

What kind of jobs do the software engineers who earn $500k per year do? - pagejim
http://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-jobs-do-the-software-engineers-who-earn-500k-per-year-do

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ballard
Unsatisfied with the Quora answers, the reality is that they are usually
extremely productive in their domain, thought leaders or big brands.

The meta is that thinking strategically from tactical on up about how solve
business and customer problems at scale is uncommon, valuable. It's hard as it
requires focus, experimentation and intellect. Further, common sense and
critical thinking skills are basically impossible to improve from a rote
memorization approach because the education system is so hopelessly
disconnected from life and business. A wise parent today could act like an
investor by taking a step back, do far less for their kids so they can become
more independent and more survivable. Whenever I see kids having their food
cut for them, ...

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CmonDev
It seems that no engineer makes "$500k per year". Stock options don't pay
every year. Contracting is too unreliable to guarantee that kind of yearly
income as well. It's probably more reasonable to talk about "$5m over the
course of ten years".

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etanazir
$500k salary exclusive of stock options is not unheard of. This type of
engineer probably built the mission critical system a company is relying upon.

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sjg007
One could argue that by definition that mission critical system was not built
well. A good engineer should always try to automate (and architect) yourself
out of a job. You want software that runs itself.

