You're mad to turn down $600K, unless the job really sucked. Even if you project to make millions with your startup, multiply that by the risk of ~90% failure, you wouldn't do much better than $600K/year.

Still, very sorry about the situation, I'm sure you were hoping for the best.

Thanks I can appreciate your viewpoint. The point is money can't buy time. And in the years since, my time has been very well spent.

Why not take the job for a year or two and have a (half) million to fund your startup?

I did consider it. But the lead partner jumped through some hoops to get me admitted directly as an outsider (I had never worked in a big four). To take that job with an intent to leave in a year or two would have reflected poorly on him and me.

I'm really curious why people are downvoting this.

I know there's a sentiment on hacker news that you should take advantage of a company when you can, because they won't hesitate to take advantage of you. Is it that?

It seems like at that level of compensation you are almost certainly in a small enough circle that any grudges you incur could severely affect you down the line.

I think us IT'ers feel somewhat buffered in life just by the fact that it's quite possible to get job offers with $600k salaries...

I'm not sure that it is. 600k total I might believe someone got in the bay area for total comp, but for base salary? You'd have to be on the 1% of the 1% of devs to get that salary. It is by no means a common salary in even the US, much less the world

80% base, 20% bonus. Cyber security practice leadership (not software development).

Previous post said 600k base?

Yes. $600k base (80%) + 20% for hitting assigned targets.

So 720k total? That is in no way a common job that an average developer can feel comfortable about getting

It's not "a" job though, it was a partner position.

Which requires a buy-in, too, at least at the big 4 consulting firms. I've never heard of someone being brought in as a partner without having been partner somewhere else, or bringing over a whole group. (it's not because I haven't heard of it, that it doesn't exist, of course). I call bullshit.

I don't blame you :)

I'm sure I'm less intelligent than the average HN commenter and I'm certain there are many here with greater infosec expertise. So what explains the salary package? It's the combination of skills in this case. People are usually either good technically or good at sales. Rarely they're good at both. That's why most technology companies sales organisations pairs up an account managers with a tech guy. My talent was not being the best at either, but being uniquely good at both.

600k base salary? What type of position is that?

Developer salaries in the big four (I assume you mean Google/Facebook/Amazon/Apple) are high but that is still twice what I normally hear (and have gotten offers for), and that's assuming you're talking about total comp. I'm not doubting you, i'm just curious what type of experience you need to get that.

If I had a nickle every time a HN commenter said they make 500k+/yr as an engineer, I'd make 500k+/yr.

Don't you know? Everyone on HN makes $500k+, drives a Ferrari and has a supermodel partner.

Funny enough, I now live in Bali, earn less than $150k, drive a $3k scooter and have a supermodel partner. She just made me pumpkin soup.

It was a Partner position at a big four consulting firm. Leading up the Cyber Security practice.

What is a "Partner position"?

Something IT people dealing with cyber security never, ever get.

Traditionally, a partnership is a type of privately held company where the partners hold equity and receive a % profit share based on tenure.

> I assume you mean Google/Facebook/Amazon/Apple

He meant "the other big four", i.e. consulting companies.

> A riches to rags story by traditional measure.

If you have marketable skills that at least once (even assuming that it wasn't typical occurrence) lead you to receive a $600k offer, you're not in the rags, regardless of what your financial statement says.