Where to look for $180k+ engineering work

Question

I've been chugging along at a few small but exciting startups in NYC. Fortunately, my current post has weathered most of the covid storm and is still picking up momentum. I've been working hard, just now reaching around 4 years of experience.I'm curious where I should be looking for higher compensation if I'm not quite ready to start my own startup. Would it be better to look for opportunities at growth stage startups? Transition into a sales role? I'm not interested in FAANG as I worked at Amazon early in my career and found the culture / work stress to be a poor fit. That said, startup stress, working weekends etc does not bother me.Mostly, I feel woefully clueless as to where I can look for higher paying jobs that I can actually acquire. Eventually I'd like to run my own startup, but that will likely be in Austin or Boston where taxes are more reasonable.

Jugurtha · Accepted Answer

Are you good with people and have a network? A company does not have to be a 'startup' with product market fit, scalability, and what not.
You can start a consultancy and do business through it even if it's only you. Go for B2B. You'll be much more profitable. You can also start it with someone.
I wrote a bit about it here https://mobile.twitter.com/jugurthahadjar/status/13106682933...

otras · Answer

> I'm not interested in FAANG as I worked at Amazon early in my career and found the culture / work stress to be a poor fit
It may be worth noting that the culture can vary dramatically between companies and between teams in a single company. In particular, Google is generally well-known for having a healthier culture and less stress.
That being said, much like there may be lower-stress teams at Amazon, I'm sure there are higher stress teams at Google with less than healthy team culture. These companies are so large that it's difficult to paint them with a single brush.

rshnotsecure · Answer

Let's use that example of Austin, Texas. That's a bit near the top range you'll get there, but if you say get a Senior Cloud Engineer position with Deloitte, that is a number you can ask for. A little bit near the top of the range, but if you've got 5-7 years experience and the certs very achievable. Maybe a bit more.
Accenture, which has 3 offices in Austin, would for certain teams come close to that.
Consulting companies for better or worse will be the easiest to hit that number with outside of SF.
Note, you'd have to require no sponsorship.

decafninja · Answer

Many NYC banks can pay around 150-200k for a generic senior level engineer. Goldman and JPM are probably on the higher end of that spectrum.
Hedge funds can go higher.
Can't comment specifically about your experience at Amazon, but FAANG and top tier tech companies (maybe some mid tier as well) will probably pay better though, and give you better work environment. Financial institutions aren't exactly wonderful places to work for SWE.

siliconsenthil · Answer

- https://angel.co/jobs is a great source - Another is https://turing.com/All the best.

giantg2 · Answer

Anywhere that cost of living is high.

dyeje · Answer

Check out Levels.fyi and Blind. If you're in NYC, it's definitely possible to hit above $180k at a Series B-ish startup. It goes much higher as well with FAANG and some of the unicorn level startups as well.