My job title is Senior DevOps Engineer. I have no high school diploma and what they call "some college" (less than 2 years). I've been working as a sysadmin since the late nineties. I've done stints as a Director of Operations, and entrepreneur (trainer/consultant). But mostly ops work. I've been working remotely for the past 3 years (thanks COVID!). I live in a rural area. I try to put in about 40 hours a week, it's been a bit under recently as we're moving and it's been a distraction. The job opening was posted for under 200K but I asked for a bit over and got it. I was told my experience and enthusiasm was far above the other candidates. Hope this helps! (I majored in biochemistry when I was at uni.) I'm in Texas now.
I do, but I worked my way up to it over the past 30 years. I went to University back in 1989 in Munich, but was only there for a year and a half. My father was in the military and was deployed to the Desert Storm war so my mother had me come home. I did some night school classes while working during the day, but never did end up getting a degree. In ‘96 I went to a state sponsored training program started to train people in mainframe programming for the upcoming Y2K work. So I started as an assembler programmer on an IBM OS/360 system and eventually moved to COBOL. I started off at $26K living in Atlanta, GA. Still live here 28 years later, still a developer, current title was Analytics Architect, but company recently did title updates to match the industry, so I am now a senior staff engineer. I make a little over 200k base and get a COL adjustment and 10-15% bonus every year. I’ve been at my current company 20 years, currently enjoying a month long sabbatical to celebrate that. My area of Atlanta isn’t too HCOL, I live in the city of Decatur area. I’ve avoided leaving the perimeter and moving to the suburbs, trying to stay in the more democratic area away from the white flight. Since I‘be been at my job so long my work life balance is great. I do my 40hr weeks, 4 days at home, 1 in the office. I don’t work late or on weekends. I could have probably been making quite a bit more by now if I’d job hopped, but I like my job and my salary is more than enough to support me and my wife.
$200k is quite achievable both remote, IF you have experience. If you are brand new to the industry things have shifted and new grads are having a very tough time.
Double or triple that was easily achievable remote from 2020 to 2023, but now likely requires going in-office in NYC, SF, or Seattle.
The work life balance is not significantly different at different pay levels once you get to true tech companies (leaving aside companies where the tech doesn’t bring in the money)
My job title is Senior DevOps Engineer. I have no high school diploma and what they call "some college" (less than 2 years). I've been working as a sysadmin since the late nineties. I've done stints as a Director of Operations, and entrepreneur (trainer/consultant). But mostly ops work. I've been working remotely for the past 3 years (thanks COVID!). I live in a rural area. I try to put in about 40 hours a week, it's been a bit under recently as we're moving and it's been a distraction. The job opening was posted for under 200K but I asked for a bit over and got it. I was told my experience and enthusiasm was far above the other candidates. Hope this helps! (I majored in biochemistry when I was at uni.) I'm in Texas now.
I do, but I worked my way up to it over the past 30 years. I went to University back in 1989 in Munich, but was only there for a year and a half. My father was in the military and was deployed to the Desert Storm war so my mother had me come home. I did some night school classes while working during the day, but never did end up getting a degree. In ‘96 I went to a state sponsored training program started to train people in mainframe programming for the upcoming Y2K work. So I started as an assembler programmer on an IBM OS/360 system and eventually moved to COBOL. I started off at $26K living in Atlanta, GA. Still live here 28 years later, still a developer, current title was Analytics Architect, but company recently did title updates to match the industry, so I am now a senior staff engineer. I make a little over 200k base and get a COL adjustment and 10-15% bonus every year. I’ve been at my current company 20 years, currently enjoying a month long sabbatical to celebrate that. My area of Atlanta isn’t too HCOL, I live in the city of Decatur area. I’ve avoided leaving the perimeter and moving to the suburbs, trying to stay in the more democratic area away from the white flight. Since I‘be been at my job so long my work life balance is great. I do my 40hr weeks, 4 days at home, 1 in the office. I don’t work late or on weekends. I could have probably been making quite a bit more by now if I’d job hopped, but I like my job and my salary is more than enough to support me and my wife.
Here’s some resources:
- https://levels.fyi
- https://Reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions
- https://Leetcode.com
$200k is quite achievable both remote, IF you have experience. If you are brand new to the industry things have shifted and new grads are having a very tough time.
Double or triple that was easily achievable remote from 2020 to 2023, but now likely requires going in-office in NYC, SF, or Seattle.
The work life balance is not significantly different at different pay levels once you get to true tech companies (leaving aside companies where the tech doesn’t bring in the money)