
Ask HN: How much you make, how long did it take for you to get there? - Errorcod3
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.
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Someone1234
This is worthless without saying at least the general area or country where
you live. $60K is a "small" salary in e.g. New York City but a massive salary
in e.g. Indiana.

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 "how come you make so little?!"

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're
getting "screwed." It is self-selection bias.

Anyway...

\- $47K, Utah, Programmer

\- Unfinished college degree, and five years as a "DevOps"-style role

\- 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.

\- My work actually expects you to use your vacation. It isn't one of those
"vacation on paper" places or "unlimited leave" places where the internal
culture is to never use it.

\- My pay increases at fixed intervals without negotiation and is tracked so
it is a knowable quantity.

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?

Plus my pay slowly rises in time (above inflation) and I'll have no periods of
unemployment (which can be extremely expensive, in particular if you have any
medical stuff in the US).

Yeah, sure, I am rationalising but if I made even $65K this would be pretty
much the perfect job, but you cannot have everything...

~~~
Errorcod3
Wow, I totally agree with this, it is crazy seeing some people my age making
100k+, however their cost of living is higher and might have an unstable
situation.

I to have a great job security, a happy work area, and great benefits with
where I live I can support both the wife and I and live comfortably.

Also awesome you have the fixed time off on top or 20 days of vacation!

~~~
theandrewbailey
If I wanted to make $100,000+, I'd move to/work from California.

~~~
gesman
...and spend $40-50k on accomodation expenses.

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TheSpiceIsLife
Year 11 high school dropout. Currently 34 living in Tasmania, Australia. Laser
cutter operator (some CAD work, self taught), metal fabricator (boiler-maker /
welder) by trade. Also accredited in Clinical Nutrition. Previous experience
running physical infrastructure in a data centre.

AU$60,000 + overtime up to around AU$75,000 total

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 / kg; whole cauliflower $6 - $8; petrol is $1.35
/ litre; three bedroom home in ok suburb $230,000 or $280 / week to rent.

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.

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railsdev1234
$100,000. I'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.

1\. Started as a freelancer / Excel consultant charging between $25 and $50 an
hour. Did some small jobs like Wordpress sites, web scraping, and writing VBA
scripts.

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.

3\. After about year of that, got my first full-time job as a Rails developer
for $75,000.

4\. Changed jobs after a year and was brought on at $85,000. Shortly after I
got a raise to $100,000.

~~~
richsin
Hey,

This sounds like a solid road map. Do you mind giving some insight as to how
you learned VBA/Excel enough to consult and where you found your
consulting/contractor gigs?

Thanks!

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PretzelPirate
I'm a software engineer in Seattle. 28 years old. This year I'll bring in
about $230k including bonus and stock.

~~~
gesman
And excluding bonus and stock?

~~~
PretzelPirate
My base salary is a little over $150k.

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stephancoral
$120k. Been out of college for almost two years now. I started programming in
middle school but I would say that I didn'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.

~~~
artmageddon
Where at, location-wise?

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stephancoral
Work in NYC, commute from upstate

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artmageddon
I was doing the same for awhile, only commuting from central NJ :) I assume
you're in finance?

~~~
stephancoral
Nope! I work for an adtech firm in midtown.

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pdiddy
I make $65K salary (in Boston). Double major in Classical Studies and English
in '06\. Late bloomer in finding coding. Working professionally as web dev for
just about 2 years. I'm considering going to school to get a masters in
Computer Engineering.

~~~
pjungwir
Hey, fellow English/Classics student here! :-) In fact my first years learning
Greek and Latin were in Boston. Been programming since I was 8, but always
favored the humanities for formal schooling.

I like to say if you can read Greek you can certainly read Perl/C++.

If you're good I don't think you need the masters, unless you want to
specialize in something mathy/difficult, e.g. machine learning. But if you can
pick up just an algorithms and data structures course it will make you a
better programmer.

Best of luck to you!

~~~
pdiddy
Thanks for the kind words. Going to school is a question I'm debating a lot
and I have been trying to mine HN for wisdom. I'm planning on applying in the
fall and also applying for some jobs at around the same time.

~~~
aidenn0
Get a MS if it's something you want for your own personal edification; it's a
toss-up whether or not the piece of paper will help you at all in getting
jobs.

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dacohen1234
140K, SF Bay Area, Analytics/BI/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 "big data", 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

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hackerboos
Graduated aged 24, I'm now 27.5 - jobs since graduation:

\- Brighton UK - £25,000 ($37,250)

\- Birkenhead, UK - £30,000 ($44,700)

\- Liverpool, UK - £27,000 ($40,230) later £32,000 ($47,680) (took a hit to
work with a stack I wanted to work with)

\- Toronto, Canada - £47,000 ($69,500) plus 10% bonus

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
We're on similar incomes, I live in Tasmania. Typical cost of living expenses
are in my other comment. What's your similar expenses in Toronto?

~~~
hackerboos
Cheaper than Tasmania for most things except rent.

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Nelkins
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'm on).

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:

1\. $45K base, no overtime - 5 months

2\. $62.5K base, hourly wage as overtime depending on project - 1 year
(switched jobs)

3\. $77.5K base, hourly wage as overtime depending on project - ~4 months now
(same job, got a raise)

I work at a consulting company in NYC that makes software for financial
services firms.

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throwaway420404
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).

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arden
~90k living outside of Atlanta operating a small website and another seasonal
business. Been doing this for four years, but been slow to learn/grow
revenues. No cap on income, 120k, 200k, 500k, ... Bachelor's Degree, but not
necessary.

Oh, I only work for ~4 months of the year and have the rest of the year to
vacation / play / program / whatever.

I advise you guys to quit your day jobs...

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anon_acct
$120k~ Melbourne Australia. 26 years old. Linux Systems Engineer / Operations.

Self-taught as didn'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.

 _alt account for anonymity_

~~~
anon_acct
I'll never forget being looked down on my high school teachers and some of my
family when I decided not to finish high school and then not to go to
university. But it was the right decision for me and worked out very well.

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artmageddon
$83k in central New Jersey. BSc in Computer Science, 10+ years of experience.
Was making $50/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'm being ripped off.

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whitewhim
24k/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.

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accoleon
$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 /w honors, < 1 year
out of school H1B.

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iraldir
I make 77k$. 1 year of philosophy / psychology college, 3 years of Game Dev
school while working in the same time, and one year on another job. Currently
a JavaScript developer

~~~
Errorcod3
That is awesome you got to there in 5 years. Curious as to what region/city
you live near for your cost of living.

~~~
iraldir
I'm french, studied in Paris and I now work in London.

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cberrios
$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).

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mod
66.5k, remote from the south (company in the north), web development.

I had ~ one year of professional experience when I took this job.

I'm self taught with about 10 years of hobbyist development prior.

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cweagans
$110k. I work from Boise, ID for a major media company in NYC.

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seekingcharlie
$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 & a
B.Comp Sci.

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karaujo
36k, twelve years as a Java developer working in Brazil.

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jetti
$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.

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GoldenMonkey
$170K Salary, Colorado, iOS Native Mobile Apps. Bachelors degree, 39yo. 20+
years as a developer.

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throwaway123453
$120K. Senior developer at a media company in New York.

Three years ago, I was making $24K a year as a PhD student in the humanities.
Took a $15/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.

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sethupathi_ips
$140k. 26 years old. Software Engineer (C/C++). Bay area. Masters in Computer
Science. H1b.

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dreaminvm
I am assuming we are talking about base pay here.

~110k software engineering, SV, <1 year out of school.

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aidenn0
~$100k tech support, California; took job out of college, been about 10 years
on the job.

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thdn
$24k, Bolivia, 3 years being a C# Software Architect / Oracle Database
Specialist

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Can you share some typical costs of living. How much is a can of Coke, a
kilogram of apples, rent for a 3 bedroom house in an ok suburb, etc.

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mcdevhammer
$65k + bonuses comes to about $75k. C# developer in Toronto.

