[ok_dad]

I’ll buy that 400-500k a year is average for Facebook, Apple, Google, etc.

It’s absolutely NOT average for companies who aren’t the massive giants that those are. I’ve been in actual tech startups, not Uber for Clowns, and the best salary I’ve seen was an (admittedly very good) $170k for a senior dev position. That’s close to average when I talk to my friends and associates in tech in the valley and beyond.

[ta1243]

Quite

https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=ac7c7bbe4f75d28c -- Staff software engineer 160-200k.

https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=4a0886dfc2bbf783 -- 100-150k with need for top-secret clearance

Then in Bay area specifically

https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=2629520bf28dce4d -- Senior staff 175-360k

https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=9822ada0313c9665 -- 150-300k for staff engineer in ML

https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=088b23b29fd809a7 -- Senior 185k

400-500k is way over average for the Bay Area, let alone anywhere else

[fooker]

The range posted is usually just the base pay. For most public companies the total compensation would be ~60-80% more because of the stock. For senior positions, this would sometimes be 2x.

[fooker]

The etc in your first sentence is doing a bit of heavy lifting here. There are so many companies in that category now that if you have any specialized software skill (compilers, ML, database engines, OS, systems in general) you can absolutely make that much if you wanted to. If you don't believe me, and have such skills, spend 20-30 days interviewing!

Sure if you are a typical full stack developer you are not going to make that much money unless you get into Google or something.

Also, base salaries are typically not that high, but the total compensation with equity can reach that pretty easily.

[ok_dad]

I guess in the energy tech industry no one pays that because I’ve been looking, and I have pretty specialized skills.

[fooker]

Makes sense, it's interesting to see this discrepancy between fields.

Could you elaborate what specialized skills though?

[ok_dad]

I write software systems to control devices in buildings in the context of energy savings, like hvac and charging cars, and also control attached distributed energy resources, like batteries or solar.

[varjag]

See when people say "tech" colloquially it means website and app developers, not us embedded dev hobos.

[sangnoir]

Eh, embedded and sensor-fusion devs are making bank working at Waymo, or VR at Apple or Meta. It's less about the field itself and more about big-tech salary-leveling (and insane profits)

[fooker]

A friend started working in this space last year. It seems like the usual story here is smaller companies giving you lottery tickets in the form of pre-IPO options. And large established companies paying a bit below market rates.

[esoterica]

Facebook, Apple and Google are very big companies which hire a lot of very well paid engineers. We're not talking about being an NFL quarterback or something where only a small handful of people will reach that level. Being a big tech engineer is probably the easiest and most achievable path to $500k/year on the planet.