How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

http://youexec.com/articles/how-to-2x-your-salary-as-a-software-engineer

by somid3 • 9 years ago

78 44 9 years ago

In my experience, just do the following:

Be generally likable Write decent to good code Connect on a regular basis with current and former co-workers Be aggressive about finding new opportunities (usually through people you've worked with)

I agree with most of the points the author makes here, but I don't think you need to stay 2 years at a particular job - 1 is usually sufficient to avoid the negative resume effects and still get some decent projects under your belt.

EpicEng4• 9 years ago

1 is usually sufficient to avoid the negative resume effects

A string of one year stints would be a huge red flag to me. I would have a hard time selling this person up as we don't hire FTE's to come and go in a span of 12 months. Too much churn kills you, I'd likely pass unless circumstances where extraordinary.

jonny_eh• 9 years ago

I'd say 1 year minimum (if you're unhappy), 3 years max if it's a company you enjoy. If you're "meh", start looking at 1.5 years, but only switch if you find something exciting, take your time.

escherize• 9 years ago

I've worked for many 1 year stints (everywhere I've worked besides my old startup), and have never had a problem finding jobs.

Of course I probably wouldn't know if a place passed on me because of that.

I wonder what the probability distribution for how much hirers weight "loyalty" or "stick-around-ness" looks like.

axus• 9 years ago

It's better for the job hopper (and you) if you pass on him, and he's hired by companies that aren't bothered by him leaving after a year. According to the post, there are plenty of opportunities like that. It sounds like consulting to me, though.

nickthemagicman• 9 years ago

Kinda sounds like poor management. It seems to me that proper management would have everything arranged such that an employee is a drop and replace asset.

goalieca• 9 years ago

1 year stints wouldn't really fly where I live.

piptastic• 9 years ago

Yeah you will get to 2x much faster doing 1 year instead of 2. Also, you can probably even explain away one job being less than 1 year pretty easily.

"Oh, I didn't get to work there long because X company made an offer that I couldn't reasonably turn down when taking into account my family's future".

Granted you have to get to the interview stage...

amorphid• 9 years ago

Having recruited several hundred people, I can say with certainty that several ~12 month "regular" jobs is not optimal for projecting career stability. It's not a positive most of the time.

EGreg• 9 years ago

Can someone fill me in, do most jurisdictions allow employers to report to each other how much you made in the previous job? Or is this considered protected data that employers cannot ask for?

Which jurisdictions have which rules?

Obviously if you don't have to disclose your previous salary you get an advantage. The same advantage as the employer has in not disclosing the salary they paid to the person you'll be replacing.

frankc• 9 years ago

In the US most allow but not always. For instance, NYC recently passed a law forbidding it. Many companies will not report anything other than whether or not you were an employee and the dates of your employment, but that is by their choice to limit lawsuits, frivolous or otherwise.

codazoda• 9 years ago

As far as I know, in my state, a previous employer is only allowed to say weather or not I worked there and for how long. Nothing else should be discussed, legally. IANAL

I've only changed jobs twice in my career but I included my salary requirements in a cover letter and did not disclose my previous salary.

vonmoltke• 9 years ago

"Can't" is not the same as "shouldn't". Any labor attorney worth their salt will adivse their clients not to divulge more than the minimum they can get away with, but that is not the same as not being allowed to.

patrickbeeson2• 9 years ago

According to this USA Today story, it depends on where you live (down to the city): https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/04/27/whats-your-s...

Personally, I've always been asked and it has definitely bitten me especially when moving from a region with a different cost-of-living.

maxxxxx• 9 years ago

The idea by itself is just nuts. The employee is totally transparent while employers can hide information or just lie whenever they feel like it.

ihsw2• 9 years ago

There are third-party services that will provide that information but only in exchange for the same information about your company (staff members, salaries, etc), and a modest fee of course.

It is very secretive though, for obvious reasons.

acconrad• 9 years ago

How realistic is this though? Imagine you come out of college and work for the Big 4 making $100k. Assuming you make 10% more (compounding) every 2 years, by 38-36 you would make over $200k, by 50 you are making close to $500k. You hit that much sooner if you change those numbers by 20%. At what point do those returns diminish and you're having to do something more creative than simply looking for a job every 2 years?

corobo• 9 years ago

How realistic (better question - how likely) is it to set the start point at $100k?

I think I was earning (the equivalent of) $8k/year in my first job hah

dmoy2• 9 years ago

For the big tech employers, specifically as a software developer, a reasonable start point now is probably 140-150k. If that's the premise from GP.

phd5143• 9 years ago

IMO, you see diminishing returns once you reach somewhere between ~125k (if you're in a low-demand area) and ~250k (if you're in a high-demand area such as the Bay Area). To get above that, you generally need to both switch jobs and be good at what you do.

charleslmunger• 9 years ago

I came out of college 4 years ago and started working at the Big 4, making ~100k base salary. Both my base salary and my total compensation have more than doubled. Getting promoted at a big 4 company is equivalent or better than the value quoted in this article for switching jobs - promotions usually entail a 20-40% total compensation bump, depending on where you were in your previous salary band.

myrandomcomment• 9 years ago

This is pretty spot on based on my experience.

fridek2• 9 years ago

In my experience this approach doesn't really scale any higher than junior to senior steps. I was repeatedly told "we just don't hire on levels higher than X". I guess once you reach the famous rockstar level this again becomes a thing, but probably the best bet at moving from 150k to 500k jobs is to stick in one place for ten or so years.

phd5143• 9 years ago

Apart from working at one of the big tech companies (Google, Amazon, MS, Facebook, etc), I can't see staying in one place for ten years as a good way to move from 150k to 500k. In most of the companies I've worked (outside of the big tech companies), going from 150k to 200k in 10 years would have been above average.

fridek2• 9 years ago

Does moving through smaller companies in 1-2 year steps do better? They don't seem to have that many high paying positions (maybe anymore, or in my region).

codingdave• 9 years ago

Step 1 - Take a low paying job as your first software job.

Step 2 - Switch jobs for pay increases every couple of years.

Step 3 - When you get to market rate for senior devs, say, "Look! I doubled my salary!"

danjoc2• 9 years ago

Yeah. Correlation something something causation.

"People who switch jobs are making more money!"

"People who are offered more money will switch jobs."

Walkman• 9 years ago

One strategy to increase your salary 1.5X or even 2X across the next few years is to switch companies every two years.

I did exactly that and my salary is more than double in less then 4 years. I started working after 1 year of experience, I have 5 years now.

tiggybear• 9 years ago

What is the difference between value and leverage on a microeconomic level?

Despite the common notion to "provide more value" to a business if you want a raise, it seems most business people, and thus those responsible for employee raises, conflate value with leverage.

Someone can double their output and easily be denied a raise because they have no leverage. However, if you have leverage but do not increase your output, you can likely get a raise.

So maybe we should nix the old advice about "creating more value" as it's a very confusing and an unclear metric. If businesses see value as leverage, employees should do the same as that's the only way they'll get what they want.

I hope this makes sense, I've been trying to figure out the relationship between value and leverage (at s microeconomic level) and they seem to be almost, if not completely, identical.

Thoughts?

marssaxman• 9 years ago

Is "double" not a verb anymore?

danjoc2• 9 years ago

I 2Xed back at 2X time to 2X check that title before 2Xing over in pain as well ;)

ezoe• 9 years ago

Job switching is the most effective way to pressure the employer to raise and keep the high salary.

If you pay well, good engineers swarm to apply the job.

Job switching is the best opportunity to negotiate your salary for both current and next employers.

"If current employer don't pay more, I'll leave."

"If the next would-be employer don't pay more, I'll stick with the current job."

Also, it pressures existing employers to raise and keep the high salary because if they don't, they'll lose the good engineers to the competitors. So the fact there are many job switching engineers benefits those who don't switch job that often.

slavapestov• 9 years ago

If you switch jobs every two years, you'll spend most of your time just ramping up and getting to know your team, unless the problems you're solving are so trivial that whatever you do does not justify a 2x bump in compensation.

How to 2X Your Salary as a Software Engineer

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