<story><title>Ask HN: How to move past 150k/200k in compensation?</title><text>It looks like i am stuck around 150k range compensation despite having 10+ yrs of experience. The only thing against me is that I am an immigrant.  Nowadays, new grads are pulling 120k to 130k right away.&lt;p&gt;I no longer enjoy coding but I am good at getting things done and building good rapo with people. What can I do to move into leadership roles?&lt;p&gt;How does someone like me get 200k or more in compensation?&lt;p&gt;PS- I am not a native English speaker but I have studied in English throughout my life.&lt;p&gt;Any suggestions?</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>whack</author><text>I know many people personally who make 200k+, with less than 10 years experience. Many of them are also immigrants. Some of the ways they got there:&lt;p&gt;- live in a tech hub with high demand for programmers. The best places are NYC&amp;#x2F;SF and probably Seattle&lt;p&gt;- switch companies every ~2 years, and negotiate for ~25% comp increases when you do. There are some tips that can help you achieve this, but it&amp;#x27;s a blog post in itself&lt;p&gt;- work for a lucrative brand-name employer like Google&amp;#x2F;FB. First, you&amp;#x27;ll make a ton of money there. Second, having them on your resume will boost your future prospects and compensation offers&lt;p&gt;- in order to accomplish the above, get really good at interviewing skills. Practice topcoder, cracking the coding interview, fundamental algorithms and data structures, communication and presentation skills, etc etc. Whatever it takes to ace the interviews, no matter how dumb you may think it is&lt;p&gt;- be good at your craft. Read expert books, work on your own small side projects, push yourself to build high quality code, and not just barely functional junk. Do everything you can to become an expert in your area&lt;p&gt;- be a great coworker. Leave a positive impression with your manager and colleagues. You don&amp;#x27;t have to be their friend, but you want to be someone they respect and would recommend to their friends</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How to move past 150k/200k in compensation?</title><text>It looks like i am stuck around 150k range compensation despite having 10+ yrs of experience. The only thing against me is that I am an immigrant.  Nowadays, new grads are pulling 120k to 130k right away.&lt;p&gt;I no longer enjoy coding but I am good at getting things done and building good rapo with people. What can I do to move into leadership roles?&lt;p&gt;How does someone like me get 200k or more in compensation?&lt;p&gt;PS- I am not a native English speaker but I have studied in English throughout my life.&lt;p&gt;Any suggestions?</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nostrademons</author><text>Most people who make &amp;gt; $200K in total comp receives the excess in either stock, bonuses, or percentages of a firm&amp;#x27;s profit.  (There are some outliers, but even many C-level executives have salaries in that range and then millions in stock compensation.)  Keep that in mind when you compare salaries with others - those Google engineers making $400K&amp;#x2F;year are usually making about $150-170K base, $50K bonus, and $200K+ in RSUs.&lt;p&gt;That also implies the way to break $200K: join a company whose stock is rising, perform well for them, and negotiate a generous equity grant.</text></comment>