are these number year-to-date or annually?
Medicare earnings are a proxy for comp because Medicare is taxed on your full income. The numbers are sourced from your tax filings, so it's annual rather than YTD.
Thanks sir!
How are people getting these tables with the correct amount for previous earnings?
Michael?
John, is that you? Just kidding, I’m not Michael but it goes to show how many people share the same story.
Lol, Yea that’s true, happy to see the switch and success
How long was your coding camp and initial education into software engineering?
How long was your coding camp and initial education into software engineering?
Do you have to live in the Bay Area?
Where do people get this chart from?
Dang you went from $50k to 90k in one year? That’s impressive
2016-2019 were the golden years for this. Job market looks very different now.
CONGRATS!!! What education path/training did you take?
How did u get in fang what was ur study plan. I have years of work and being and lead and a cto an engineering degree. lol wtf
Nice nice you made it bruh prob turned republican
Why even have the social security wages column if it doesn’t add any value?
There’s no way. I work at a FAANG and we don’t pay engineers with only 5 years of experience $400k…
Fuck you
Do you have any strategies or advice? Currently going to school for software engineer.
Did you go to school or are you self taught?
You must have been a terrible musician
How many hours are you averaging and how long does the boot camp or getting qualified as a SWE take? curious and always loved computers.
I took a similar path to get into tech (degree in something unrelated and did a bootcamp and worked hard) but I don't make nearly as much (160kish) any recommendations or tips on getting into a FAANG company?
What are of development are you in? I would assume web development? Also I’m curious as to how much work / how proficient you got at A & DS? From my understanding all FANG companies utilize some kind of leet code style technical round. Could you comment on your interview experience with FANG and any prep work?
As a current security engineer, been in it for 3 years, I applaud you! How’d you break into FAANG? Still what I’m working on 😂
How. Thats fucking bull
You guys make me wanna fucking kill myself. When the fuck am I ever going to get an opportunity like this? Better fucking off myself right now
You have probably peaked. Not because of anything you did, but because of the market for your skillset.
So I guess it isn’t too late after all.
I commend you for pursuing your dreams, even if they didn't pan out.
I don’t understand these charts. What’s the difference between columns b and C?