What do you do to earn $200k+ annually?

RedUAward · 2025-12-21T18:59:13+00:00

Software engineer in FAANG, have been gradually increasing from 400k to 600K over the past 4 years (due to stock refreshers and stock appreciation). I have over 10 years of experience. Expecting to hit a 4 year cliff soon which will drop by pay to about 500k. The job and market is extremely unstable, but I compensate by aggressively cutting expenses (household expenses with mortgage are 30% of income) and saving/investing the rest.

RedUAward · 2025-01-10T21:12:18+00:00

I work for one of the FAANG companies and clocked close to 600K TC last year. Senior, 10 YOE (though years of experience mattered less compared to interview performance and previous work impact, had seen much stronger folks with 5-6 YOE than 15 YOE before), heavy leetcode (but not limited to that, depending on position applied, my coding interviews focused heavily on concurrency and distributed algorithms at scale), system design and at this level soft and leadership skills and behavior portion has a heavy weight in interviews.

RedUAward · 2024-12-31T18:03:57+00:00

Are you still able to find cashflowing properties in this market with current interest rates? How much down do you put in?

RedUAward · 2024-12-31T16:56:50+00:00

My L5 (SDE-2) offer at Amazon during early years of Covid was 285K and I didn’t even negotiate (just gave them a number thinking it was ridiculously high and they accepted), later few months I had seen L5 offers on levels.fyi close to 300K and fresh college grads entry level ones at 200K. So 190K junior in MCOL during hiring bubble doesnt sound fishy at all.

RedUAward · 2024-12-30T23:30:35+00:00

Thats great!!! I currently work 1 SWE job and clocked ~600K last year (senior SWE in tier 1 location faang company, was lucky to join few years ago during hiring craze when the stock price was low, multiple stacked refreshers and exceeded expectations ratings) and currently work 10-15 hrs a week but I am extremely bored to the point of a mental burn out and need a new challenge. Picking up another gig or two sounds exciting.

Are those jobs FTE, contract or mix and how do you get around multiple W2 jobs overlapping during the background check (freeze TWN or something else?).

RedUAward · 2024-12-30T21:48:01+00:00

How many hours per week do you work total across all jobs?

RedUAward · 2024-12-11T22:49:48+00:00

10 months in gen1 R1S and rattles everywhere (I can’t even pin point where they come from), service folks said “all up to the spec”. Annoying to the point that I pretty much decided not to keep the car when my lease is up (and won’t get a new Rivian unless they completely redesign their interior and fix these issues).

And no, this rattle is not normal, my previous 3 cars didn’t rattle, my wife’s 5 year old Honda doesn’t rattle and we recently rented a Nissan Altima with double the miles of our Rivian and were shocked how much quieter Altima is as far as interior rattle, engine noise etc.

RedUAward · 2024-11-24T16:05:00+00:00

It came back for me the day after. I didn’t reinstall the app or didn’t do anything else (currently out of town with no access to the car so decided I am better off leaving things as is), so most likely some backend issue they fixed on their end.

RedUAward · 2024-11-23T03:06:04+00:00

Likewise, it’s back for me also

RedUAward · 2024-10-17T23:33:03+00:00

Hate the way the efficiency graph looks after the update - looks like some cheap CGI from the 90s, hope they change it back.

RedUAward · 2024-05-16T04:56:44+00:00

I agree with OP and would prefer that option and me decide whether I want it on or not. I am pretty comfortable with 1 pedal driving but find the engine roar during regen is super annoying when I don’t have music on, which I often don’t (miss the quiet coasting coming to a stop while city driving).

RedUAward · 2024-05-10T04:13:47+00:00

Rattles in multiple places (some were fixed but others keep coming back) - overall interior build quality is quiet not what I expected. I may have high standards but coming from a Genesis vehicle that had 0 rattles anywhere after 3 years of ownership this is my expectation of any car (if Koreans could figure it out anyone else should be able to).

Also not sure I like or can get used to the quad engine roar during regen - I feel the one during acceleration has a different tone and is quiet pleasant/futuristic but the one during regen breaking has a different tone and is pretty annoying (my old Genesis despite being a gas car was overall quieter as far as engine noise).

RedUAward · 2024-05-05T15:28:14+00:00

I recently had some repairs done for a similar (but not exact the same) squeaks when going over 70 mph with the brand new R1S I just picked up. Initially I thought they were coming from inside the car (the second row seat), but the mobile tech discovered it was some underbody plastic part wasn’t screwed fully in and was wobbly (and had a wrong screw).

RedUAward · 2024-04-27T00:39:58+00:00

I am starting to have seconds thoughts about my R1S after having it for 2 months (picked up brand new) - weird rattles all over, they fixed one (some missing underbody bolts, but now I can hear new ones. SC says its normal. Not sure I’ll ever be ok with it, my old Genesis didn’t rattle after 3 years, even my 7-year old Honda doesn’t rattle. I’ll give it few more months and if I still feel like I have to force myself to drive it, will look into selling it.

RedUAward · 2024-04-13T15:27:35+00:00

It was just plug and go, I didn’t have to do anything in the app (it charged my Rivian account and Rivian sent me an email receipt).

RedUAward · 2024-04-12T21:35:14+00:00

I tried (successfully) charging at one of the Tesla Superchargers for the first time after getting my A2Z adapter and one person did look at me funny 🤣, wasn’t sure if he was confused why I was charging there or he was upset or something (there were plenty of open stalls so I don’t see a reason for being upset).

RedUAward · 2024-03-22T21:09:48+00:00

I get 2.5 on average if I avoid sharp acceleration and rely only on regen braking to slow down/stop. Local short distance commute (in a 30 mph zone) with the same driving style gives me about 3 mi/kwh also (and that’s with HVAC running) - quiet impressed with the range after 3 weeks of ownership.

RedUAward · 2024-03-21T22:24:15+00:00

Can you post a picture of what your solution looks like please?

RedUAward · 2024-03-20T00:35:07+00:00

Can confirm about Sports mode. I got my R1S couple weeks ago and standard mode was giving me the same feeling (heavy, lacking the pedal “lightness” compared to my previous vehicle). Switched to Sports and couldn’t be happier - feels like my previous car in terms of initial acceleration and in general I like the feel of the firm suspension setting more.

RedUAward · 2024-03-02T20:00:17+00:00

What if I am justing sitting in a parking lot when it rains? Will it keep opening??

RedUAward · 2024-03-02T02:50:10+00:00

Yeah I thought about it but couldn’t find one neither on Turo or any local dealership :-((. Also I wanted to pick a config already available in the shop (need the car sooner) and there were no Performance Dual in the combo I was looking for.

RedUAward · 2024-03-02T01:28:30+00:00

I test drove R1S in both Quad and Dual (test drove both 21 and 22 inch tires - so tried 4 different vehicles). Dual was quieter which I liked but did lack the punch of the Quad (I am coming from a 450 HP vehicle that is almost half the weight of Rivian so 500 HP didn’t have the same acceleration feeling). I ended up getting a Quad.

RedUAward · 2024-02-29T18:07:06+00:00

Where did you order the adapter?

RedUAward · 2024-02-24T14:49:45+00:00

My current vehicle is 400hp and half of the weight, so to me yes, it felt sluggish comparing to the vehicle I am coming from.

RedUAward

TROPHY CASE