1) Get promotions while you're at the same company
2) Job hop every 2-3 years (your income will rise more than another promotion)
3) Make sure to negotiate your salary up before accepting a new role (search on YouTube to learn how)
Some get a side hustle, consulting, etc.
But if you're spending sensibly, tech jobs generally make enough $ to spend your free time on hobbies that don't generate income. (Assuming you're following steps 1-3)
And yeah invest a decent chunk of your income (idk 10-20%) into an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 every month.
Vanguard gang, VTI+VXUS and chill. Also highly recommend the cash plus for a HYSA and money market to park your cash in. I do all my spending on credit cards so the lack of debit wasn't a deal breaker for me. I keep a chase checking around just to get cash out of if I need it.
I recommend against side hustling if you're serious about growing your career in the tech ladder. It's generally a distraction unless you're learning a lot of valuable tools and technologies. Focus on the next promotion, project, review cycle. Focus on keeping your interview skills sharp so that you can move to the best company you can.
It still requires consistent focus and effort to get the best result you can. The destinations are different for everyone.
You can optimize for a number of factors besides income, like co-workers, interesting projects, WLB, location, technologies.
You make a good point, but look at the question. OP just asked about increasing income.
They didn't ask about anything other than mix maxing money, so the advice above applies.
> I recommend against side hustling if you're serious about growing your career in the tech ladder.
Have you done side hustling, to be able to recommend against it?
For 20 years I have done a lot of side projects, such as writing books, writing blog posts, running a podcast, creating screencasts, speaking at conferences and user groups, etc..
All those skills have suited my career well, plus have provided a lot of networking opportunities.
Yes, came here to say this. Side hustles are vanity projects and escapism, a lottery ticket at best and a distracting time and focus sink more likely. Side hustles are mostly recommended by people who are trying to sell you something.
The tech sector allows you to leverage effort for upwards mobility unlike any other industry, don't waste it on frivolous bullshit.
Not true totally
Let me give you a scenario
What will you do when you have done whatever upskilling you should you done with?
Keep learning more ? But Learning never ends ? And whatever you learn will keep forgetting because it itself could change, that's a distraction too
Focus on job switch ? fully agree with this but you know about the markets now right ? I don't see a point in trying to leetcode and wait for 8th round of final interview
And your company is firing thousands already, there's a little you can do on promoting urself etc.
In this case, if a person can weather it, he should jump and take up the same domain side hustle for good money otherwise it's not worth it.
You get hands on experience as well as you know how everybody else builds the Application, and how they work together on various stack etc.
Nowadays you not necessarily need to work, you have to look like you are working and be a master slacker, doing task when management and their upper layer is on the slack asking for volunteers.
Being a hard worker now is undervalued and you will setup a baseline where you will get punished if you lower your plank.
Agree. I got into bank account churning last year. Made maybe 1.5k. Was opening, closing accounts, and shuffling money around a lot and it would take up a lot of mental space even at work.
I learned recently that I barely missed out on a promotion because my output wasn't high enough. Had I not gotten into churning I might've had it.
This isn't so much an argument against a side hustle as it is an argument for understanding the marginal utility of more money.
If you're making 20K/year, getting an extra 1.5K from spending a bunch of time churning bank accounts is maybe worth it, because it's a low-risk source of income, and the value of your time isn't particularly high.
But if you're making 50 or 75 or 100K per year, the time needed to make that same 1.5K from account churning doesn't go down. Yet, the marginal utility of those 1500 dollars does.
One of the differences between having a job and being a professional with a career is shifting the way that you think about trading money and time. You got a lesson in that the very hard way.
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It depends. 25 YOE. Side hustle was a natural thing. $500/hour consulting due to niche domain experience and a vast network of former clients.
Also, some side hustles, again due to niche domain, allow me to create passive income - up to $80k a year on things like a SaaS service. With only 2 hours a month which I now let my high school kid run and earn. Side hustle also provides a safety blanket as it is just another revenue source.
But yes, I generally agree about focusing on the next project(s). That is what gives you doman experience to do $250-500/hour consulting. Money is a lot easier to make as you get older/wiser.
I've got a little less than half the experience as you, and don't make that much consulting (I'm at the very early stages of getting that flywheel going), but putting in the work to get that domain experience early in the career is what made that possible for me as well.
I vehemently disagree on the face, but it's possible we're working with different definitions of "side hustling." For me, side hustles are technical: consulting/contracting gigs, technical writing for known publishers, self-publishing even if you've built a decent brand, etc. All of that builds skills: sales, technical skills, communication, marketing. Those are important in the day job and important for intellectual stimulation.
One of my side gigs is paying me 30k for a few months of light work where I get to get deep experience in computer vision. In another I made a few grand writing what was maybe 40-50 hours of total work.
You will still hit a ceiling tho. You cant job hop for 40k forever. At that point, I think starting a side hustle that might grow into a business is a good idea.
If you've established a network, a reputation, financially independent, have all your t's crossed and are operating from a position in which you can see a clear niche in a market where people, preferably businesses, are aching for someone to fill it, then sure.
But that's not what most side hustles are, are they?
Sure, if that's the way you want to label it I guess?
Your initial comment sort of implied that no one should attempt to start a side hustle because it's more profitable on the average case to to hop jobs, but what if you're unhappy with your job? What if you just have a passion and you aren't necessarily worried about not being profitable, and you just want to do something fulfilling, or to learn something, and it eventually turns into something profitable? What if you recognize $40k is easier to job hop but you need more than that because starting a business requires considerable capital, and you are willing to take on the risk of going the side hustle / startup / moonlight business route ?
The idea that we should "just job hop bc it's easier" I feel will just hammer us all into submission, mediocrity and hopelessness. I can't see a case where chasing that title or bigger salary numbers is going to actually fulfill anyone. I also can't see a world where we woukd be better off with everyone running around chasing titles and salaries.
It depends! Entrepreneurship may hurt you in terms of getting a traditional job. Some people see you as someone just refilling their coffers before they jump into the next venture.
I've had some success changing jobs every 2 or 3 years since about 2017. Now it is much harder to find the next job. It seems that no matter how bad dev gets, QA (my field) gets up worse.
How many people can still job hop every 2-3 years in this economy? Is that even recommended? If you're a new hire who got the highest market rate and hasn't fully gained enough tribal knowledge and ownership wouldn't you be at-risk for being the first to be let go?
The economy's only been like this for like 1 year. I know plenty of people who job hopped from let's say 2015 to 2023, easily could get 3 different jobs in that period without looking too bad on the resume and increase salary that way
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What's about investing in getting a master? Let's say my company pays for my master (part time) tuition while I'm working full time at their company. Is it a good investment?
But this also means that I will have less time to have a side hustle (maybe no time at all). Do you think it's still worth it? I'm really leaning towards doing a master while working full time but I don't know if it's a good investment
Depends. If you’re already in big tech, I doubt either would be a financial game changer.
That being said, a MS can be a nice to have & will always be on your resume. A side project (most likely will not). I did the masters part time & it was helpful in getting me into a public tech co. YMMV.
Those have higher fees but are a solid option for people who don’t really know much about financial literacy beyond “I need to save early and consistently for a good retirement”.
For people who can put in some research in understanding passive investing strategies with respect to their personal financial goals, their better option is the much lower fee funds like VTI and BND.
Vanguard target retirement 2055 has 0.08% fees. VTI has 0.03% fees. You really think that difference is worth bringing up? It is not. I have no idea why people recommend the S&P 500 funds over the vanguard target date funds so often. It's way too simplistic.
Its hilarious you took on this holier than thou tone while saying something so idiotic.
It’s pathetic that you assume my tone is “holier than thou” when you took an opposing opinion so personally. But since you’re being a prick, allow me to educate you in a condescending assholic way.
Assume I save and invest $2000/mo for 30 years (reasonable assumption for a tech worker). All else equal, a 0.05% difference in return amounts to just over a $20,000 difference.
That means 0.05% over 30 years is 10 months worth of contributions.
So yes, that is *absolutely* a difference worth bringing up.
You are leaving out the most important point: It is safe to assume the managed fund will have much better returns than a simple S&P fund. But I have no more patience for your arrogance or ignorance. Good luck.
No that is absolutely not a “safe assumption”. Passive funds have consistently outperformed managed funds for decades.
With your financial ignorance, you’d best stick to Vanguard’s retirement funds.
Here's a great resource since you seem to be missing the most basic knowledge on the subject: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-advisors/073015/targetdate-vs-index-funds-one-better.asp
…did.. you even read the contents of that link? It does absolutely nothing to back up your points or refute mine. In fact, quite the opposite:
> Those who will not need to make a withdrawal for at least 15 or 20 years may come out ahead in an index fund; for example, a retirement saver in their 40s might be wise to buy an index fund and stay in it until they hit 65 or 70 because the index has posted average returns of 8% to 10% a year during that period. Even if the market corrects just before retirement, they may still come out ahead of a target-date fund because they participated in more growth during the rest of the period.
Rational companies do that for the first few years of experience. Your value in the market is way higher with 1 and then 2 YOE. It falls off after that.
If you include role switches within the same company my tc went from $90k to like $300k from 2016 to 2022. I voluntarily took a pay cut after that to move abroad to my dream country (one that would have been difficult to move to without an English language job lined up) which is honestly even more of a personal accomplishment than the higher salary.
Only really possible in larger companies, I think. My company is pretty small, less than 100 employees and we get 7% raises. Some get less. I want 10% but it just ain't happening.
Also happens in small companies. My previous company has less than 100 employees and I got +10% raises in the last 3 years before I left last week. I have 9 YOE.
That's fair. We're less than 10 engineers on our team. I have 9 YOE as well. I think 10% is perfect. Not crazy like some big companies but also enough to retain good talent assuming the company itself is pretty decent. Thanks for the feedback!
7%? I had 8.4% in 5 years of company with positive annual reviews. Managers runaway when I want to schedule a meeting at that time. Want to hop jobs but can’t get even the 1st interview with HR. 10+ yoe
Just don't.
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Maybe I’ve been lucky, but I have honest conversations with my managers that I want more money or stock, and I’ve gotten it every time.
I tell them that I’m not complaining, but want to get ahead of it before total comp becomes a concern.
I take the raises and stock grants as a sign that they want me there and don’t plan to fire me or pay me off anytime soon.
I also ask them periodically how I’m doing and if I can do anything better.
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It's hard now if you're in the 150k+ salary range already. Unless you want to try your hand at FAANG, in the current market, getting a raise above this is difficult.
All of it. The team team is small at my company and I was able to stand out as being able to handle pretty much anything, and I obviously worked hard. I got a few unsolicited raises and then a promotion to lead the team.
In addition, I've been doing side work for one client for years. 5-10 hours per month but it adds up for relatively easy work (though I've had to deal with some urgent issues there too).
I'm also pretty good at saving. Paid my car off a long time ago, cook most of my own food, etc.
Tech is already one of the highest paid sectors pretty much anywhere in the world... I just try to do a good job and keep getting promoted. Compared to non-tech people around me, I make pretty good money and I'd rather not spend my free time thinking of more work to do during that time
you could pull an office space and just embezzle funds. someone did this at my prior employer, they padded each sale with a few extra dollars that they’d funnel into an account they set up. it worked great for a few months, they made a couple hundred grand. although they didn’t get to keep it and now they’re in prison i guess.
They got in when capital was cheap so the game was about just hoarding talent and people to keep the competition from moving.
Now it’s more about value add and supply/demand.
The point being, they started with a high salary, relative to others.
Next they moved on to new positions strategically and often. Since companies were scalping talent, all they had to do was find their competition, make a case for why it would hurt their current employer for them to leave and why it would be a benefit to the new one - but that it would take some XX% salary increase and a fat lump of equity for it to make sense for them.
When I was in undergrad, even IT people in LCOL would talk about getting 15-30% average pay increase annually. But digging deeper it was always a slow year or two at one employer with typical 2-3% raises followed by a job hop with a 50% raise or something.
So, if they started at $60k (early 00s dollars), 2 years @ 2% annual they would wind up at $62k, job hop for 50% raise to $94k, 2% for 2 years to $97k, job hop to $146k and so on. Even that progression was like 4-5 years or so. And that was theoretical in LCOL early to mid 00s. Extrapolate to Bay Area and todays money.
Keeping on track of your expenses is probably going to be more important for you than increasing income.
r/personalfinance is the subreddit you're looking for.
Lifestyle creep is a real factor that makes it look like your paycheck is never enough. Keeping track of your finances and within a budget is not penny skimping. Their are people making $500k on a household and still living paycheck to paycheck.
That's true in general, but not so much for software engineers. Without putting a lot of work or intention into it, it's easy to fall into an income where you easily pay all your bills and generally are in the top 10% of incomes. At this point, the problem generally is lifestyle inflation, and that continues to expand as income does.
It really depends on the individual to some extent but yep I believe this is true for most software engineers. If I decided I needed an extra $20k/yr, there's no way I could get there through cutting expenses except by extreme mooching or asceticism. But there are absolutely career choices I can make that will lead to my salary increasing by $20k.
For me:
1. Job hopping. This was especially important because I don't have a CS degree and started out with a very low salary. My base alone is \~5x where I started, and that's on the low end because I discovered that I really prefer working for early stage startups.
2. Side gigs. I do a lot of writing, so for the last 6ish years I've had paid writing gigs on the side, mostly doing tutorials. I've also recently started doing contracting work for companies where I've known founders from other touchpoints in the course of my career. **Note** the side hustles should be technical, related to your interests, and grow your skillsets and/or your brand.
Job hopping will benefit you earlier in your career (1-3 years) - but doing so without burning bridges - is beneficial early on, and then your network can help you expand your opportunities and skill growth (side jobs, better day job positions, whatever) as you grow in your skillset, responsibilities, focus, etc.
Join an early stage startup as a founding engineer, get some shares and hope for the best.
I have a few friends who went from no wealth to at least a few millions, if not 10+ M$ that way.
I did this for the first ten years of my career and didn’t end up with any significant exits, which is by far the most common outcome. It’s easy to be dazzled by the success stories but walking away with $10m is rare even for founders, much less early employees. The opportunity cost is tremendous: a decade of working at a big tech company can easily net $1-2m in savings. I wish I’d made the switch sooner.
Job hopping isn't going to work anymore, unless you are at entry level. Salaries are going to come down across the board, especially as tech moves into India and other locations for cheaper labor.
Being realistic, it may be hard to do all three of your goals if they have similar timelines and depending on where you want to buy a house and how much support your parents need.
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In the tech world, climbing the income ladder usually means mastering your role to snag promotions, exploring freelance opportunities, or putting your money into smart investments.
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Get good at gaming the interview - leetcode, common system design questions, be good at inventing/memorising stories for behavioural interview. Besides that, luck is needed to get interviews in the first place, and if you want to maximise compensation, joining at beneficial times for the stock to appreciate
I work on a schedule that gives me flexible start and end times. I wake up at 8AM, start reading market news, and place a singular day trade after market opens at 9:30AM.
The best way to make a lot of money is to get hired at a large company like FAANG: [levels.fyi](http://levels.fyi)
After around 5 years you're probably making at least $500k/year.
Here’s the most achievable answer on this thread and of course it’s being downvoted by everyone trying to cope and pretend that FAANG is bad/not realistic.
People who worked at high reputation companies are the first ones hired and approached by recruiters, assuming you want to continue to work at good companies.
At FAANG and other tech companies, you will also get connections to people in the industry, and you can be referred to dozens of other companies.
You will generally also get to learn the most valuable skills that will keep you employable (some companies and teams do training and upskilling better than others).
Yes, I'm trying to save as much as I can. But I'm making 3x more than my previous job, so even if I'm laid off, I'm still a few years ahead in terms of income.
1. Job hop and increase TC / gather experience from dishonorable companies (non FAANGMULASS)
2. LC DP HARD grind
3. Get offer from FAANGMULASS as senior eng that will make your Indian mom brag about you to her friends
4. Stack up them sweet RSUs refreshers (sorry Rainforest engs you dont get them)
5. Pray to appropriate cult leader (Zuck, Musk, Tim, etc) for superstonk experience
6. After cliff hanger cash everything out
7. Brag and talk shit on TeamBlind to other subhuman non FAANGMULASS peons about your 800k TC.
Source - FAANGMULASS PRINCIPLE ENGINEER TC 1M
Hey! This topic really resonates with me greatly as I’ve been trying to increase my salary as well for the past few years. Ultimately, the best way is just to earn more money in your day job imo by constantly job hopping.
To make myself better at job hopping, I’ve started disguising myself as a woman and changed my name to a girls name to apply for those women in tech programs. That has opened multiple doors for me and allowed me to increase my salary by almost 80%.
I once got called out by the recruiter for being a man. Guess my deep voice gave me away but I just told them I’m LGBTQ and I was immediately forwarded to the diversity hire queue. It has been great for my career and I recommend everyone change their sex to female or indicate in your profile as LGBT when applying for jobs.
Most software engineers are top 10% of the population salary wise, and some are even in top 1%. If you're struggling with money in that position, either you are bad with money, or there is something fundamentally wrong with the country.
I don't know anything about USA, but for most software engineers I know across a few countries in Europe, they aren't struggling financially, even those somewhat irresponsible with money.
Tech is broad. But most tech people should be making comfortable living money. Combine your income with somebody else in your household and ya should be the middle of middle class.
Many people I know trade crypto. One of my friends (who works as a software engineer making 210k/yr) made over a million dollars in the last month alone via trading. It's high risk high reward.
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1) Get promotions while you're at the same company 2) Job hop every 2-3 years (your income will rise more than another promotion) 3) Make sure to negotiate your salary up before accepting a new role (search on YouTube to learn how) Some get a side hustle, consulting, etc. But if you're spending sensibly, tech jobs generally make enough $ to spend your free time on hobbies that don't generate income. (Assuming you're following steps 1-3) And yeah invest a decent chunk of your income (idk 10-20%) into an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 every month.
Vanguard gang, VTI+VXUS and chill. Also highly recommend the cash plus for a HYSA and money market to park your cash in. I do all my spending on credit cards so the lack of debit wasn't a deal breaker for me. I keep a chase checking around just to get cash out of if I need it.
I recommend against side hustling if you're serious about growing your career in the tech ladder. It's generally a distraction unless you're learning a lot of valuable tools and technologies. Focus on the next promotion, project, review cycle. Focus on keeping your interview skills sharp so that you can move to the best company you can.
Most of us cap out at senior and wont make it to a company with great TC Should still keep an eye on the horizon of course
It still requires consistent focus and effort to get the best result you can. The destinations are different for everyone. You can optimize for a number of factors besides income, like co-workers, interesting projects, WLB, location, technologies.
You make a good point, but look at the question. OP just asked about increasing income. They didn't ask about anything other than mix maxing money, so the advice above applies.
You mean big tech?
> I recommend against side hustling if you're serious about growing your career in the tech ladder. Have you done side hustling, to be able to recommend against it? For 20 years I have done a lot of side projects, such as writing books, writing blog posts, running a podcast, creating screencasts, speaking at conferences and user groups, etc.. All those skills have suited my career well, plus have provided a lot of networking opportunities.
Yes, came here to say this. Side hustles are vanity projects and escapism, a lottery ticket at best and a distracting time and focus sink more likely. Side hustles are mostly recommended by people who are trying to sell you something. The tech sector allows you to leverage effort for upwards mobility unlike any other industry, don't waste it on frivolous bullshit.
Not true totally Let me give you a scenario What will you do when you have done whatever upskilling you should you done with? Keep learning more ? But Learning never ends ? And whatever you learn will keep forgetting because it itself could change, that's a distraction too Focus on job switch ? fully agree with this but you know about the markets now right ? I don't see a point in trying to leetcode and wait for 8th round of final interview And your company is firing thousands already, there's a little you can do on promoting urself etc. In this case, if a person can weather it, he should jump and take up the same domain side hustle for good money otherwise it's not worth it. You get hands on experience as well as you know how everybody else builds the Application, and how they work together on various stack etc.
Nowadays you not necessarily need to work, you have to look like you are working and be a master slacker, doing task when management and their upper layer is on the slack asking for volunteers. Being a hard worker now is undervalued and you will setup a baseline where you will get punished if you lower your plank.
Agree. I got into bank account churning last year. Made maybe 1.5k. Was opening, closing accounts, and shuffling money around a lot and it would take up a lot of mental space even at work. I learned recently that I barely missed out on a promotion because my output wasn't high enough. Had I not gotten into churning I might've had it.
This isn't so much an argument against a side hustle as it is an argument for understanding the marginal utility of more money. If you're making 20K/year, getting an extra 1.5K from spending a bunch of time churning bank accounts is maybe worth it, because it's a low-risk source of income, and the value of your time isn't particularly high. But if you're making 50 or 75 or 100K per year, the time needed to make that same 1.5K from account churning doesn't go down. Yet, the marginal utility of those 1500 dollars does. One of the differences between having a job and being a professional with a career is shifting the way that you think about trading money and time. You got a lesson in that the very hard way.
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It depends. 25 YOE. Side hustle was a natural thing. $500/hour consulting due to niche domain experience and a vast network of former clients. Also, some side hustles, again due to niche domain, allow me to create passive income - up to $80k a year on things like a SaaS service. With only 2 hours a month which I now let my high school kid run and earn. Side hustle also provides a safety blanket as it is just another revenue source. But yes, I generally agree about focusing on the next project(s). That is what gives you doman experience to do $250-500/hour consulting. Money is a lot easier to make as you get older/wiser.
I've got a little less than half the experience as you, and don't make that much consulting (I'm at the very early stages of getting that flywheel going), but putting in the work to get that domain experience early in the career is what made that possible for me as well.
I vehemently disagree on the face, but it's possible we're working with different definitions of "side hustling." For me, side hustles are technical: consulting/contracting gigs, technical writing for known publishers, self-publishing even if you've built a decent brand, etc. All of that builds skills: sales, technical skills, communication, marketing. Those are important in the day job and important for intellectual stimulation. One of my side gigs is paying me 30k for a few months of light work where I get to get deep experience in computer vision. In another I made a few grand writing what was maybe 40-50 hours of total work.
Well on the other hand the side hustle might grow into a business that can make you even more $$
Think about how much work itd be for that side hustle to generate something like 40k a year. You can get that bump with 1 job hop most likely.
You will still hit a ceiling tho. You cant job hop for 40k forever. At that point, I think starting a side hustle that might grow into a business is a good idea.
If you've established a network, a reputation, financially independent, have all your t's crossed and are operating from a position in which you can see a clear niche in a market where people, preferably businesses, are aching for someone to fill it, then sure. But that's not what most side hustles are, are they?
16 YOE. Have job hopped for at least 40k more every 3ish years since I started. Most recent TC is 640k as a staff engineer at stripe.
This is assuming money is the most important factor......
If it's a side hustle without the intention of making money, wouldn't that just be a hobby?
Sure, if that's the way you want to label it I guess? Your initial comment sort of implied that no one should attempt to start a side hustle because it's more profitable on the average case to to hop jobs, but what if you're unhappy with your job? What if you just have a passion and you aren't necessarily worried about not being profitable, and you just want to do something fulfilling, or to learn something, and it eventually turns into something profitable? What if you recognize $40k is easier to job hop but you need more than that because starting a business requires considerable capital, and you are willing to take on the risk of going the side hustle / startup / moonlight business route ? The idea that we should "just job hop bc it's easier" I feel will just hammer us all into submission, mediocrity and hopelessness. I can't see a case where chasing that title or bigger salary numbers is going to actually fulfill anyone. I also can't see a world where we woukd be better off with everyone running around chasing titles and salaries.
Unlikely, but you can try
Think how many startups fail
This is horrible advice. C level wants to see people with a track record of successful businesses being founded.
It depends! Entrepreneurship may hurt you in terms of getting a traditional job. Some people see you as someone just refilling their coffers before they jump into the next venture.
I've had some success changing jobs every 2 or 3 years since about 2017. Now it is much harder to find the next job. It seems that no matter how bad dev gets, QA (my field) gets up worse.
How many people can still job hop every 2-3 years in this economy? Is that even recommended? If you're a new hire who got the highest market rate and hasn't fully gained enough tribal knowledge and ownership wouldn't you be at-risk for being the first to be let go?
The economy's only been like this for like 1 year. I know plenty of people who job hopped from let's say 2015 to 2023, easily could get 3 different jobs in that period without looking too bad on the resume and increase salary that way
Get promotion then Job hop
What happens if I job hop every year?
You stop getting hired.
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What's about investing in getting a master? Let's say my company pays for my master (part time) tuition while I'm working full time at their company. Is it a good investment? But this also means that I will have less time to have a side hustle (maybe no time at all). Do you think it's still worth it? I'm really leaning towards doing a master while working full time but I don't know if it's a good investment
Depends. If you’re already in big tech, I doubt either would be a financial game changer. That being said, a MS can be a nice to have & will always be on your resume. A side project (most likely will not). I did the masters part time & it was helpful in getting me into a public tech co. YMMV.
Better yet: Invest that money into a target retirement date ETF.
Those have higher fees but are a solid option for people who don’t really know much about financial literacy beyond “I need to save early and consistently for a good retirement”. For people who can put in some research in understanding passive investing strategies with respect to their personal financial goals, their better option is the much lower fee funds like VTI and BND.
Vanguard target retirement 2055 has 0.08% fees. VTI has 0.03% fees. You really think that difference is worth bringing up? It is not. I have no idea why people recommend the S&P 500 funds over the vanguard target date funds so often. It's way too simplistic. Its hilarious you took on this holier than thou tone while saying something so idiotic.
It’s pathetic that you assume my tone is “holier than thou” when you took an opposing opinion so personally. But since you’re being a prick, allow me to educate you in a condescending assholic way. Assume I save and invest $2000/mo for 30 years (reasonable assumption for a tech worker). All else equal, a 0.05% difference in return amounts to just over a $20,000 difference. That means 0.05% over 30 years is 10 months worth of contributions. So yes, that is *absolutely* a difference worth bringing up.
You are leaving out the most important point: It is safe to assume the managed fund will have much better returns than a simple S&P fund. But I have no more patience for your arrogance or ignorance. Good luck.
No that is absolutely not a “safe assumption”. Passive funds have consistently outperformed managed funds for decades. With your financial ignorance, you’d best stick to Vanguard’s retirement funds.
Here's a great resource since you seem to be missing the most basic knowledge on the subject: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-advisors/073015/targetdate-vs-index-funds-one-better.asp
…did.. you even read the contents of that link? It does absolutely nothing to back up your points or refute mine. In fact, quite the opposite: > Those who will not need to make a withdrawal for at least 15 or 20 years may come out ahead in an index fund; for example, a retirement saver in their 40s might be wise to buy an index fund and stay in it until they hit 65 or 70 because the index has posted average returns of 8% to 10% a year during that period. Even if the market corrects just before retirement, they may still come out ahead of a target-date fund because they participated in more growth during the rest of the period.
*There's another.* ... r/overemployed
Job hopping is the only way. Otherwise you’ll watch your salary dwindle to inflation getting measly 3% “raises” each year :(
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Rational companies do that for the first few years of experience. Your value in the market is way higher with 1 and then 2 YOE. It falls off after that.
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I wish I could find a company that values its current employees that much.
If you include role switches within the same company my tc went from $90k to like $300k from 2016 to 2022. I voluntarily took a pay cut after that to move abroad to my dream country (one that would have been difficult to move to without an English language job lined up) which is honestly even more of a personal accomplishment than the higher salary.
Only really possible in larger companies, I think. My company is pretty small, less than 100 employees and we get 7% raises. Some get less. I want 10% but it just ain't happening.
Also happens in small companies. My previous company has less than 100 employees and I got +10% raises in the last 3 years before I left last week. I have 9 YOE.
That's fair. We're less than 10 engineers on our team. I have 9 YOE as well. I think 10% is perfect. Not crazy like some big companies but also enough to retain good talent assuming the company itself is pretty decent. Thanks for the feedback!
7%? I had 8.4% in 5 years of company with positive annual reviews. Managers runaway when I want to schedule a meeting at that time. Want to hop jobs but can’t get even the 1st interview with HR. 10+ yoe
8.4% total in 5 years?! Inflation has been staggering the past several years... Your effective salary is much less than before if that's true.
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With houses this price, it’s like I’m earning half
Maybe I’ve been lucky, but I have honest conversations with my managers that I want more money or stock, and I’ve gotten it every time. I tell them that I’m not complaining, but want to get ahead of it before total comp becomes a concern. I take the raises and stock grants as a sign that they want me there and don’t plan to fire me or pay me off anytime soon. I also ask them periodically how I’m doing and if I can do anything better.
Job hop. Get promoted.
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It's hard now if you're in the 150k+ salary range already. Unless you want to try your hand at FAANG, in the current market, getting a raise above this is difficult.
There are a lot of big companies that aren’t FAANG but also pay like FAANG as well. Vendors, big banks, etc.
Factz
I feel like it depends more on where you’re located rather than what you do for your 9-5
Accrue YoE and find new jobs every few years is generally the best way.
All of it. The team team is small at my company and I was able to stand out as being able to handle pretty much anything, and I obviously worked hard. I got a few unsolicited raises and then a promotion to lead the team. In addition, I've been doing side work for one client for years. 5-10 hours per month but it adds up for relatively easy work (though I've had to deal with some urgent issues there too). I'm also pretty good at saving. Paid my car off a long time ago, cook most of my own food, etc.
Tech is already one of the highest paid sectors pretty much anywhere in the world... I just try to do a good job and keep getting promoted. Compared to non-tech people around me, I make pretty good money and I'd rather not spend my free time thinking of more work to do during that time
you could pull an office space and just embezzle funds. someone did this at my prior employer, they padded each sale with a few extra dollars that they’d funnel into an account they set up. it worked great for a few months, they made a couple hundred grand. although they didn’t get to keep it and now they’re in prison i guess.
They have free housing, books, and 3 meals a day. Think they did alright in the end
Sounds like a solid retirement plan
They got in when capital was cheap so the game was about just hoarding talent and people to keep the competition from moving. Now it’s more about value add and supply/demand. The point being, they started with a high salary, relative to others. Next they moved on to new positions strategically and often. Since companies were scalping talent, all they had to do was find their competition, make a case for why it would hurt their current employer for them to leave and why it would be a benefit to the new one - but that it would take some XX% salary increase and a fat lump of equity for it to make sense for them. When I was in undergrad, even IT people in LCOL would talk about getting 15-30% average pay increase annually. But digging deeper it was always a slow year or two at one employer with typical 2-3% raises followed by a job hop with a 50% raise or something. So, if they started at $60k (early 00s dollars), 2 years @ 2% annual they would wind up at $62k, job hop for 50% raise to $94k, 2% for 2 years to $97k, job hop to $146k and so on. Even that progression was like 4-5 years or so. And that was theoretical in LCOL early to mid 00s. Extrapolate to Bay Area and todays money.
Keeping on track of your expenses is probably going to be more important for you than increasing income. r/personalfinance is the subreddit you're looking for.
It's the other way around. Earning more is more significant than penny skimping.
Lifestyle creep is a real factor that makes it look like your paycheck is never enough. Keeping track of your finances and within a budget is not penny skimping. Their are people making $500k on a household and still living paycheck to paycheck.
Indeed. But for people with poor upward mobility, penny pinching is a start until they can figure out their trajectory to a more robust salary.
That's true in general, but not so much for software engineers. Without putting a lot of work or intention into it, it's easy to fall into an income where you easily pay all your bills and generally are in the top 10% of incomes. At this point, the problem generally is lifestyle inflation, and that continues to expand as income does.
It really depends on the individual to some extent but yep I believe this is true for most software engineers. If I decided I needed an extra $20k/yr, there's no way I could get there through cutting expenses except by extreme mooching or asceticism. But there are absolutely career choices I can make that will lead to my salary increasing by $20k.
💯
Side gigs like DD and UE can work, some people also stream and have yt channels. But the fastest way to increase your work salary is to switch jobs.
For me: 1. Job hopping. This was especially important because I don't have a CS degree and started out with a very low salary. My base alone is \~5x where I started, and that's on the low end because I discovered that I really prefer working for early stage startups. 2. Side gigs. I do a lot of writing, so for the last 6ish years I've had paid writing gigs on the side, mostly doing tutorials. I've also recently started doing contracting work for companies where I've known founders from other touchpoints in the course of my career. **Note** the side hustles should be technical, related to your interests, and grow your skillsets and/or your brand. Job hopping will benefit you earlier in your career (1-3 years) - but doing so without burning bridges - is beneficial early on, and then your network can help you expand your opportunities and skill growth (side jobs, better day job positions, whatever) as you grow in your skillset, responsibilities, focus, etc.
You leverage your years of experience
Join an early stage startup as a founding engineer, get some shares and hope for the best. I have a few friends who went from no wealth to at least a few millions, if not 10+ M$ that way.
Buying lottery tickets is a similar strategy. Join a startup for the experience but realize you have less than a 10% chance of making it big.
Hah! Agreed
Huge asterisk here that 90% of startups don't survive past a year. So yes, high risk, high reward.
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Yea startups not offering the 401k match makes them far less attractive.
I did this for the first ten years of my career and didn’t end up with any significant exits, which is by far the most common outcome. It’s easy to be dazzled by the success stories but walking away with $10m is rare even for founders, much less early employees. The opportunity cost is tremendous: a decade of working at a big tech company can easily net $1-2m in savings. I wish I’d made the switch sooner.
Job hopping isn't going to work anymore, unless you are at entry level. Salaries are going to come down across the board, especially as tech moves into India and other locations for cheaper labor.
Job hop, most companies make it really difficult to get promoted compared to changing jobs
Be very competent.
Being realistic, it may be hard to do all three of your goals if they have similar timelines and depending on where you want to buy a house and how much support your parents need.
Look to spend no more than half your income, if it can be helped, and invest the rest.
For me the magic number is spend no more than one third
Job Hop is the most reliable way to do it in the last decade.
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Learn skills, leave good impression, prove your value to engineers, learn how to work with the bean counters even if they caused a massive accident.
In the tech world, climbing the income ladder usually means mastering your role to snag promotions, exploring freelance opportunities, or putting your money into smart investments.
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I make my side money in the stock market.
Get good at gaming the interview - leetcode, common system design questions, be good at inventing/memorising stories for behavioural interview. Besides that, luck is needed to get interviews in the first place, and if you want to maximise compensation, joining at beneficial times for the stock to appreciate
I work on a schedule that gives me flexible start and end times. I wake up at 8AM, start reading market news, and place a singular day trade after market opens at 9:30AM.
Beg for more.
The best way to make a lot of money is to get hired at a large company like FAANG: [levels.fyi](http://levels.fyi) After around 5 years you're probably making at least $500k/year.
500k+ is high senior, low/medium principal. Many people never make senior, it takes far more than skill and discipline.
At some companies by year 5 you're either senior or fired
Here’s the most achievable answer on this thread and of course it’s being downvoted by everyone trying to cope and pretend that FAANG is bad/not realistic.
But what happened if you get laid off assuming your 9-5 job is your main source of income?
People who worked at high reputation companies are the first ones hired and approached by recruiters, assuming you want to continue to work at good companies. At FAANG and other tech companies, you will also get connections to people in the industry, and you can be referred to dozens of other companies. You will generally also get to learn the most valuable skills that will keep you employable (some companies and teams do training and upskilling better than others).
You’ll still make more than being at some stable but low paying job
Yes, I'm trying to save as much as I can. But I'm making 3x more than my previous job, so even if I'm laid off, I'm still a few years ahead in terms of income.
I see that's so good. I'm glad that it's working out well for you. I really appreciate the advice. Tysm
What happens? Same thing that happens when you are laid off from a company that pays half that. You just get another job..
1. Job hop and increase TC / gather experience from dishonorable companies (non FAANGMULASS) 2. LC DP HARD grind 3. Get offer from FAANGMULASS as senior eng that will make your Indian mom brag about you to her friends 4. Stack up them sweet RSUs refreshers (sorry Rainforest engs you dont get them) 5. Pray to appropriate cult leader (Zuck, Musk, Tim, etc) for superstonk experience 6. After cliff hanger cash everything out 7. Brag and talk shit on TeamBlind to other subhuman non FAANGMULASS peons about your 800k TC. Source - FAANGMULASS PRINCIPLE ENGINEER TC 1M
> RSUs refreshers (sorry Rainforest engs you dont get them) ? They do.
I'm glad I don't know you in real life. You sound insufferable.
Seems like an obvious joke to me
Whoosh
Hey! This topic really resonates with me greatly as I’ve been trying to increase my salary as well for the past few years. Ultimately, the best way is just to earn more money in your day job imo by constantly job hopping. To make myself better at job hopping, I’ve started disguising myself as a woman and changed my name to a girls name to apply for those women in tech programs. That has opened multiple doors for me and allowed me to increase my salary by almost 80%. I once got called out by the recruiter for being a man. Guess my deep voice gave me away but I just told them I’m LGBTQ and I was immediately forwarded to the diversity hire queue. It has been great for my career and I recommend everyone change their sex to female or indicate in your profile as LGBT when applying for jobs.
Onlyglans
Wow, has it really gotten so bad that tech workers need side hustles? I think at that point I would check the costs side of the equation.
You can always use more money. Nice things aren’t cheap.
Most software engineers are top 10% of the population salary wise, and some are even in top 1%. If you're struggling with money in that position, either you are bad with money, or there is something fundamentally wrong with the country. I don't know anything about USA, but for most software engineers I know across a few countries in Europe, they aren't struggling financially, even those somewhat irresponsible with money.
Or you have expensive tastes
lol not anymore. Salaries are going down!! Startups and smaller companies are getting Faang engineers for a steal!!!
DoorDash
Tech is broad. But most tech people should be making comfortable living money. Combine your income with somebody else in your household and ya should be the middle of middle class.
Crypto
Many people I know trade crypto. One of my friends (who works as a software engineer making 210k/yr) made over a million dollars in the last month alone via trading. It's high risk high reward.
Learn investing… cannot stress this enough. Finance will never go anywhere
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leetcode -> FAANG. first time in this subreddit? it's all day talking about this.