Enlighten us

Easiest paths to 200k

Sales
Air traffic controller
Software eng

Roughly 3% of all Americans make 200k+, but you will get dozens of replies here with advice since America's top performers all happen to spend hours a day posting on the Misc. Especially those between 20-30 years old, which represent less than a fraction of a percent of those earning that income.

g4p

Sales Engineer. Base is mid-100s but between commission + RSUs that will put me at mid 200s.

Basically I've been working in tech the past 12 - 14 years in various support, operations, SRE, and DevOps roles. I specialize in Big Data and Object Storage (i.e. Amazon S3, etc). Been playing with computers and Linux/BSD since I was a teenager.

Making the transition to tech sales gave me a 50% increase in my base.

Ultimately my role is to support the sales team to convert opportunities into tangible sells, help with renewals, fill out RFPs (request for proposals), perform demonstrations and POCs (proof of concept) for customers and ensure they are satisfied with the product and if not find what pain points they are having. Knowing how to leverage your soft skills and provide technical knowledge can help you make real $$$.

Honestly if I wanted to get to 200k now and I was new I'd go into cybersecurity. They have a 0% unemployment rate because there is a shortage of talent in that sector.

unless youre doing cyber security sales, those jobs are pretty capped. start up is a different story though.

I make 130k as an associate in finance, which was cool when I was 25 but its getting stale (and frankly doesnt pay the bills it used to). 1000 ways to make a record, I plan to leave for management/strategy consulting or a higher commission sales gig in another industry.

In financial sales, our VP's make 150-170 (largest asset manager in the world/Bulge Bracket/Big Fund Shops) with a 25-50% bonus dependent on performance. comes out to about 250k all in. that said, Commission is where its at, bonuses are just capped clownery.

other friends making 200k are in tech sales for the most part, its easily replaced, tough to hit targets, very much a grind but good money while you can make it and doesnt take an insane amount of brain power

EDIT: Got there by going to uni, not being an idiot, networking. Its really that simple. Also 6'4 and a former d1 athlete which for some reason helps you a ton within finance/sales right off the bat

how technical do you have to be? coding experience?

I plan to transition to data analytics with an interest in data. I also have a technical recruiter. I think this may be a good pivot for for me.

I don't make 200K but can confirm sales engineer is a solid option to get good pay. I took a sales engineer position when I was barely 26 and was immediately making $110K with an upside of more like 150. Haven't seen much growth yet, thanks COVID, but could definitely see how someone that does this for a long time can net $200K annually.

There are tons of sales industries that people don't normally think of with total compensation above $200,000.


If you're experienced, near middle-aged, and professional, a professional sales role total compensation is around $300,000. I'd say anywhere from $250,000-350,000 depending on the role, difficulty, and travel involved. Usually about half of it (or slightly less) is salary.


I've averaged about $370k/year for a few years, had one year at 500k, another at 400k, one at 330k and another at 300k.


I try to save and invest (after taxes) about $100k/year, live a pretty good lifestyle otherwise, and don't worry about cost much anymore.

A lot of jobs will need to train you for their product/solution once you get the job. Sales experience helps a lot. A lot of sales engineers just do presentations and help support the sales team, which just means they need to understand their product well, but again, a lot of companies will teach you or give you a 2-3-4 month ramp up timeline where they expect you to know it well after that period.

Engineering management

misc average is 250k

this is the minimum

avg is ceo 10k/day or $3.65 million a year

exactly, everybody here is 6'2+ and averaging 250k/yr

Simple. Picked a career and put it first above all things. Friends/Family/Kids/Etc. Worked my way to the top and took over. You just have to put in the work.

i took a massive pay cut

Electrical engineering --> RF / Wireless Engineering.

Started as an entry level QA engineer (omg was it HORRIBLE) and worked my way up through my dogchit companies, while in each company learning more and more about the overall industry, networking etc. Got laid off as a contractor once....which was a low point in 2009.
Finally started getting some traction in 2010 when I got a job at Cisco Systems in their regulatory compliance division - learned all about the different types of regulatory testing in order to certify a wireless router for commerical use.

Jumped from Cisco to Wireless / Cellular engineering within a compliance company (Think Underwriters Laboratory) and this is where I really started learning about highly valuable / specialized skills which big companies desperately needed --> This was in 2013ish and handheld cellular technology was taking off.....every company was developing cellular devices, but nobody had the knowledge internally of how you test / validate / navigate all the regulatory hurdles to get these things certified on the commerical market.....let alone consumer market.

Started attending the big industry conferences, networking, meeting a bunch of the guys at the FAANG's.

Did some testing / developed a good hands-on relationship with some engineers at one of the FAANG's who recommended I apply - he'd make sure my resume got to the right people

Applied

Got hired at one of the FAANG's, have received a few promotions, very experienced and very secure in my job now, one of the more senior members of my team which is still growing very quickly.

Have been clearing $200k+ in base salary for a couple years now.

Work for smaller private equity firms that have a lot of potential for growth with bonuses. Anyone in a management role is making close to 200k before bonuses.

I wouldn't believe the 3% number someone spoke of. If you have stock options that you don't execute, plenty of people don't technically make 200k, but will make that easily when they cash out. And when you avg it out over the years employed they make that much easily per year.

Also important to note how many people make their money off the record too. But a 200k salary is no joke. Plenty of corporate VPs will not make that much. Again, stock options will put them over that.

cool.

Would like to find a company that's involved in the data field.

doesn't seem like you can coast in 200k+ jobs

can vouch for the sales one

already close to doubling my base salary in the first year. feelsgood

I've got there working IT, but I put in loads of OT.

I'm not at $200K yet, but have plenty of friends that are and will be there shortly. I'm at a little over $150K base + 10% bonus. Plus, I'm remote and not working in California, so my dollar goes far. The people making $200K I know are usually (talking about folks in 20s or early 30s):

1. Living in HCOL areas where $200K is sort of the defacto minimum to live nicely as a single person - more if you have kids
2. Have high pressure, high-paying jobs (doctors, biglaw attorneys, investment bankers/management consultants, business owners, etc.)
3. Are elite at what they do in an in-demand field (i.e. FAANG engineers and data scientists)

That's pretty much it. You make $200K by either working your ass off or being elite at what you do. A HCOL area where there's a lot of those people will also help.

Civil Engineer working in Construction Project Management of Large Government Funded Projects.

Started off as an intern while going to Engineering School, upon finishing school I worked as a Construction Inspector / Field Engineer, and now work as Owner's Rep / Project Manager / Project Engineer.

is this 200k a month or ?

I wage cucked for a decade

how much do you think product management directors and group product managers make in san francisco?

200k in Buffalo is ballin' and living large.
200k in san fran is just above poverty level.

you need to be more specific op.

This.

You gotta go to a level 11-12 and probably be there 6-7 years with some OT during busy season but normally anyone who's been in for a good amount of time in my area makes over 200k with OT.


Of course they also are on their 2nd marriage so really it's not that crazy lol

What really irritates me tho is that our union didn't negotiate a newer contract with the current regime. We could have alleviated alot of the inflation issues now.

I take seed stage startups and scale them up to series A, B, and C rounds. I started in consulting as a business analyst and worked my way up until I exited, then worked in product and professional services. I don't specialize and my commercial chops are getting stronger which means more $$$