You're being downvoted (not by me) but you have a point. I did two things wrong that I know of:

- I graduated college right before the great recession and that effected my career starting rates

- I stayed at a company I knew was under paying me for far too long (because I had a lot of stock options and I valued them too highly)

If either of those two things were different I'd probably be making a lot more. But my point was, regardless, I am making the mean salary for my region and that mean is not what is represented in this article.

I feel like those 2 points are just excuses(no offense but plenty of people would kill for a chance to even go to college)...if you were to go back would you hold off graduating college until after the recession? It sounds like you are extremely proficient in the technical space, are you good at negotiating and/or identifying where the value is? There is really no reason for someone to stay on a linear pay progression when moving from one job to the next, or even one title to the next.

A lot of research has been done on how the recession stunted career growth for anyone who graduated into it. Effectively anyone who graduated during it got passed over for the people who did graduated right after it. Leaving the people who graduated during it in underemployment and unable to move on because companies were more willing to hire people who were fresh graduates than people who were underemployed.

So yes, actually... in hind sight I should have gotten my Masters degree instead of entering the workforce.

Edit: That job I stayed at too long... only reason I took it in the first place was because the recession left me almost no choices. No one was hiring in Boston. The job boards were empty for someone right out of college.

Yes, I mean hindsight is 20/20 and no one could have really predicted the fallout from and during the great recession. It generally sounds like you are doing fairly well now, and that is a fantastic accomplishment. Realistically speaking there are few times in our lives where we have 'almost no choice'. The truth is that you didn't see a choice that was appealing to you, but that's just my 2c, and with inflation nowadays the 2c is worth even less hahaha.

>I am making the mean salary for my region and that mean is not what is represented in this article.

the article didn't say it was representing the mean salary though, probably the salary they are representing is the average - so there are a few high earning outliers pulling that number way up.

Or maybe, the more you are experienced and able to solve problems. Any problems. And produce quality software that performs. Then maybe the more unique that makes you. Which is not what FAANGs are looking for. They want a smart enough human, that is replaceable enough. And they will pay a lot for people that accept to play by the rules.

Hey just a theory. I am probably wrong.