Contracting is interesting. You make more, but there’s more downside. No sick days.
Though the last 3 month contract was kind enough to calculate the start and end dates to be exactly 12 work weeks (60 work days, skipping holidays) which was a nice Jedi mind trick. I still don’t get paid for Christmas, but somehow it doesn’t feel like I’m losing a day since the end date was extended by a day to compensate. But of course that only makes sense if you don’t think too carefully about it. :)
I dunno. It’s stressful but I like the freedom. But you live with a sword over your head; salaried employees don’t.
Plus now my salary isn’t in a database somewhere since it’s not salary. blows raspberry
If it looks surprisingly dull, I hope it inspires you to realize you can get similar rates. I’m not particularly special; just determined, and willing to say no to low offers. (The initial offer was salary equal to half this rate plus stock. Being completely uninterested in stock is a tricky thing — you can offend your colleagues unless you’re especially tactful.)
My cv hasn’t been updated since 2016, but it’s also the exact cv I used at this company. That should indicate how much cvs matter relative to forming personal connections with founders.
The technique in this case was to ask an ML engineer on the JAX team what a hypothetical total comp package would be for this type of work at google. They said “making up numbers, but ~$400k.” So I refused any offers lower than that by pointing out that I could make this at Google rather than a high stress startup for half the pay plus stock.
I hope some of that is useful to anyone.
1. What kind of companies do you consult with? Is it startups, enterprises, mid-size companies? I see you mentioned forming connections with founders so I presume you mostly work with early stage startups.
2. What kind of work do you do? Advisory? Hands-on engineering? Modeling? Architecture?
3. How do you find your clients?
Salary is $200k/yr with 1% stake in the company (0.5% early exercised - nothing vested yet).
Edit 2: removed my personal salary and share options because this account is public
$155k base $145k/year RSUs (2021); $175k RSUs (2022 est)
"Senior" SRE in SF 3.5 YEO, 3.5 years at current company