Comment by Gigachad
3 years ago
You also don’t need to spend years in a very expensive education with tall entry barriers and taking on massive debt. But also, you had the info in doctor fakeries available and still chose software.
3 years ago
You also don’t need to spend years in a very expensive education with tall entry barriers and taking on massive debt. But also, you had the info in doctor fakeries available and still chose software.
I mean - this is YMMV. Typical SV FAANG engineer is from an Ivy League or adjacent competitive school. Often with a masters.
So, yes, you might not have to do the full specialty training and residency but it can still be quite competitive and expensive.
You’re only earning surgeon money when you’ve made staff level at FAANG. Which usually means you’re near the same age as surgeons and there was a lot of risk and grind getting there. If anyone thinks getting to staff at FAANG is trivial - I’d suggest they’ve been very lucky in life and aren’t a representative person of how hard it is.
People who could do either often go into software because of the nearly unlimited earnings cap. Theoretically you could start your own company and be ultra rich. That’s what I see often as the source. Less common with doctors afaict.
This is kind of a meme. I'm not sure what you consider to be "surgeon money", but senior engineers at FAANG nowdays net ~450k/year (annualized). As a single person you can retire at 40 with ~5m in the bank by starting at FAANG at 22 and plateauing at senior (not staff) after 5-6 years. So you're hitting that 450k/year level at, like... 27? Earlier if you're working at a company like Facebook, which promotes aggressively (many people make it to senior in 3-4 years), maybe later if you're at Google (where it's non-trivial getting to Senior in 5 years; many take up to 8, some don't break through at all). At 27 you're just starting your residency, working 100-hour weeks for less than six figures. Lol.
FAANG hires way too many people to hire exclusively (or even primarily) from Ivy League schools. Jointly they employ probably 5% of the software engineers in the country! Master's degrees are likewise totally unnecessary; I almost never see anyone who isn't here on a visa getting a Master's. (PhDs are a different story, but I know people without even undergrad degrees working at FAANG too.)
$450k/yr at FAANG for senior is definitely the very top of the band and to get there after 5 years is extremely optimistic. Again - if you're comparing Stanford graduates then maybe it's more common but for your average FAANG eng isn't making that in 5 years out of college especially with just 40-hr work weeks. Very few engineers are making that money even after transferring to another company. Maybe if you have some stock appreciation or stacked refreshers working in your favor you're at $450k/yr. Levels backs this up...
Surgeon money is generally $500-700k/yr (this might be my sampling bias - looking at stats online, it varies a lot - this is like tech incomes, there's a wide distribution). The nice thing about surgeon money is that you can make that in a lot of places - not just in SV. The same cannot be said of FAANG. You're gonna have a hard time getting remotely hired in BFE making $400k+/yr. Yet, the local hospital always needs a surgeon and most surgeons don't want to live in BFE... So, you're gonna be fine.
Even then if you assume you're making $450k/yr at 27 - you're not gonna have $5m by 40 unless you somehow are beating the market or save every penny and live like scrooge. (Which - again - why bother saving $5m if you're gonna live like a peasant?)
If you assume you're gonna live like you would on a safe withdrawal rate (let's say the more optimistic 4% - $200k/yr at $5m) then you're gonna only have $250k/yr gross income to save - which turns out to be ~$150k/yr net. (You can play with the numbers however you see fit but the point will come around) If you decide to save $12.5k every month for 13 years at 6% return rate (just a simple return - we assume same value dollars) then after those 13 years you have $2.9m. It would take 19 years until you crossed $5m. So, you'd be 45-46 assuming you saved every penny, never went above a $200k/yr income lifestyle (LOL at that in the bay area - you're a renter for life!), and you somehow made $450k/yr starting at 27. Which - is again - uncommon. It has happened due to wild stock appreciation but it isn't the norm offer people receive for senior level - levels backs this up.
It sounds nice until you do the math and realize $200k/yr is shit to live on here. God forbid you marry someone who isn't in tech/law/finance/$400k+ income.
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I think you meant doctor salaries?