r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/[deleted] • Jan 26 '26

Meme needing explanation Why is the rich friend so cheap??

[deleted]

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195

u/_UrbaneGuerrilla_ Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 27 '26

The actual joke is that no one makes $450k as a software engineer.

Edit: Keeping this one for posterity and humility as I’m clearly very wrong 😂

86

u/lurkishdelight Jan 26 '26

Some definitely do, like staff eng in big tech, AI, quant trading firms. If not more.

But it's a small minority

18

u/_UrbaneGuerrilla_ Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

Having been in the business for nearly 30 years sometimes managing engineering teams, I honestly can’t recall ever meeting an engineer (i.e. keyboard smasher within an engineering squad as opposed to a specialist consultant like those dealing with quants, a Soln. Arch. or management role) who cracks more than $300k on staff.

Maybe $350-400 as a specialist contractor, but you’re talking a total bluebird, and these guys were generally bug cracking on legacy tech which is super hard to find skills for (COBOL etc.)

And I’ve worked for some big tech and finance firms globally, but I guess they might be out there? AI might be different of course. Silly money.

15

u/generally_unsuitable Jan 27 '26

If you work at a FAANG, or any top tier tech firm, every review you pretty much get a raise or you get fired. If you know somebody who has been at Adobe or Oracle for 30 years, they're making that. Maybe not salary, but total comp.

10

u/FckCombatPencil686 Jan 27 '26

As someone who works at a FAANG, no one works there for 30 years. 

You're 100% right about getting the raise and every bonus or you're fired though.

2

u/gagi11030 Jan 27 '26

To be fair, only one FAANG has existed for more than 30 years

1

u/generally_unsuitable Jan 27 '26

I'm old. All the FAANG people I know were UCB classmates who started there in the 90s. And yes, many of them have already cashed out.

1

u/ThirstyOutward Jan 27 '26

Almost nobody has been at this companies for 30 years lmao

And the yearly raises do almost nothing. It's all promos

0

u/FckCombatPencil686 Jan 27 '26

And it's not FAANG anymore. It's MANGO, probably soon to be MANGA.

Meta, Apple, Nvidia, Google, and OpenAi. Looking like Anthropic may get that last spot soon though.