Poll: for US people, What is your compensation?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3148005

by veyron • 15 years ago

5 2 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

At the moment, (22 people), >50% are pulling 200+k, >25% are half a million and up.

There seems to be information asymmetry in programming that doesn't exist in law, medicine, or banking. Everyone knows what you can make with a career in Big Law, or IBanking.

Compare this with programming - if you grew up in an uneducated household/poor highshool, you're told programming jobs are getting outsourced - be a doctor or lawyer. One level up, if you're at a semi-decent state school, you can go through your entire college career as a super star CS student and never hear the words 'quantitative hedge fund' uttered in your university's career center.

So what are these careers where people are making these large comps programming? Are they all quants and/or entrepreneurs?

Is there a strategic way to earn this much income, or is it predicated on having credentials/skills only .01% of all programmers have - that give you access to the .01% of jobs that pay this much? What are the risk profile needed for these outcomes? (Are we just seeing strong survivor bias?) I'd appreciate any anonymous perspective from "the other side".

Maven911• 15 years ago

I am pretty sure those are just fake numbers...unless they were counting income from companies sold, but I would not count that as a regular salary

Poll: for US people, What is your compensation?

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