Love me a good payday.
Omg, this is so true
Don’t tell me employer but it would still work for free. Software engineering is an absolute privilege and I can’t relate to this meme at all.
I’m different; none of my software projects bring me any money…
Maybe I should aim for coding engineer at least wouldn’t have worry about my needing to brute force sokatoah
What’s sokatoah?
Tarantino’s fetish
The memory tool for sign, cosign and tangent
cries in helpdesk technician
I truly went into the wrong part of tech.
Man, fuck the helpdesk shit. That was the worst thing I’ve ever done. Fucking strapped to a phone all day was brutal. Thank fuck I’m outta there
I mean, I enjoy the work a lot. It’s the people I don’t like. The worst part is that I’m really damn good at this job, the users adore me, and I am somehow very productive. So now I’m dealing with being important on top of everything else.
I’m not internal IT either. I work at an MSP, so every day I am guaranteed to see a new horror and interact with some of the worst specimens of humankind.
Think the worst thing I’ve experienced at this job was the time I called a dude and he spent the whole 45 min call sexually harassing and fetishizing me and begging me to marry him. I fixed his computer, threw up because I was so disgusted, then told my boss. My boss reviewed the call, which the user knew was recorded because I told him so when he answered. My boss was like “what the fuck. I’m so sorry he did that” And sent the recording to the big boss, who responded to me in the same way before sending it to HR of that dude’s company. Dude was fired immediately. I got to deactivate his stuff and HR of that company personally apologized to me.
I would leave this kinda job, but I have insanely good benefits, make more money than I should at this stage in my career, and I am full time remote. It’s kinda hard to top this shit, esp with how the US is right now. I’ve accepted that I’m here for the long haul.
What a fucking jackass. I’m so sorry you had to deal with this shit. Thankfully, I was internal and all my calls were from our employees. Didn’t stay long there. 8 months and got another role. I’m now a software developer and don’t even come near the phones and I make double what I made on the phones. I, too, was good at it, but I still hated it and went into depression because of it. I just can’t do phones at all.
Thank you. It felt good to deactivate all of his shit lol.
I’m glad you got out of the helpdesk trenches. Being a tech support grunt is harrowing. I have a mild breakdown about once a quarter, but that’s been a thing since my college days (yes I’m in therapy lol)
I don’t mind talking on the phone because I make a lot of calls outside of work. I just hate people being absolute idiots and being proud of not knowing how to do the most basic shit. Got a ticket from a client asking to help a different user connect her new mouse to her computer. It was just a wired mouse. That was the start of 2025’s Q3 breakdown.
My job is also tough and more recently I felt despair because of pressure. But I remind myself that I chose my career because of good pay, which could improve once I leave my shithole company.
If money isn’t an issue, I would pick a more relaxed job. There is plenty of snobbery against blue collar jobs, but they are the most relaxed jobs I have ever had.
I think it depends on the type of blue color job and company as well. Some of them, you’re basically breaking your body to get some money and it could really hurt you in future.
I think having your own, or working for a small local business is great. Specially if you have a paid off house and aren’t struggling otherwise.
Don’t forget those sweet RSUs too!
Yes, there’s nothing like an imaginary number that keeps growing and never materialises.
RSUs aren’t imaginary. They can be sold for cash once vested.
Well it depends on how the RSU is set up of course. All the equity I’ve apparently received in my time is still waiting on “defined liquidity event” before I can do anything at all.
You got RSUs(restricted stock units) from a startup?
For startups those will usually be options (not RSUs) which do not materialize until an exit event. There can be liquidity events before exit as well if the company is doing well.
RSUs are usually offered by publicly traded companies and basically as good (or better) than cash.
No, not from a startup. It might be worth mentioning that I’m in the U.K. so the terms and lingo may differ from yours.
I’ve had RSUs from series D scale ups. I’ve had options from start ups. Typically in the UK they’re wrapped as an investment you make on entry (using a loan the company offers you) to only pay capital gains tax (25% in the UK). And I’ve had RSUs from big, established enterprises.
What’s common to them all, for me, is that they’ve broadly not paid out what they were advertised to, either because the stock falls (Unity springs to mind), you leave before anything material vests (and the hiring company matches your RSUs) or there’s no liquidity event.
I trust cash, paid into my bank account. The rest, IMHO, is just trumps (US: farts) in the wind.
Oof Unity is just bad luck. Most other tech stocks have done well.
Most big tech will vest monthly/quarterly and you can setup an auto sell when your stock has vested. This is literally cash in your bank account every vesting period.
Monopoly money is the best kind of money
I think for many, money isn’t why they became an engineer but it is why they remain one.
You would have to have an incredible grindset to become a decent engineer without actually enjoying any of it. You could become a shitty one just by passing tests, I guess. (And probably many people do)
No cm002 please don’t use the same repost bot as that other guy. Was it you the whole time???
I don’t bot my .ml cross-posting campaign lol, it’s all manual with a simple script to send notifications to my phone when something gets posted to .ml
Which allows me to do things like skip out on also crossposting the body, like I did here because OOP posted a link back to reddit on their post which I chose not to replicate here because fuck reddit lol
sickening
That reminds me, I need a raise
Why should you get a raise? You’re terrible at your job!
Not a single downvote, and you call yourself a downvote hunter smh
He already killed all the downvotes in his region
Yeah.
downvote_hunter: “Do you SEE any downvotes?”
Ignotum: “No…”
downvote_hunter: “You’re WELCOME.”
Same I’ve been getting scammed for too long
Give derry a raise!
Where tf did you get that pay lmao, maybe its regional, but I need a raise like that, I’m a BE Dev 2, awaiting performance review for 3 (Senior) and sadly not as close to that as I’d like.
Check levels.fyi. 400-500k+ isn’t unusual for senior and above positions in US HCOL areas at competitive tech companies. Often this includes RSUs which can have downsides
Yeah im like half that haha
have a degree from a top 10 school, 10 years of experience, and work for a large corporation.
and learn to brown nose and play politics with your bosses
I’m a bit over 6 figures and if I didn’t pay Healthcare and 100% of our dual income household taxes I’d get ~$5k twice a month.
I guess I’m getting scammed then.
Or comparing European vs US wages
At least we don’t have to deduct 45% of our wages for the eventuality of needing a doctor and also walking 10km with a broken leg to avoid an ambulance ride.In Germany we get deducted around 40% directly, before the money even reaches us q.q Tbf that includes health care as well as taxes already and also we are a smidge farther away from fascism.
Yeah don’t Americans get paid taxes included? Here in Italy I get my wage with income tax, welfare costs etc already deducted.
Yes, we still get taxed and then we have to pay out of pocket for health insurance. Luckily my company has some good, cheap insurance. I also take advantage of the high deductible program so I can save tax free money in my health savings account.
The high deductible is the insurance company taking advantage of you. The fact that you can save for that tax free does not offset that you shouldn’t have to pay for it in the first place.
I know right. It’s so weird here. People should just negotiate after tax salary and calculate everything after tax. But I guess everyone likes saying big numbers and then get angry government is taking a portion.
Honestly you should just have business pay tax like: x% for profits + y% (less than x) for employees’ salaries. That way they’ve incentives to pay salary over keeping profits (growing company is better long term). And employees don’t have to pay any tax themselves. And they negotiate amd work for after tax salary, no need to feel like gov is taking their money.
Except if your spouse works or you have kids, those taxes are doing to be different, and the business isn’t going to know those details when negotiating
I mean, the next thing I’d like is to not penalize for having kids as a society so much that you need tax breaks. It should not be this expensive to have kids. Kids eat what you eat, and play with other kids in the community. And any assistance for kids from government should be given to all the kids, not just people with jobs. Current system of deductions for kids is government just taking less from people who already have money.
As for spouses, similar concept, but it’s a bit complicated. I’d like one parent income to be enough to have a family, because we need children to grow with parents. Currently both parents have to work and pay for daycare. The time spent with their own children is very limited. Of course people without kids will be in advantage if they have double income, but that’s bound to happen. And if having kids wasn’t this troublesome and expensive, maybe more people would do it.
Apples and oranges.
Contractors get paid directly with no taxes taken out. They must deduct it from their pay themselves.
Employees get taxes deducted before they are paid.
Ok but the meme doesn’t mention the type of employment
It was mentioned in other comments.
I am.in the US, taxes come out of the paycheck before its paid.
On my check, before Inget it it pays
Taxes
Social security
401k
Health insurance premium
Dental insurance premium
Union dues
I think a few other small misc things.
Okay so a lot of people are telling you incorrectly, most people do get paid with their taxes taken out already and there are penalties for not doing so but technically it is optional.
As an American, I take offense to this. We would never use kilometers
god dam where they getting that
If that’s monthly pay, that’s at or below average.
If that’s bi-weekly…fuck I need to up my engineering game.
In the US…
Different in other parts of the world, even in Europe this is a high salary (but it reminds me to still ask for a raise…)
That’s because in Europe you have basic human rights like healthcare or the ability to not work while you’re sick.
It doesn’t say it’s salary. A lot of companies pay out bonuses right around now.
That’s on the high end, but not so high it’s uncommon, for a salary paid biweekly to a senior engineer.
That’s not that outrageous as a higher-level IC in a big tech company in a big city. But if you’re that senior you’re not questioning why you became an engineer.
There’s a reason the typical dev career pipeline ends at farmer. People get tired of all the bs and leave never to be seen again.
I’d say it is more accurate to say that the typical dev dreams about it ending as a farmer. I only know of a single guy that made it happen, proud of him though!
What is a farmer as a dev?
Literal farmer. In the dirt.
I mean, you definitely do. I know numerous people that dropped the field entirely (including me) even though the pay is ridiculous.
I also left, the industry is toxic right now. Circus for me
Already farming?
Woodworking, close enough?
I approve of this.
Same ballpark yeah
Mr Offerman?
Sometimes it is just a really intense garden.
Oh, you definitely wonder how long you can keep up with the corpo bullshit, but that wasn’t the vibe I was getting from the first panel. That was giving me more of a “junior engineer who can’t get something to work” vibe.
I’ve traded half my pay for more fulfilling work and less corpo bullshit before, but I didn’t quit engineering. I see some people dreaming about leaving it all behind and buying a farm, but what they all had in common was zero farming experience. The grass is always greener and all that.
If you can add AI to your title somehow, that might even be midrange. I was talking to someone who has not been doing this long pushing pretty close to a half million dollar salary and then bonuses on top.
California. It goes with high cost of living.
Eh, that looks like typical take home for a staff level engineer in a big city.
Monthly it’s about what I’d expect for a low-medium experience engineer. But I’m an industrial engineer not software.
$161,122
Heck, I’d be pulling more than that if I were a self-employed consultant rather than under a consulting firm, in our small city in northern Scandinavia.
Now I’m raking in a little below that, and I’m taking out like a third of it as actual salary and saving the rest, to avoid high taxes, and to to pay for a leased car, pension saving, extra insurance etc, before taxes. But after all that I’m probably saving $3k every month tax free, and maybe $1,5k in my bank account.
Engineering life is pretty okay. Still can’t afford a house yet though. Thanks boomers.
I think for a SF based company 200 - 250k salary is typical for even a senior engineer.
Key phrase is “big city”. I’m a staff and there’s a mid on my team that moved to Seattle. His cost of living adjustment when he moved allows him to make more than I do.
After taxes that’s like 300k salary.
Closer to $200-$250K depending on how much you withhold for 401k.
Maybe that’s the monthly pay
If do contract work that’s not even that much
Contract work is rarely direct deposit, though?
US banking is weird. How would it be paid instead?
I’ve never hired a software consultant, but most of the time when I hire a company or person to do contract work like roofing, gardening or similar they prefer to be paid by check. Sometimes they accept credit cards, but usually not when the bill is over a certain amount, due to the cut going to the card company.
Furthermore, “Direct Deposit” is basically a special term used for people getting their wages or salary paid to their bank account, as opposed to receiving it by check or cash. Other types of bank-to-bank transfers have different names, like “wire transfer” or “ACH transfer”.
Americans love overcomplicating things in general, and particularly love using overly specific and technical names for stuff. There’s acronyms everywhere, and things are named after weird technicalities. Like nobody says “retirement account”, they call it “401(k)”, named after the paragraph in the law which defines it.
You find stuff like that everywhere if you look. Some of their coins don’t even have a value printed on them, you just have to memorize how much they’re worth.
You just have to memorize the coins
Plus they are not even logically ordered by size or anything.
Americans love overcomplicating things in general, and particularly love using overly specific and technical names for stuff. There’s acronyms everywhere, and things are named after weird technicalities. Like nobody says “retirement account”, they call it “401(k)”, named after the paragraph in the law which defines it.
As a plus, I can greatly confuse and terrify an Irish person by telling them about the thousands I send “to the old IRA” every year. 😂
In Europe (maybe also elsewhere outside the US?) nearly all transactions are simply direct bank transactions. Occasionally facilitated through some app, but usually it’s just your own bank’s app. Nobody has used checks for decades, and the only reason we’re using credit cards is because the US keeps forcing them on us.
True, then insurance and no time off or other benefits would suck.
It’s only “no time off” if that’s what you want. It’s time off whenever you want (and sometimes when you don’t want).
Accurate. Source: 20 years solo.
A month!? I know it’s regional but that’s low for a monthly deposit for a contractor!
You’re not accounting for taxes and insurance. You lose way more to both as a self employed individual (at least here in the states)
If you’re a self employed contractor, you’re taking taxes and insurance out yourself, not from what you’d be paid.
I’m not really sure what your point is. If I bill my guy 8k for the hours I did last month he sends me 8k. I then personally have to buy my own insurance and do my quarterly taxes
Right, which would happen after the direct deposit, so your entire tangent about taxes and insurance seems irrelevant to the meme and conversation involving the amount in the meme.
Yeah that’s a very big monthly pay
no it’s not. at least where i live, it’s considered poor.
$150,000/yr (yes big, less than median for software engineers in the US) is $2k/week, $8k/month
8k/month is 96k/year. Just multiply by 12
this is about a deposit so it’s take home
401k etc makes this fuzzy
How dare you question his math?! He gets paid 96k /150k for that!
They said the US. Ao mathing is hard.
less than median for software engineers in the US
What
I’m moving there the second the orange guy gets thrown out of the White House
$2k/month is considered a very good salary in my country
Btw how does 8k/ month make 150k/year? Do you get bonuses or shares or whatever? I heard that they give shares to employees in the US
As far as I know, $150K isn’t less than the median for software engineers in the entire US . It is less than the median for Senior/Lead Software Engineers though, so maybe that still works for you. In a HCOL city, you likely get far more than this amount, but it wouldn’t go nearly as far obviously.
Nay, daily.
Nah, that’s a normal paycheck for a medium level engineer in any American big city.
Mechanical Engineer (union) with 20 years experience, slightly underpaid at $76.33/hr in (just north of the) Seattle area.
Lockheed Martin
Lol they are not
That’s a salary of about $200k assuming twice monthly paychecks and a 75% tax rate. This is not at all unusual for tech software engineers, though probably not at the entry level. The entry level is a mess right now in general.
Here’s a job posting w base salary of $190k, seeking 3 YOE.
