[Bahamut]

Haseeb probably has some high level skills with negotiation and technically (at least with interview passing) as well.

I've went from $51k starting in end of 2012 to $75k + equity fall 2013 (both in DC) to $135k in mid 2014 to $140k + equity a few months later then $160k + equity in mid 2015 (all in the Valley) - before taking my last job, I turned down a $350k position (but low PTO - about half in equity), all for frontend engineering positions except for my current job (full web stack engineering). High salaries are certainly possible for software engineers, but you're not likely to see the inflated amounts outside of the Bay Area.

I have a friend who managed to do much better than me in less time as well in software engineering in the Bay Area. The caveat is that you have to be good at what you do in addition to having the right negotiation skills/savvy, and a bit of luck.