[quote=exsdgal]Most times two people with similar background and position in the same company will not have the exact salary. The reason is the perceived value of the individual. Surest way to improve the base pay is to have a personal ‘campaigner’ within the organization, and individually making oneself indispensable within the company. ie. creating value for the company’s bottom line, learning the pain points of the company and providing solutions ‘even when it is not part of the job description’. At least these are the take aways IMO for anyone making huge salary jumps within a company.
Kev, I don’t know what your objectives are. If you do find a higher paying job what’s next when the peer salary bracket increases? For there is always a bigger fish in the pond. Yes node.js, express etal is not necessarily difficult to learn, but to consistently command higher pay one needs a broad experience in multiple disciplines – server app, client app, responsive design, database, aws/cloud management, high availability server maintenance, trouble shooting, data analysis to list the basics.
The only way to get out of the salary doldrums is to figure out the objectives, pick a path and jump right at it 🙂 However imo to foolproof future salary bracket, is to pick an up and coming area (not yet trendy) to build the experience. For example the ruby/node.js, ios/android guys (and gals) making high figures today typically started when the sdk’s and platforms were in version 0.x.
In my 20 odd years of work experience the W2 high salaried folks fall into two camps – 1) riding the trend wave 2) working on mind-numbing monotonous projects. Nothing wrong with either camps, and to be successful in either camp comes down to one’s personality.
Someone asked about 175 base salary. Yes it is possible in non managerial engineer positions in some SR companies. The number sounds great on paper, but in reality the monthly take home is roughly 8-ishK after deductions. Comfortable but not extraordinary for a single income family.
Kev, not sure if this helps at all. If the intention is to just make more money why not consider supplementing income? e.g. few days ago I received a udemy top courses list where a guy talks about making 100K a year drop shipping eBay goods, and emulating Tim Ferriss lifestyle.[/quote]
Thank you.. Exactly…. Glad I’m not the only one saying this…
And mixxalot, regarding sales engineering. Yes, if you’re in sales, you make a heck of lot more. But let’s be frank, not everyone is cut out for sales. You sound like you are.. Most people aren’t. So again, it’s based on what you are good at and what you enjoy doing. The bulk of your earnings is in commissions, so either you are good at it (and make a lot in commission), your you suck at it (and you get fired)…
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Someone asked about 175 base salary. Yes it is possible in non managerial engineer positions in some SR companies. The number sounds great on paper, but in reality the monthly take home is roughly 8-ishK after deductions. Comfortable but not extraordinary for a single income family.
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Lol How the are you even doing that? Hypothetically, if one is maxxing out retirement contributions (half being pre tax in a traditional 401k because of the match, half being AFTER tax in a Roth 401l)… and maxing out on a ESPP (which is 15% AFTER tax)…. and claiming 5 as an exemption on fed and state, and contributing to a flex spending medical which is about $200/month (granted, it’s pre tax), $300/month for flex spending/dependent care. ….
Hypothetically, one would be lucky to see $5500/month. Granted, most of this is hypothetically would be retirement deferral and investment (via ESPP) which isn’t spending, the retirement amount is not touchable for a long time , the ESPP would not be sellable for 6 months until vested, and the flex spending would reduce one’s normal medical/dependent care expenses by allowing one to use that money pretax. But of that that $5500/month net, hypothetically, $3000/month goes to mortgage+insurance+property tax on the primary, $1000/month goes to living expenses, the remaining $1500/month goes to a vanguard index fund, part of which goes to a kid’s education fund.
For the first 8 months, the net of such a hypothetical W2 pretty much just pays the bills. Starting the 8th month, the net ends up being more because the 401k/Roth 401k’s are maxed out, the social security tax is maxed out, SDI is maxed out.
Not that this is really a problem to have, nor would one be complaining. It’s just those that think this gives one a license to live lavishly is really mistaken.
The payouts, hypothetically have always been the cash bonus and RSU stock grants.
That’s why I’m so surprised so many of you are still so fixated on how much one can theoretically make on a W2 paycheck. Looks great looking at the gross amount. Looking at the net amount, it looks gross after taxes (pun intended).
