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Ask HN: How much you make, how long did it take for you to get there?

22 pointsby Errorcod3about 10 years ago
I make 70k in Nebraska. Five years of military experience, and One year as a contractor. No College Degree. Currently a GG-12 Intelligence Specialist.

29 comments

Someone1234about 10 years ago
This is worthless without saying at least the general area or country where you live. $60K is a &quot;small&quot; salary in e.g. New York City but a massive salary in e.g. Indiana.<p>Every time these threads come up people in high cost of living states that make $20K+ more than everyone else flood in and then reply to people living in low cost of living states with &quot;how come you make so little?!&quot;<p>Then the whole thread turns into a salary pissing match with only people doing exceptionally well replying and everyone else thinking about how much they&#x27;re getting &quot;screwed.&quot; It is self-selection bias.<p>Anyway...<p>- $47K, Utah, Programmer<p>- Unfinished college degree, and five years as a &quot;DevOps&quot;-style role<p>- Even for Utah my pay is on the low end, but I have a great benefits package and a ton of time off (about three weeks fixed, 20 days of vacation, and 10 days of sick leave a year), and I work actual 9-5 (no unpaid overtime). High job security (government), low turnover (I am the first hire in over five years), and a happy work environment.<p>- My work actually expects you to use your vacation. It isn&#x27;t one of those &quot;vacation on paper&quot; places or &quot;unlimited leave&quot; places where the internal culture is to never use it.<p>- My pay increases at fixed intervals without negotiation and is tracked so it is a knowable quantity.<p>Do I get paid on the low end for the specific job title? Yes. But how much value can you place in an actual 9-5 where you only work max 11 months of the year and have good job security and great benefits?<p>Plus my pay slowly rises in time (above inflation) and I&#x27;ll have no periods of unemployment (which can be extremely expensive, in particular if you have any medical stuff in the US).<p>Yeah, sure, I am rationalising but if I made even $65K this would be pretty much the perfect job, but you cannot have everything...
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TheSpiceIsLifeabout 10 years ago
Year 11 high school dropout. Currently 34 living in Tasmania, Australia. Laser cutter operator (some CAD work, self taught), metal fabricator (boiler-maker &#x2F; welder) by trade. Also accredited in Clinical Nutrition. Previous experience running physical infrastructure in a data centre.<p>AU$60,000 + overtime up to around AU$75,000 total<p>Purchasing power comparison: where I live the following prices are typical. meat pie $5.10; can of Coke over the counter $2.30 ($1.60 - $1.80 from vending machine); apples are $3 - $6 &#x2F; kg; whole cauliflower $6 - $8; petrol is $1.35 &#x2F; litre; three bedroom home in ok suburb $230,000 or $280 &#x2F; week to rent.<p>Edit: I also have access to over 1000 rock climbs within 1 hour drive of my city, 300 within 20-30 minutes walk of the city centre.
railsdev1234about 10 years ago
$100,000. I&#x27;m a 26 year old, self-taught Rails developer in Chicago with less than 3 years of professional experience. Really shocked to see all of the low salaries on here.<p>1. Started as a freelancer &#x2F; Excel consultant charging between $25 and $50 an hour. Did some small jobs like Wordpress sites, web scraping, and writing VBA scripts.<p>2. One of my clients hired me full time as a contractor for $40 an hour. He hired me to write trading algorithms for him but I continued to learn Ruby on Rails in my free time.<p>3. After about year of that, got my first full-time job as a Rails developer for $75,000.<p>4. Changed jobs after a year and was brought on at $85,000. Shortly after I got a raise to $100,000.
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PretzelPirateabout 10 years ago
I&#x27;m a software engineer in Seattle. 28 years old. This year I&#x27;ll bring in about $230k including bonus and stock.
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stephancoralabout 10 years ago
$120k. Been out of college for almost two years now. I started programming in middle school but I would say that I didn&#x27;t achieve any real value as an engineer until after completing my undergrad in Computer Science and doing a fair amount of freelance on the side during school.
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pdiddyabout 10 years ago
I make $65K salary (in Boston). Double major in Classical Studies and English in &#x27;06. Late bloomer in finding coding. Working professionally as web dev for just about 2 years. I&#x27;m considering going to school to get a masters in Computer Engineering.
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dacohen1234about 10 years ago
140K, SF Bay Area, Analytics&#x2F;BI&#x2F;Data Science 5 year timeline: Dropped out of PhD Program (STEM program- not CS)... year 1) Terrible economy, took non-paying internship, did sporadic contract work. At one point took home a job application to work as a barista. year 2) 40k a year. Full time job at crappy company doing random, interesting work- mostly non-technical. year 3) started working with &quot;big data&quot;, really developed my technical skills. 80k year 4) Continued big data work, with more experience, started making a real impact on product 90-105k base year 5) Moved companies, now at 140k base
hackerboosabout 10 years ago
Graduated aged 24, I&#x27;m now 27.5 - jobs since graduation:<p>- Brighton UK - £25,000 ($37,250)<p>- Birkenhead, UK - £30,000 ($44,700)<p>- Liverpool, UK - £27,000 ($40,230) later £32,000 ($47,680) (took a hit to work with a stack I wanted to work with)<p>- Toronto, Canada - £47,000 ($69,500) plus 10% bonus
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Nelkinsabout 10 years ago
Making $77,500 base, ~9-10K overtime (I get paid the hourly equivalent of my salary for each hour over 40 I work, depending on the type of project I&#x27;m on).<p>Just under 2 years out of school (May 2013), was a Brain and Cognitive Science major with a minor in Legal Studies. Job progression thus far:<p>1. $45K base, no overtime - 5 months<p>2. $62.5K base, hourly wage as overtime depending on project - 1 year (switched jobs)<p>3. $77.5K base, hourly wage as overtime depending on project - ~4 months now (same job, got a raise)<p>I work at a consulting company in NYC that makes software for financial services firms.
throwaway420404about 10 years ago
San Francisco, Product Manager. 4 years of product experience, before that, 1.5 years of tech (non-developer) experience. $125K base, $15K bonus, about $1K of stock vesting every month (public company so stock value changes). Unlimited vacation (used about 4 weeks last year, will use about the same this year). Employer pays all benefits and for all lunches. 4 years ago was making $70K. Consider myself a good PM (others seem to agree).
ardenabout 10 years ago
~90k living outside of Atlanta operating a small website and another seasonal business. Been doing this for four years, but been slow to learn&#x2F;grow revenues. No cap on income, 120k, 200k, 500k, ... Bachelor&#x27;s Degree, but not necessary.<p>Oh, I only work for ~4 months of the year and have the rest of the year to vacation &#x2F; play &#x2F; program &#x2F; whatever.<p>I advise you guys to quit your day jobs...
anon_acctabout 10 years ago
$120k~ Melbourne Australia. 26 years old. Linux Systems Engineer &#x2F; Operations.<p>Self-taught as didn&#x27;t agree with most formal education. Pay has been between $90-$130K in various roles over the last 3 years, four years ago (as a 22yo) I was on around $60-$70K~ And busy climbing the ranks.<p><i>alt account for anonymity</i>
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artmageddonabout 10 years ago
$83k in central New Jersey. BSc in Computer Science, 10+ years of experience. Was making $50&#x2F;hr for about 6months when I was on a consulting gig in NYC. Salary wise, this is higher than what I was getting when I was salaried in NYC. I feel like I&#x27;m being ripped off.
whitewhimabout 10 years ago
24k&#x2F;year grad student. Of course the pays not great, but I get to learn and work on some cutting edge stuff and eventually get a degree out of it. Also while I can end up working long hours, I generally choose when they are and can take quite a bit of vacation.
accoleonabout 10 years ago
$62k, Eugene, OR, App Systems Analyst, been here 5 months Working for the city government, first job out of college Have Bsc in Comp. Sci &#x2F;w honors, &lt; 1 year out of school H1B.
iraldirabout 10 years ago
I make 77k$. 1 year of philosophy &#x2F; psychology college, 3 years of Game Dev school while working in the same time, and one year on another job. Currently a JavaScript developer
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cberriosabout 10 years ago
$0, 33yo, electronics engineer. Used to earn about $25k in my country (3 years experience). Now living in Mexico and pursuing a career in web development (U.S. or Europe).
modabout 10 years ago
66.5k, remote from the south (company in the north), web development.<p>I had ~ one year of professional experience when I took this job.<p>I&#x27;m self taught with about 10 years of hobbyist development prior.
cweagansabout 10 years ago
$110k. I work from Boise, ID for a major media company in NYC.
seekingcharlieabout 10 years ago
$120k Designer, 25yrs old, 6 years experience. I work for a SF startup but I work remotely 75% of the time from Berlin. I did a Diploma of design &amp; a B.Comp Sci.
karaujoabout 10 years ago
36k, twelve years as a Java developer working in Brazil.
jettiabout 10 years ago
$80k in Northern Illinois. I have 4 years experience, a Bs in economics and as of November I will have a MS in computer science.
GoldenMonkeyabout 10 years ago
$170K Salary, Colorado, iOS Native Mobile Apps. Bachelors degree, 39yo. 20+ years as a developer.
throwaway123453about 10 years ago
$120K. Senior developer at a media company in New York.<p>Three years ago, I was making $24K a year as a PhD student in the humanities. Took a $15&#x2F;hour job writing SQL, then moved to New York and switched jobs a few times until I thought I was earning the same as my peers.
sethupathi_ipsabout 10 years ago
$140k. 26 years old. Software Engineer (C&#x2F;C++). Bay area. Masters in Computer Science. H1b.
dreaminvmabout 10 years ago
I am assuming we are talking about base pay here.<p>~110k software engineering, SV, &lt;1 year out of school.
aidenn0about 10 years ago
~$100k tech support, California; took job out of college, been about 10 years on the job.
thdnabout 10 years ago
$24k, Bolivia, 3 years being a C# Software Architect &#x2F; Oracle Database Specialist
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mcdevhammerabout 10 years ago
$65k + bonuses comes to about $75k. C# developer in Toronto.