How to make 200K+ in IT?

From most job descriptions I've seen, it looks like most individual contributor tech jobs cap out salary around the mid 100Ks. I'm wondering what one would have to do to get past that and into the 200Ks or above, without going into management or sales.

Any advice on how to make 200K+ in tech as an engineer? Do you believe this is possible outside of one of the high cost of living tech hubs, like NYC and Silicon Valley? What skillsets or industries do you think this is possible in?

Does anyone here make above that? Are you on a salary? Do consulting? Entrepreneur, contractor? What kind of work do you do? Do you enjoy it? Did you pick to do that tasks the job entails or is it highly-paid because it's work others avoid? What advice would you give others looking to be in a similar position as you?

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Iristheangel

I do make above that amount. I'm on salary + bonuses personally. I'm technical pre-sales which isn't as mind numbing as it sounds. I keep my technical chops by studying for stuff that interests and challenges me, am part of proof of concepts, get involved in post-sales activities, jump in to troubleshoot issues as they come along, etc.

A couple of years ago at Cisco Live, I was having a drink with Andre Laurent and he told me I could make this job anything I want it to be. If I wanted to get more hands on and more technical, then do it. I try to do that every day and not let my technical skills dry up and I think I probably do a fairly good job.

Probably the three best ways I've see and the requirements to keep it above $200K:
Consulting - Need good customer base to sustain
Entrepreneur - Need good customer base as well and/or $$$$ to establish
Technical Pre-Sales - Need a personality that can talk and deal with people and tie the technology to the business

Hope that helps!

dave330i

If you want to break $200k outside sales or management, then you need to become an architect.

I'm paid salary + bonus.

gespenstern

NYC and New England, architect-level positions in financial industry. Surprisingly, I've found that such spots aren't offered that often in California and/or of lower pay.

Iristheangel

Forgot to mention the HFT tech jobs pay a ton too

kalimuscle

Location matters a lot!

So if your in the correct location and if you have the correct skillset and experience

Try doing contracting work through a recruitment agency or something like that.

I am sure in the right location you could get short term contracting engagements for $ 100 per hour.

Just do 3 or 4 of them per year and you could even make 200k plus!

This is however a bit risky because when one contract ends you might not have anything else lined up therefore you could be unemployed.

Danielh22185

Iristheangel wrote: »

I do make above that amount. I'm on salary + bonuses personally. I'm technical pre-sales which isn't as mind numbing as it sounds. I keep my technical chops by studying for stuff that interests and challenges me, am part of proof of concepts, get involved in post-sales activities, jump in to troubleshoot issues as they come along, etc.

A couple of years ago at Cisco Live, I was having a drink with Andre Laurent and he told me I could make this job anything I want it to be. If I wanted to get more hands on and more technical, then do it. I try to do that every day and not let my technical skills dry up and I think I probably do a fairly good job.

Probably the three best ways I've see and the requirements to keep it above $200K:
Consulting - Need good customer base to sustain
Entrepreneur - Need good customer base as well and/or $$$$ to establish
Technical Pre-Sales - Need a personality that can talk and deal with people and tie the technology to the business

Hope that helps!

I'd have to say Iris hit them all here solidly. All 3 I don't wish to try to do just yet. Maybe when I hit my 40s and I have kids nearly out of the house I will take on more adventurous style career choices. Heck I just cracked 100k which feels like a heck of an accomplishment to me right now.

AverageJoe

I'll double down on location mattering... not just because of available salaries but because of costs of living and commutes. I made more living in DC, but it cost me a lot more to live there and I spent a lot more time commuting (and time is definitely money). Some will disagree, but I say it's better to make, say, $100k a year, live in a beautiful $150k home, and be 20 minutes from work than to make $200k a year in a $650k home that you spend 50-60 minutes (when traffic is good) traveling to work from every morning. In other words, it's not just about salary.

Just my 2 cents.
Joe

Danielh22185

AverageJoe wrote: »

I'll double down on location mattering... not just because of available salaries but because of costs of living and commutes. I made more living in DC, but it cost me a lot more to live there and I spent a lot more time commuting (and time is definitely money). Some will disagree, but I say it's better to make, say, $100k a year, live in a beautiful $150k home, and be 20 minutes from work than to make $200k a year in a $650k home that you spend 50-60 minutes (when traffic is good) traveling to work from every morning. In other words, it's not just about salary.

Just my 2 cents.
Joe

I 100% agree. A tech salary of $200k a year in my area is pretty much unheard of if just working as a normal member of employee payroll. If you are getting a flat $100k in my area you are pretty much in the top 30%.

DoubleNNs

Danielh22185 wrote: »

I 100% agree. A tech salary of $200k a year in my area is pretty much unheard of if just working as a normal member of employee payroll. If you are getting a flat $100k in my area you are pretty much in the top 30%.

And that's fine. I'm sure most people in this forum are in the top 30% of their area -- we're all mostly driven and take our careers into our own hands. I'm trying to figure out how to get into the top 5% of tech individual contributors.

Honestly, I aim to do so w/o going into contracting or highly volatile contracting or entrepreneurship. Or management or sales. But if those are the only options, I'm okay with pivoting to another method.

AverageJoe

The easy answer is to move to a city where pay is highest.

Forbes did a piece on the top U.S. cities for tech salaries last year... top of the list was San Francisco with an average IT salary of $113k (Note that's the AVERAGE, not the high). But it also showed the adjusted rate accounting for cost of living, and that brought it down to the equivalent of $90k. So again, salaries aren't everything... the numbers by themselves don't tell the whole story.

kalimuscle

Yes money matters

Ofcourse it does !

It is very important
But....

What about the balance of life ?

Doing other things you love as well?

What about your relationships with people ?

Your impact on the world ?

Adventure?

Some people forget these things when they chase the dollar when they are too busy putting in 40 to 60 hours a week and one day when they wake up they look around and is like WTF

To me money equals freedom

Freedom to live a quality life and the freedom to enjoy the world.

Because the world is a very expensive place.

Live and love people!

dave330i

To make $100k, location is important. To make $200k, you need to move up the org chart. Location becomes less important.

JoJoCal19

Iris, spot on again as usual! I agree with kalimuscle as well, location and work/life balance matter too. I pretty much have a great situation. While not over $200k, I'm at mid-six figures in a fully remote job, in a really low COL area. I'd need to probably around $250-300k to maintain the same lifestyle that I have here, in CA/NY/DC. I also look completely at work/life balance too. My manager is a Director and I'm sure he's in the $200k range, but I don't care to be as busy as he is.

I am however eyeing sales/architecting in about 15 years, like Danielh stated, when the kids are grown.

mbarrett

kalimuscle wrote: »

Location matters a lot!

Definitely agree, not only do you have to go where the work is, but the CoL really matters too.

DatabaseHead

Location and CoL most certainly does matter.

The largest earners I know personally are in pure sales positions in successful companies.

Outside of pure sales, other roles that have been mentioned in this thread. Architects, Pre Sales, Principal Consultants (Most certainly earn over 200).

slinuxuzer

Some already said architect, and you can make that much, particuarly in business development, pre-sales, proposal writing type roles, but you can also get that remotely by being a technical architect with a Tier-1 certification: VCDX or CCIE could both get that, expect to potentially travel 25% plus though. Also plan on having 12+ years of experience and other skillsets, Networking, Automation and scripting, hardware, data center, cloud etc. Being broad and fairly deep is a good way to get there.

aderon

IT Contractors in dangerous areas (afghanistan, iraq, etc) make 250k+ doing basic IT Engineer/Admin work

Cool thing too is the first... I want to say 80k? is tax free.

Also, since you're not allowed to leave the base, you can't really spend money going to the "movies" or anything like that. Food, housing, etc is usually provided free of charge. You don't need to own a car or have car insurance so that's another cost savings.

Expect long hours and more than 5 days a week.

slinuxuzer

aderon wrote: »

Expect long hours and more than 5 days a week.

And living in a tent, not to mention a war zone.

Polynomial

Salesforce architects are actually worth about 400k.

LA2

I'm sure this is a silly question, but what is it about technical sales that makes it more desirable "after the kids are out".

NetworkNewb

LA2 wrote: »

I'm sure this is a silly question, but what is it about technical sales that makes it more desirable "after the kids are out".

traveling all the time I'm guessing?

dmoore44

Polynomial wrote: »

Salesforce architects are actually worth about 400k.

I'm in the wrong business.

JoJoCal19

LA2 wrote: »

I'm sure this is a silly question, but what is it about technical sales that makes it more desirable "after the kids are out".

As NetworkNewb said, a big part of it is travel. Part of it is dedicating the extreme amounts of time to the craft, to become an expert. I'd rather not take that time away from the family.

jeremywatts2005

Like everyone is saying salary is just a number. I live in McKinney TX and I make w bonus up in the 160 - 170k range and trust me we have no state income taxes and we also have cheap housing and no tax on food and medicine. I also am fully remote and work in security. So working from home yet another perk of the job. I know when I lived in Wilmington NC it was expensive compared to the wages. Not sure about Charlotte.

DatabaseHead

170 WFH in a low CoL is perfect.

Well played.

I'm looking at 105,000 in a low CoL area, wife is around the same. All is well.

TechGromit

aderon wrote: »

IT Contractors in dangerous areas (afghanistan, iraq, etc) make 250k+ doing basic IT Engineer/Admin work

This might be good for a year or two to get ahead and get your security clearance to open up opportunities when you return to the states, but this isn't manageable in the long term.

NOC-Ninja

that 200k doesnt mean much if you live in silicon valley and NYC.
Look at the prices of the houses in a nice neighborhood. Its around 800k to 1million, unless you want to live in a small apartment.

aderon

TechGromit wrote: »

This might be good for a year or two to get ahead and get your security clearance to open up opportunities when you return to the states, but this isn't management in the long term.

Yep, definitely not long term. But, I've often wondered what it'd be like to do that for 7-8 years and then come back with a few million and retire young.

I think more realistically, 1-3 years probably makes more sense though.

kalimuscle

NOC-Ninja wrote: »

that 200k doesnt mean much if you live in silicon valley and NYC.
Look at the prices of the houses in a nice neighborhood. Its around 800k to 1million, unless you want to live in a small apartment.

But if your parents are in NYC or Silicon Valley - You could live there for free ! Get a 200k job straight out of college and work for 5- 7 years - you would be a millionaire !

Dakinggamer87

I'm hoping to hit that some day once I get into management.