<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>Judgmentality</author><text>&amp;gt; except perhaps finance it pays far, far better.&lt;p&gt;I hear this a lot, but I&amp;#x27;ve never seen it.  I know plenty of people in tech making the better part of $1 MM a year at FAANG, and a few who even breach that.  Most people I know in finance never break $500k.&lt;p&gt;So how much do people make in finance?</text></item><item><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></item><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>ipaddr</author><text>Pre 2008 a lot of people were retiring in 4 years.  Things have changed (smaller parties) but people are still getting rich.  The top tier are crushing faang salaries. A million a year is a lot but more can be available when you are trading.</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>Judgmentality</author><text>&amp;gt; except perhaps finance it pays far, far better.&lt;p&gt;I hear this a lot, but I&amp;#x27;ve never seen it.  I know plenty of people in tech making the better part of $1 MM a year at FAANG, and a few who even breach that.  Most people I know in finance never break $500k.&lt;p&gt;So how much do people make in finance?</text></item><item><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></item><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>ptudan</author><text>Top traders at hedge funds are the people who become billionaires.  You can easily make 2, 5, 10m+ once you become a partner.</text></comment>