<story><title>Be in a field where tech is the limit</title><url>https://mathiaskirkbonde.substack.com/p/be-in-a-field-where-tech-is-the-limit</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sho_hn</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m always curious when I hear HN opine on salary levels. Now I understand that in SF &amp;#x2F; at certain FAANG locations you can expect to make far in excess of 80-100k, and that exerts a competitive pressure in the job market - while also being balanced to some extend by extreme CoL. But I always wonder just how small that bubble is and what the trade-offs really are. In essentially all of Central Europe except perhaps, say, Zurich, 80k-110k is a highly-salaried engineer (and affords an upper-middleclass lifestyle with good healthcare, pension, free college education, etc.), and I understand also in many areas of the US that are just fine to live in.&lt;p&gt;It just sounds like completely different systems &amp;#x2F; way to run the numbers to me, not at all apples to apples.</text></item><item><author>d3ntb3ev1l</author><text>I worked in bio tech for 4 years. Amazing people and problems.&lt;p&gt;Worst pay, top heavy salaries.&lt;p&gt;When a phd makes 80k a year and a “ML&amp;#x2F;AI” data scientist is lucky to make 100k you won’t find any progress like software&lt;p&gt;They need to cut the top heavy executive bloat, respect the mid tier with better pay</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>barry-cotter</author><text>No, even after any attempt to account for healthcare, pension and education the US will still look vastly better off. Unfortunately we don’t have figures on average individual consumption but by household Hong Kong consumes about $1,000 more a year than the US and the next closest is Switzerland, consuming about $10,000 a year less[1].&lt;p&gt;Generally the US pays better and at the top of any field you care to mention except perhaps finance it pays far, far better.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_countries_by_household_final_consumption_expenditure_per_capita&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;List_of_countries_by_household...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Be in a field where tech is the limit</title><url>https://mathiaskirkbonde.substack.com/p/be-in-a-field-where-tech-is-the-limit</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sho_hn</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m always curious when I hear HN opine on salary levels. Now I understand that in SF &amp;#x2F; at certain FAANG locations you can expect to make far in excess of 80-100k, and that exerts a competitive pressure in the job market - while also being balanced to some extend by extreme CoL. But I always wonder just how small that bubble is and what the trade-offs really are. In essentially all of Central Europe except perhaps, say, Zurich, 80k-110k is a highly-salaried engineer (and affords an upper-middleclass lifestyle with good healthcare, pension, free college education, etc.), and I understand also in many areas of the US that are just fine to live in.&lt;p&gt;It just sounds like completely different systems &amp;#x2F; way to run the numbers to me, not at all apples to apples.</text></item><item><author>d3ntb3ev1l</author><text>I worked in bio tech for 4 years. Amazing people and problems.&lt;p&gt;Worst pay, top heavy salaries.&lt;p&gt;When a phd makes 80k a year and a “ML&amp;#x2F;AI” data scientist is lucky to make 100k you won’t find any progress like software&lt;p&gt;They need to cut the top heavy executive bloat, respect the mid tier with better pay</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>giantg2</author><text>$80k-100k would afford a great lifestyle in much of the US, geographically speaking. The problem is that those jobs are concentrated in areas with a higher COL. We also have to pay for things like medical insurance in the US. I know software salaries are lower in the EU (in general), I assume it&amp;#x27;s the same for biotech too.</text></comment>