What's your job title and how much do you earn?

[hounton]

high school chemistry teacher at a private all girl's Catholic school
72,000 plus 11k for summer school
Also, free tuition for my daughter which is 15k a year and the college counseling dept helped her get a college scholarship worth 250k
B.S. chem, Masters Education
I was a teacher in Peace Corps and they paid for my master's degree,  and I didn't have to do traditional student teaching.

[Dr. Pepper]

Update:

Job Title: Military Surgeon
Experience: 4yrs post residency
Age: 36
Salary: 187k + 60k (moonlighting, varies)
Education: BS/MD

Military has let me be debt free with no education debt and covered all health care, has really helped accelerate my family towards FI.

[soily]

Job Title: Geotechnical Project Engineer
Experience: 5 years
Age: 30
Salary:  $84k base + bonus + ESOP + matching 401k (all dependent on company profitability)
Education: Master's

[joe189man]

Title: Reservoir Engineer
Age: 28
Experience: 3.5 yr industry, 2.5 yr research
Education: BS/MS
Salary: $121k + 20% cash bonus + 20% RSU bonus + 6% 401k match
Area: MCOL

Update upon some raises over the last couple yrs

Title: Sr. Reservoir Engineer
Age: 31
Experience: 6 yr industry, 2.5 yr research
Education: BS/MS
Salary: $170k + 30% cash bonus + 6% 401k match + 0.5% equity
Area: MCOL

@Roboturner is this a petroleum related position?

[mizzourah2006]

Title: Principal Data Scientist
Salary: $160k + $10-$20k bonus
Education: PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology + self-taught programming/ML/DL
Experience: 5 years in I/O + 2 years in Data Science
Age: 35

Work remotely in a low cost of living area. It’s funny being one of the few I/Os with a strong DS skill set as many I/O firms are attempting to incorporate the power of ML/DL into their products. I definitely got very lucky.

Figured I'd give an update. Still in a relatively low cost of living area.

Not much has changed. Still with the same company.

Salary: $189k + bonus ~$20-$25k and now I get about + ~$25k/yr in private equity.

Recently I've been getting pinged by FAANGs and I'm considering it, but right now my job is pretty ideal. They've been saying that working remotely is a reasonable expectation, but so far they've been vague on comp. They basically say it's a senior level role, but that compensation is based on experience, interview success, etc. Which I guess makes sense, but it's a bit frustrating as the interviews aren't exactly easy convos. I'd like to know if its even worth the time or not. 

[use2betrix]

Just got a raise I didn’t ask for, so figured I would update.

Industrial Construction (Management/Contractor)
Associates Degree
10 years Experience
30 years old
$850/day (day rate) / $980/wk per diem (tax free) / $500/mo travel allowance (tax free) / 5% 401k match fully vested from Day 1

Next year I’ll likely be bumping up to 6 days a week as project work picks up, and should close in on $300k at the end of the year. Beings a lot is tax free it’s goes a bit further.

Been a while since I updated.. At the job quoted above, about a year later I received another raise - all the same perks but change from $850/day (10 hr days) to $90/hr w/ 1.5x OT (working 55 hrs/wk) and 3 weeks vacation and paid holidays.

Last fall, a got hit up by a head hunter on LinkedIn (never use that site and wasn’t looking for work). I loved my job and my coworkers. For my industry and position, it was the best of the best (granted, not fond of the industry).

I didn’t expect the linkedin thing to go anywhere as my pay was very high already. It ended up being a huge position on a project approximately 10x the size of my current project. Contractor position (was contractor at last job).

$120/hr with 1.5x OT working 50-55 hrs/wk
12 years experience
2 weeks vacation
Health/vision/dental insurance
401k w/ no match.

I should end up around $360k or so this year. Last year I was at about $370k. The project should be about 2 years in duration since I started.. Will be ready for a LONG sabbatical after.. My wife and I were intending to take 6-12 months off in August this year, however the first baby is on the way and taking a 6 month North American vacation in a tiny traveler with a newborn wasn’t as appealing. Once the baby is 1-2, we’ll be much better off.

[MrThatsDifferent]

Title: Principal Data Scientist
Salary: $160k + $10-$20k bonus
Education: PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology + self-taught programming/ML/DL
Experience: 5 years in I/O + 2 years in Data Science
Age: 35

Work remotely in a low cost of living area. It’s funny being one of the few I/Os with a strong DS skill set as many I/O firms are attempting to incorporate the power of ML/DL into their products. I definitely got very lucky.

Figured I'd give an update. Still in a relatively low cost of living area.

Not much has changed. Still with the same company.

Salary: $189k + bonus ~$20-$25k and now I get about + ~$25k/yr in private equity.

Recently I've been getting pinged by FAANGs and I'm considering it, but right now my job is pretty ideal. They've been saying that working remotely is a reasonable expectation, but so far they've been vague on comp. They basically say it's a senior level role, but that compensation is based on experience, interview success, etc. Which I guess makes sense, but it's a bit frustrating as the interviews aren't exactly easy convos. I'd like to know if its even worth the time or not.

Very cool, what is ML/ DL? How long did it take you to learn them?

[mizzourah2006]

Title: Principal Data Scientist
Salary: $160k + $10-$20k bonus
Education: PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology + self-taught programming/ML/DL
Experience: 5 years in I/O + 2 years in Data Science
Age: 35

Work remotely in a low cost of living area. It’s funny being one of the few I/Os with a strong DS skill set as many I/O firms are attempting to incorporate the power of ML/DL into their products. I definitely got very lucky.

Figured I'd give an update. Still in a relatively low cost of living area.

Not much has changed. Still with the same company.

Salary: $189k + bonus ~$20-$25k and now I get about + ~$25k/yr in private equity.

Recently I've been getting pinged by FAANGs and I'm considering it, but right now my job is pretty ideal. They've been saying that working remotely is a reasonable expectation, but so far they've been vague on comp. They basically say it's a senior level role, but that compensation is based on experience, interview success, etc. Which I guess makes sense, but it's a bit frustrating as the interviews aren't exactly easy convos. I'd like to know if its even worth the time or not.

Very cool, what is ML/ DL? How long did it take you to learn them?

Sorry about that. ML = machine learning and DL = deep learning.

ML was pretty easy for me to learn due to the overlap of statistics and the fact that linear and logistic regression was something that was a fairly common method in my career. It was just learning how to use the different algos in python, learning the math behind them, when they were appropriate, etc. and then applying them on the job to solve specific customer problems.I'd say that part took about 3-6 months.

The deep learning has taken significantly longer because the math is much, much more complex. In fact I'd argue that I'm still learning this part of it, but I've been able to work with machine learning engineers to build out more and more complex solutions. So I'd say 3+ years. Our use case is specifically in NLP. NLP and computer vision are the two use cases where deep learning does traditionally outperform machine learning.

The beauty of all of this is that as a practitioner I don't need to build this stuff from scratch. People far smarter than me have done the hard work. I can just read a revolutionary paper like this: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762 and implement it for my specific purposes using something from huggingface.

[ender]

@mizzourah2006 I would consider interviewing for some of the FAANGs just to see what you'd get.

The comp numbers would likely blow you away as I'd guess they are close to 2x your current compensation or higher for someone with that much experience in ML.

Check out https://levels.fyi/ as you can get a good feel for what you might expect, though I'd expect ML would be higher than the average software engineer that reports salaries there.

[mizzourah2006]

@mizzourah2006 I would consider interviewing for some of the FAANGs just to see what you'd get.

The comp numbers would likely blow you away as I'd guess they are close to 2x your current compensation or higher for someone with that much experience in ML.

Check out https://levels.fyi/ as you can get a good feel for what you might expect, though I'd expect ML would be higher than the average software engineer that reports salaries there.

Thats good to hear. I'm not getting interviewed for straight ML roles. One is a Lead Data Scientist in product, which is a relatively new role within the company and the other is a quantitative UX research scientist. So, while I'd bet that a true machine learning engineer role at a FAANG would blow my current comp away, these are more data scientist type roles. I've found similar roles and info on levels.fyi and the variance is so large it's hard to tell, lol. Some are about at my comp and some are way higher.

But I do appreciate your thoughts as my professional contacts are more in the traditional I/O psychology space, so I don't have a lot of insights into the non-HR side of FAANGs and what I could expect.

[ender]

@mizzourah2006 I would consider interviewing for some of the FAANGs just to see what you'd get.

The comp numbers would likely blow you away as I'd guess they are close to 2x your current compensation or higher for someone with that much experience in ML.

Check out https://levels.fyi/ as you can get a good feel for what you might expect, though I'd expect ML would be higher than the average software engineer that reports salaries there.

Thats good to hear. I'm not getting interviewed for straight ML roles. One is a Lead Data Scientist in product, which is a relatively new role within the company and the other is a quantitative UX research scientist. So, while I'd bet that a true machine learning engineer role at a FAANG would blow my current comp away, these are more data scientist type roles. I've found similar roles and info on levels.fyi and the variance is so large it's hard to tell, lol. Some are about at my comp and some are way higher.

But I do appreciate your thoughts as my professional contacts are more in the traditional I/O psychology space, so I don't have a lot of insights into the non-HR side of FAANGs and what I could expect.

I don't think you understand just how much money is in tech in these types of fields right now ;-)

[mizzourah2006]

@mizzourah2006 I would consider interviewing for some of the FAANGs just to see what you'd get.

The comp numbers would likely blow you away as I'd guess they are close to 2x your current compensation or higher for someone with that much experience in ML.

Check out https://levels.fyi/ as you can get a good feel for what you might expect, though I'd expect ML would be higher than the average software engineer that reports salaries there.

Thats good to hear. I'm not getting interviewed for straight ML roles. One is a Lead Data Scientist in product, which is a relatively new role within the company and the other is a quantitative UX research scientist. So, while I'd bet that a true machine learning engineer role at a FAANG would blow my current comp away, these are more data scientist type roles. I've found similar roles and info on levels.fyi and the variance is so large it's hard to tell, lol. Some are about at my comp and some are way higher.

But I do appreciate your thoughts as my professional contacts are more in the traditional I/O psychology space, so I don't have a lot of insights into the non-HR side of FAANGs and what I could expect.

I don't think you understand just how much money is in tech in these types of fields right now ;-)

Haha, that's crazy to hear. I honestly never expected to make anywhere near what I'm making now. I guess sometimes always wanting to learn new stuff pays off :) I do have those 2 interviews scheduled for a few weeks out. It's the first after the recruiter screens. Given what you said, I'll probably spend even more time prepping for them :)

Definitely appreciate your thoughts and insights.

[MagneticNorth]

@mizzourah2006 I would consider interviewing for some of the FAANGs just to see what you'd get.

The comp numbers would likely blow you away as I'd guess they are close to 2x your current compensation or higher for someone with that much experience in ML.

Check out https://levels.fyi/ as you can get a good feel for what you might expect, though I'd expect ML would be higher than the average software engineer that reports salaries there.

Thats good to hear. I'm not getting interviewed for straight ML roles. One is a Lead Data Scientist in product, which is a relatively new role within the company and the other is a quantitative UX research scientist. So, while I'd bet that a true machine learning engineer role at a FAANG would blow my current comp away, these are more data scientist type roles. I've found similar roles and info on levels.fyi and the variance is so large it's hard to tell, lol. Some are about at my comp and some are way higher.

But I do appreciate your thoughts as my professional contacts are more in the traditional I/O psychology space, so I don't have a lot of insights into the non-HR side of FAANGs and what I could expect.

I don't think you understand just how much money is in tech in these types of fields right now ;-)

Haha, that's crazy to hear. I honestly never expected to make anywhere near what I'm making now. I guess sometimes always wanting to learn new stuff pays off :) I do have those 2 interviews scheduled for a few weeks out. It's the first after the recruiter screens. Given what you said, I'll probably spend even more time prepping for them :)

Definitely appreciate your thoughts and insights.

Seconding ender's recommendation here. I'm an ML-focused data scientist who has worked at a couple of FAANG-level companies, and my comp has generally been in line with what levels.fyi reports for the software engineers at my same level.

It's definitely worth interviewing, and don't tell them your current comp or they may only offer a 15-20% raise. Look up negotiation tips, and if you feel totally backed into a corner to name a number, cite levels.fyi or other industry research that supports a very high number.

[Gone_Hiking]

Job Title: Requirements Engineer at a software company
Salary: $70 K.   Company 401(k) match: 4%.  No bonuses
Weekly hours: 40-42. 17 days of vacation, no rollover from year to year; 10 company holidays
Age: 46
Experience: 19 years
Education: M.S. Plant Breeding and Genetics,  PMP certification,  ACS ALS credentials from Toastmasters International

I started life as a molecular biologist, followed by computer programmer, followed by a project manager, followed by a layoff.  My current position is the post-layoff position and represents 40% salary cut from my previous job; on the plus side, I was without a paycheck for only three weeks, which allowed me to invest the severance pay and accelerate FI.  I've been on my current job for 6 months.  I'm working on increasing responsibilities and probing ways to get a raise

Update! 
Job Title: IT Project Manager at a not-for-profit medical certification board
Salary: $95 K.   Company 401(k) match: 10%.  No bonuses
Weekly hours: 40-42. 15 days of vacation, year-to-year rollover allowed until 28 days; 13 company holidays

Another update!  This is an illustration of career progression that can happen to those who lost their livelihood to layoffs or "rightsizing".  Keep your chin up, people!
Job Title: Systems Operations Manager at a not-for-profit medical certification board;  Yep, a promotion announced two days ago
Salary: $103 K.   Company 401(k) match as in the last update.
Weekly hours: 40-45 including on-call rotation every 5 weeks.  Vacation and holidays as in the last update.

Two more updates:
Another job loss led to...
PMO Project Manager I - contractor at a major pharmaceutical company
Salary - $37.50 per hour plus overtime.  No 401(k) match
Weekly hours - 40-45.  No paid vacation or paid holidays

Fast forward a year...
Senior Project Manager at a small gene expression research company
Salary - 115 K.  No 401(k) match.  5% bonus
Weekly hours - 40+.  15 days vacation, 10 days sick leave, 9 company holidays
Credentials update:  PMP, CSM, SAFe 5 Agilist, Distinguished Toastmaster

[2Birds1Stone]

@Gone_Hiking, love the Toastmaster included in your creds! I was a charter member of our chapter at my first megacorp job. It was huge in propelling my career after that.

[Shytey]

Title: Small Business Owner
Salary: $220k
Education: Engineering Degree
Experience: Business is 6 years old
Age: 30

I run a local service business. Would recommend to anyone interested in entrepreneurship. Competition is almost always weak, the most talented people (generally) don't go into small business. Fast track to financial independence if you work smart.

[SKL-HOU]

Title: Small Business Owner
Salary: $220k
Education: Engineering Degree
Experience: Business is 6 years old
Age: 30

I run a local service business. Would recommend to anyone interested in entrepreneurship. Competition is almost always weak, the most talented people (generally) don't go into small business. Fast track to financial independence if you work smart.

What kind of engineering degree and what service, if you don’t mind sharing?

[Huffduf41]

Title: Small Business Owner
Salary: $220k
Education: Engineering Degree
Experience: Business is 6 years old
Age: 30

I run a local service business. Would recommend to anyone interested in entrepreneurship. Competition is almost always weak, the most talented people (generally) don't go into small business. Fast track to financial independence if you work smart.

What kind of engineering degree and what service, if you don’t mind sharing?

Would also love to know, thanks

[Mgmny]

Title: Small Business Owner
Salary: $220k
Education: Engineering Degree
Experience: Business is 6 years old
Age: 30

I run a local service business. Would recommend to anyone interested in entrepreneurship. Competition is almost always weak, the most talented people (generally) don't go into small business. Fast track to financial independence if you work smart.

What kind of engineering degree and what service, if you don’t mind sharing?

Would also love to know, thanks

Thirded

[Shytey]

Title: Small Business Owner
Salary: $220k
Education: Engineering Degree
Experience: Business is 6 years old
Age: 30

I run a local service business. Would recommend to anyone interested in entrepreneurship. Competition is almost always weak, the most talented people (generally) don't go into small business. Fast track to financial independence if you work smart.

What kind of engineering degree and what service, if you don’t mind sharing?

Electrical engineering. Window cleaning.

Folllow sweaty startup on twitter or read his blog for more information.

[CJ]

Title: Strength Coach
Salary: $65K
Education: Bachelor's degree, various industry credentials
Experience: Coaching professionally since 2016 (used to be in the Navy)
Age: 34

Income comes from a spread of in-person and online coaching as well as running/creating curriculum for an online course on barbell training and coaching.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@mizzourah2006 I would consider interviewing for some of the FAANGs just to see what you'd get.

The comp numbers would likely blow you away as I'd guess they are close to 2x your current compensation or higher for someone with that much experience in ML.

Check out https://levels.fyi/ as you can get a good feel for what you might expect, though I'd expect ML would be higher than the average software engineer that reports salaries there.

Thats good to hear. I'm not getting interviewed for straight ML roles. One is a Lead Data Scientist in product, which is a relatively new role within the company and the other is a quantitative UX research scientist. So, while I'd bet that a true machine learning engineer role at a FAANG would blow my current comp away, these are more data scientist type roles. I've found similar roles and info on levels.fyi and the variance is so large it's hard to tell, lol. Some are about at my comp and some are way higher.

But I do appreciate your thoughts as my professional contacts are more in the traditional I/O psychology space, so I don't have a lot of insights into the non-HR side of FAANGs and what I could expect.

I don't think you understand just how much money is in tech in these types of fields right now ;-)

Haha, that's crazy to hear. I honestly never expected to make anywhere near what I'm making now. I guess sometimes always wanting to learn new stuff pays off :) I do have those 2 interviews scheduled for a few weeks out. It's the first after the recruiter screens. Given what you said, I'll probably spend even more time prepping for them :)

Definitely appreciate your thoughts and insights.

I'll agree with this. I'd say it wouldn't be crazy to be 2x your current comp at one of those companies. That said, those are typically Bay Area salaries, and would be adjusted if you plan to work remotely elsewhere or out of another major hub in a lower COL

[jps]

Title: Data Analyst
Age: 24
Salary: $56k
Experience: ~3 years
Education: B.A. in Economics

Title: Financial Reporting Analyst II
Age: 27
Salary: $68k + ~8% bonus
Experience: ~5 years
Education: B.A. in Economics. Will finish MBA (finance) in August.

[Gone_Hiking]

@Gone_Hiking, love the Toastmaster included in your creds! I was a charter member of our chapter at my first megacorp job. It was huge in propelling my career after that.

Glad to meet a fellow Toastmaster!  While my original megacorp job ended in a layoff in 2017, I found that, thanks to what I learned through Toastmasters, I recovered from the layoff and another job loss three years later, and now I'm super comfortable with salary negotiations.  I've  also heard about a utility company in my state that started a Toastmasters club.  The club folded within two years because all charter members were promoted to management and had no time to attend meetings.  Funny how that works sometimes, no?

[SpareChange]

In a mcol city.

Title: Radiologic Technologist (fancy words for, in my case, an x-ray tech)
Age: 43
Salary: $85-90k this year.
Experience: 7 years
Education: BA economics (not used lol), AAS radiologic technology.

403b match is 4.6% on a contribution of 4%.

Wow, almost 3 years have passed. Same career. Same place. Only work halftime now though, in the form of 5 days on/9 off. Every fifth weekend on call. Base comp is about 40k, with the flexibility to earn more. Still get health insurance, 403b match, and PTO. Got some heavy hitters in this thread! Way to go, peeps!

[genericname55]

Title: Controller
Experience: 13 years
Education: BS Accounting
Salary:  $160k + 20-30% bonus

LCOL area

[RainyDay]

Title: Intelligence analyst (supervisor)
Experience: 20+ years
Education: BA Criminology, MS Defense & Strategic Studies
Salary:  $160k + federal benefits
Med-High cost of living area

[Mjolnir]

Title: senior legal council
Age: 32
Experience: about 10 years
Degree: master's degree in law
Location: western Europe

Salary: EUR 80.000 (before taxes) / +- EUR 45.000 (after taxes) + benefits (healthcare, pension, paid subscription to my city's public transportation system)

[Lomonossov]

It's amazing how high salaries can be on the other side of the pond

Title: Senior Manger - Risk Modelling
Age: 34
Experience: 12 years
Degree: BSc Physics
Location: Eastern Europe

Salary: EUR 70.000 (before taxes) / +- EUR 48.000 (after taxes) + benefits (healthcare, pension, 30 days of PTO, gym subscription, life insurance)

[Roboturner]

@Roboturner is this a petroleum related position?

sure is! also an update

Title: Sr. Reservoir Engineer
Age: 32
Experience: 8 yr industry, 2.5 yr research
Education: BS/MS
Salary: $190k + 40% cash bonus + 8% 401k match + 5% equity
Area: MCOL

[texxan1]

ICE KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   100k a year side hussle selling ice and water.. .Ya, you heard it right.... ICE KING lol

FIRED but have a few of them der fancy ice vending machines that i do nothing with buy pay the bills... .takes me umm, 1 hour a month lol

[SKL-HOU]

ICE KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   100k a year side hussle selling ice and water.. .Ya, you heard it right.... ICE KING lol

FIRED but have a few of them der fancy ice vending machines that i do nothing with buy pay the bills... .takes me umm, 1 hour a month lol

Wow that is awesome! How did you get started with this? Where are these ice vending machine?

[Steeze]

This thread is both inspiring and depressing

Title: Senior Engineer / Consultant
Industry Construction
Age: 33
Experience: 8 years
Education: BS Civil Engineering
Credentials: Professional Engineer
Salary: $110k + 20% Bonus + 4% 401k Match
Area: VHCOL  ---  90% office & 10% field work, no working from home
Time Commitment ~50hrs/wk+

[mizzourah2006]

@mizzourah2006 I would consider interviewing for some of the FAANGs just to see what you'd get.

The comp numbers would likely blow you away as I'd guess they are close to 2x your current compensation or higher for someone with that much experience in ML.

Check out https://levels.fyi/ as you can get a good feel for what you might expect, though I'd expect ML would be higher than the average software engineer that reports salaries there.

Seconding ender's recommendation here. I'm an ML-focused data scientist who has worked at a couple of FAANG-level companies, and my comp has generally been in line with what levels.fyi reports for the software engineers at my same level.

It's definitely worth interviewing, and don't tell them your current comp or they may only offer a 15-20% raise. Look up negotiation tips, and if you feel totally backed into a corner to name a number, cite levels.fyi or other industry research that supports a very high number.

Thanks both. I actually made it to the final round for both roles. The recruiters seemed to imply it was uncommon to see that, so I guess that means my skillset is versatile :)

Now comes the hard part :) Two ~4 hour interviews, lol. It does seem like at least the product sense overlaps with both jobs. So at least part of the prep for both should be similar.

At the very least it's good practice to get back out into the competitive interviewing space. Haven't done it in a year since the Director of Data Science role I ended up turning down.

[ender]

Just give me 1% of whatever pay raise you get as commission :-)

[MagneticNorth]

@mizzourah2006 I would consider interviewing for some of the FAANGs just to see what you'd get.

The comp numbers would likely blow you away as I'd guess they are close to 2x your current compensation or higher for someone with that much experience in ML.

Check out https://levels.fyi/ as you can get a good feel for what you might expect, though I'd expect ML would be higher than the average software engineer that reports salaries there.

Seconding ender's recommendation here. I'm an ML-focused data scientist who has worked at a couple of FAANG-level companies, and my comp has generally been in line with what levels.fyi reports for the software engineers at my same level.

It's definitely worth interviewing, and don't tell them your current comp or they may only offer a 15-20% raise. Look up negotiation tips, and if you feel totally backed into a corner to name a number, cite levels.fyi or other industry research that supports a very high number.

Thanks both. I actually made it to the final round for both roles. The recruiters seemed to imply it was uncommon to see that, so I guess that means my skillset is versatile :)

Now comes the hard part :) Two ~4 hour interviews, lol. It does seem like at least the product sense overlaps with both jobs. So at least part of the prep for both should be similar.

At the very least it's good practice to get back out into the competitive interviewing space. Haven't done it in a year since the Director of Data Science role I ended up turning down.

Congratulations on making it this far! And I agree with the recruiters; the vast majority of applicants get weeded out in the early phone screens; if they're spending the time of their data scientists and engineers on interviewing you then you are definitely a strong candidate. Good luck with your interviews!

[turketron]

Huh been awhile since I've updated as well. I'm in the same role, and got a small increase to my base salary in 2020 (raises were paused during COVID) but still got new RSU grants both in 2020 and 2021. Additionally, my company paid out a bonus this year which is new for non-commission employees.

Job Title: Operations Manager
Experience: 2 years in this role, 8 years total at same company
Age: 35
Salary:  $74,500k base, 10% bonus for 2021. In 2020 I had $45k of RSUs that vested, and between RSU and ESPP shares I sold about $80k. I'm on track (based on current stock price) to receive about $60k of vested RSUs for 2021, so I'll probably sell at least as much as I did last year.
Education: Bachelor's

My boss just reached out for an impromptu chat over Zoom- now that COVID is (mostly) past us, HR is re-evaluating compensation across the board to make sure everyone's in the correct salary bands based on their role and tenure - we've had a few situations over the past few years where employees who had been in their role for a couple years were making less than newly hired coworkers. While everyone was understanding of the pay raise freeze for 2020 due to COVID, this only exacerbated the problem. Raises are back on the table now, so the intent was to correct everyone who is under-compensated "up" into their proper band, and then performance evaluations + raises would be coming later in Q3/Q4.

My base pay was determined to be 2% under what's expected for my set salary band - obviously not ideal but it certainly could have been worse! Then my boss tells me that, now that merit-based increases are also being allowed again, he wanted to use this opportunity to recognize the hard work I've done over the past year, and so he proposed to our VP a 10% raise. She did him one better, and decided to bump my base salary to $94,000, a 26% increase! A raise at all was unexpected until later in the year, and I definitely wasn't expecting anything this high! I suspect that this is also (in part) a preemptive "thank you" for a massive rollout we have coming up in August/Sept that's going to be an absolute shit show for my department. It's definitely appreciated!


Job Title: Operations Manager
Experience: 2 years in this role, 8 years total at same company
Age: 35
Salary:  $94k base, 10% bonus for 2021
Education: Bachelor's

[Virtus3]

Title: Clinical Lead
Salary: $115k + 4.5% 401k match + 3-8% bonus
Experience: 5 yrs in industry
Age: 33
Education: BS

[mizzourah2006]

Just give me 1% of whatever pay raise you get as commission :-)

haha, of course! :)

Congratulations on making it this far! And I agree with the recruiters; the vast majority of applicants get weeded out in the early phone screens; if they're spending the time of their data scientists and engineers on interviewing you then you are definitely a strong candidate. Good luck with your interviews!

Thanks!

[Cubist]

Job Title: Director of Finance and Administration
Experience: 5 years
Age: 30
Salary:  $94k plus government benefits (pension, tons of PTO, health insurance, etc.)
Education: Bachelor's in Accounting, CMA
Location: MCOL

[Alchemisst]

My Job Title: SSD Firmware Engineer
Experience: 1 year
Education: BS in Computer Science
Salary: 72k + ~10% bonus + $750 HSA contribution + 2.5% 401k match + whatever ESPP ends up being worth

Cost of living from this chart is 99.2/100, so very average cost of living area.

Started at 71k, got a raise a couple months in as a thanks for being awesome ;)

My manager says I will be getting a promotion in the next round (February) even though it typically takes 3-4 years. Should come with about a 10% raise.

The work environment is awesome. Really laid back and supportive. Take as much vacation as you want policy with no keeping track of work, sick, and vacation hours, etc. I would have to get a super big raise to consider working elsewhere.

DW Job Title: RN
Salary: ~70k + small pension + 2% 403b match
Experience: 5 years
Education: BS in Dietetics, BS in Nursing

She started out getting a degree in dietetics but that didn't work out due to requiring an internship to get certified and there not being enough to go around (something that if she had known me prior to starting the program she would have thoroughly looked into and chosen something different or studied harder). Went back after the Dietetics degree and did an accelerated BSN program and now is very happy.

Updating because I just got a promotion and a 15% raise!!!!

My Job Title: Senior SSD Firmware Engineer
Experience: 1.5 years
Education: BS in Computer Science
Salary: $83,000 + 10% bonus target + $750 HSA contribution + 3% 401k match + whatever ESPP ends up being worth
San Francisco Salary: $198,578 (my city is 101.4 on CoL Index)

Was a weird year. We bought out another big company, my project got cancelled and we were in flux for awhile, and then my manager quit abruptly and it took 6+ months to replace him.

Only got a 3.5% raise this year, but also was granted ~$17k in RSUs that vest over 4 years. Not sure what to think of the golden handcuffs, will have to cross that bridge if I ever think about leaving.

My Job Title: Senior SSD Firmware Engineer
Experience: 2.5 years
Education: BS in Computer Science
Salary: $~86,000 + 10% bonus target + $750 HSA contribution + 3% 401k match + ~$17k RSU + whatever ESPP ends up being worth

Just took a job with a new company (along with a nice promotion), and will be moving from a MCOL area with a COL score of 99.2 to a HCOL area with a COL score of 146.4 (MN to Orange County, scores from this chart).

I think I am doing pretty well, as the job is 3 promotions above entry level out of college position and I only have 3.5 years of experience. This job would normally take 8+ years of experience to reach. As a result I am pretty sure my salary is near the lower end of the band, so plenty of room for growth even if I don't get any further promotions for a few years.

My Job Title: Staff SSD Firmware Engineer
Experience: 3.5 years
Education: BS in Computer Science
Salary: $135000 + 10% bonus target + $4000 401k match + ~26k RSU + whatever ESPP ends up being worth (15% discount, two year lock, can put in 15% of salary) -- I would say financial compensation is ~$175,000 annually.

Just got a raise, which was nice as I was only here ~6 months when review time came and wasn't sure I would get one. Ended up getting 4% raise bringing my base salary to $140,400.

Our stock is also doing quite nicely and is up 46% since our ESPP lock so if it stays up for the next couple of years should be getting a nice return on ESPP shares.

My biggest regret about taking this job (going from flexible "unlimited" vacation policy to 3 weeks vacation policy) was also recently rectified as the new company has now also adopted flexible vacation.

A lot has happened since my last post. I moved back to MN in March of 2020 and took a job at my old employer again.

Experience: 5+ years at time of hire
Job title: Principal Engineer
Location: MCOL (Minnesota)
Comp: $115k base + 12% bonus target + 3% 401k match + RSUs.

Things in the org aren't going well and a lot of people are leaving.

I just got an offer for a full time remote position.
Experience: 6+ years at time of offer
Job title: Senior Software Engineer
Location: Remote from Minnesota
Comp: $155k base + 18% bonus target + 5% 401k match + RSUs (got $25k signing bonus + $110k initial RSU grant)

My biggest advice for a tech worker is to switch companies often. It's by far the best / fastest way to increase comp!


DW is now making $82,500/yr as an RN and working M-F day hours. She will be finishing up her Master's in Nursing in January and wants to find a job managing a nursing unit which should come with about a $20k/yr raise or so.

Would you recommend a CS degree these days? Did you come out job ready or did you have to do a bootcamp/ self learn etc?

[pamplemusique]

Title: Data Analyst
Age: 24
Salary: $56k
Experience: ~3 years
Education: B.A. in Economics

Hi! I’m you from the future if you’re willing to keep your nose to the grindstone and can find your rhythm in a mega-corp environment :-)

Title: Director Analytics
Age: 33
Experience: 13 years
Education: B.A. in Economics
Comp: $240k salary, ~$420k total comp (including bonus, RSUs, and 401k match)

[Btag84]

Controller, a CPA, at a small public company
A moderate cost of living area in the Midwest
Salary: $108k base with 10% bonus
Experience: 6 years in public, 4 years in financial reporting and technical accounting.
Age: mid 30s

Update: $128,000 base and 10% bonus. Same company. We're double the size now though so I'm expecting a good bump by 2022 or I'm looking elsewhere.

[epritch7]

Title: Logistics/Warehouse Manager
Age: 40
Salary: $91k Base + 12% annual bonus + $1.6k HSA cont + 6% retirement account cont
Experience: 7 yrs
Education Requirement:  BS/BA (I'm university trained but no degree past HS)

[use2betrix]

@turketron - congrats on the raise! Always so awesome to feel valued by an employer!

[Gronnie]

My Job Title: SSD Firmware Engineer
Experience: 1 year
Education: BS in Computer Science
Salary: 72k + ~10% bonus + $750 HSA contribution + 2.5% 401k match + whatever ESPP ends up being worth

Cost of living from this chart is 99.2/100, so very average cost of living area.

Started at 71k, got a raise a couple months in as a thanks for being awesome ;)

My manager says I will be getting a promotion in the next round (February) even though it typically takes 3-4 years. Should come with about a 10% raise.

The work environment is awesome. Really laid back and supportive. Take as much vacation as you want policy with no keeping track of work, sick, and vacation hours, etc. I would have to get a super big raise to consider working elsewhere.

DW Job Title: RN
Salary: ~70k + small pension + 2% 403b match
Experience: 5 years
Education: BS in Dietetics, BS in Nursing

She started out getting a degree in dietetics but that didn't work out due to requiring an internship to get certified and there not being enough to go around (something that if she had known me prior to starting the program she would have thoroughly looked into and chosen something different or studied harder). Went back after the Dietetics degree and did an accelerated BSN program and now is very happy.

Updating because I just got a promotion and a 15% raise!!!!

My Job Title: Senior SSD Firmware Engineer
Experience: 1.5 years
Education: BS in Computer Science
Salary: $83,000 + 10% bonus target + $750 HSA contribution + 3% 401k match + whatever ESPP ends up being worth
San Francisco Salary: $198,578 (my city is 101.4 on CoL Index)

Was a weird year. We bought out another big company, my project got cancelled and we were in flux for awhile, and then my manager quit abruptly and it took 6+ months to replace him.

Only got a 3.5% raise this year, but also was granted ~$17k in RSUs that vest over 4 years. Not sure what to think of the golden handcuffs, will have to cross that bridge if I ever think about leaving.

My Job Title: Senior SSD Firmware Engineer
Experience: 2.5 years
Education: BS in Computer Science
Salary: $~86,000 + 10% bonus target + $750 HSA contribution + 3% 401k match + ~$17k RSU + whatever ESPP ends up being worth

Just took a job with a new company (along with a nice promotion), and will be moving from a MCOL area with a COL score of 99.2 to a HCOL area with a COL score of 146.4 (MN to Orange County, scores from this chart).

I think I am doing pretty well, as the job is 3 promotions above entry level out of college position and I only have 3.5 years of experience. This job would normally take 8+ years of experience to reach. As a result I am pretty sure my salary is near the lower end of the band, so plenty of room for growth even if I don't get any further promotions for a few years.

My Job Title: Staff SSD Firmware Engineer
Experience: 3.5 years
Education: BS in Computer Science
Salary: $135000 + 10% bonus target + $4000 401k match + ~26k RSU + whatever ESPP ends up being worth (15% discount, two year lock, can put in 15% of salary) -- I would say financial compensation is ~$175,000 annually.

Just got a raise, which was nice as I was only here ~6 months when review time came and wasn't sure I would get one. Ended up getting 4% raise bringing my base salary to $140,400.

Our stock is also doing quite nicely and is up 46% since our ESPP lock so if it stays up for the next couple of years should be getting a nice return on ESPP shares.

My biggest regret about taking this job (going from flexible "unlimited" vacation policy to 3 weeks vacation policy) was also recently rectified as the new company has now also adopted flexible vacation.

A lot has happened since my last post. I moved back to MN in March of 2020 and took a job at my old employer again.

Experience: 5+ years at time of hire
Job title: Principal Engineer
Location: MCOL (Minnesota)
Comp: $115k base + 12% bonus target + 3% 401k match + RSUs.

Things in the org aren't going well and a lot of people are leaving.

I just got an offer for a full time remote position.
Experience: 6+ years at time of offer
Job title: Senior Software Engineer
Location: Remote from Minnesota
Comp: $155k base + 18% bonus target + 5% 401k match + RSUs (got $25k signing bonus + $110k initial RSU grant)

My biggest advice for a tech worker is to switch companies often. It's by far the best / fastest way to increase comp!


DW is now making $82,500/yr as an RN and working M-F day hours. She will be finishing up her Master's in Nursing in January and wants to find a job managing a nursing unit which should come with about a $20k/yr raise or so.

Would you recommend a CS degree these days? Did you come out job ready or did you have to do a bootcamp/ self learn etc?

I think it's worth it if one is going to put in the work.

I think I came out job ready, I've gotten a promotion almost every year.

[thesis]

Title: Software Developer (Mid-level?)
Age: 32
Experience: ~8 years
Education: Bachelor's, non-CS degree
Salary: ~$93,000
Area: Denver
Time Commitment: 40 hours per week

It seems a lot of developers reach "Senior Developer" status by my age, but my route into software was circuitous, to say the least, and my first job didn't contribute much to my career. I'm more than happy to learn and grow and study, but I'm not a "nose to the grindstone" type of person, and that is likely represented in my compensation, which I'm otherwise pretty happy about. Sometimes I feel like an idiot, but I'm decently competent at the tasks that are assigned to me, and I don't believe in outputting anything less than quality; nonetheless, I also won't be doing this my entire life. I'd be happy to crack 6 figures, but after that, I'd probably start exchanging some of my compensation for time.

I would also second the advice about changing jobs relatively frequently. It's kind of ridiculous how much more you can earn switching jobs.

This thread is both inspiring and depressing

[Blondetuco]

Yikes... I knew I would be below-average for this thread, but I'm actually an outlier.

Position: Scientist / Chemist
Salary: 45k/yr
Age: 29
Area: Salt Lake City
Workload: 40 hr/wk

I was making 65k in LCOL midwest prior to relocating to Utah, where I got another job making the same salary. 7 months and a pandemic later, I burned out and quit. This new job has been a good way to mentally reset, but recalculating the FI date shows its not a long-term solution.

[broketriathlete]

Title: Owner
Industry: Pool Service & Repair (state licensed pool contractor), Pool YouTube Channel, Pool Business Coaching
Salary:     Base - $120K
               Dividends - Up to $60K
Experience: 6 Years
Area: Tampa Bay
Time Commitment: 50 Hours on a heavy week (have 8 employees)

[maisymouser]

JFC this thread is a little depressing (to me personally) but also interesting. Well, I'll go ahead and add my title/salary to the list!

Title: Process Engineer
Age: 30
Salary: 75k gross, ~80k after bonuses/stock options
Experience: 5 years- 2 in this role, 3 years prior as a scientist
Area: NC
Time Commitment: 35 hours if I work continuously, 40 hours if I chit chat and enjoy leisurely walks with colleagues

Eh, even though I'm making the lower end of what others are on this thread, I'll try to remind myself that I'm pretty happy at work and well on my way to FIRE at this rate. But also, I have a target goal of 100k/year before I FIRE. I guess I have some work to do... at work, that is!