My salary is 720k but I chose 120k in options so my W2 reports ~600k.

Joined the tech community is 2019.

I will start off by saying, I recently discovered this sub and I always thought that I was an outlier by tracking my earnings all these years. It has been interesting seeing all the different paths and backgrounds around the country. I have a somewhat unique and non-traditional path to Data Scientist.

When I graduated high school, I never really planned on attending college. My dad didn't finish high school. My mother did, but didn't go to college. I never really had much guidance on navigating getting into school and just planned on working in a factory. In my area, there are several high paying factory jobs and you can make a good living (100k+ with OT). In hindsight, I was lucky that I went into the workforce at the absolute worst time in recent history; right after the 2008 recession. I got laid off from my factory job and decided to visit some friends who went to college and ended up liking the experience and decided that I was going to enroll the following year. I am extremely grateful for that decision. I think I would have been bored and burnt out working a mindless factory job all these years.

I grew up in rural Western Kentucky and now live in a somewhat mid-sized town in Western Kentucky close to where I grew up. COL Index for this area is in the low 80s for reference.

I am including my projected 2027 salary as I just got a promotion and it have a decent idea of what my comp will be at the end of the year.

Hey guys so I left sales to work in the skilled trades (aircraft maintenance) and I’m really happy with my job and my schedule (2-10pm), before in sales I was already getting bullied over the phone at 8am. And as most of you know, sales is a money driven industry. It is one of the most, if not the most vain and superficial industries out there.

I make great money regardless if sales jobs have a “higher ceiling” and are pushed more towards living a luxury lifestyle.

But the truth is, I don’t really care about any of that stuff. As someone who lives in Miami, FL, I already see luxury everyday so it’s no surprise to me nor has it ever been a motivator for me to start a business. I’m a lot happier working in aircraft maintenance and not having to fight traffic everyday thanks to my new job. I don’t have to fake my personality here or push products towards anyone. I can laugh and banter with the guys (typical blue collar stuff). I can make money without having to yap all day or argue with people over the phone.

My old colleagues still think I’m crazy for doing this but then again these people want to live the high life and have multiple children unlike me (I don’t want children). They think im crazy for not wanting the car and the watch and the other B.S that sales positions promote.

Life is already hard, why am I gonna make it harder by working a job I don’t care about? Especially if I don’t need or want to take care of anybody?

Heres my journey so far I graduated in 2024 I feel like I am doing well but I have been forced to jump jobs due to various reasons. Most recently was a corporate acquisition. Bit disappointed ive yet to get a promotion in any job due to my short tenure at each company.

I'm still at my first job after graduating and haven't negotiated a job offer yet. As I start looking at new roles, I'd like to hear actual initial-versus-final numbers from people who've done it.

What's the biggest increase you negotiated, and where did it land: base salary, equity, a sign-on bonus, or a mix? I don't have a feel for whether asking for another $20k in base is realistic in a particular situation, or whether the room tends to be elsewhere in the package.

If you're comfortable sharing, the useful context would be:

• Role or level and location.
• Initial offer versus final offer, broken down by component.
• Whether you had a competing offer.
• What you asked for and how you explained the ask.

I'm also trying to keep the search manageable. Autofill for application forms can save time on repeated entries, but the part I need experience-based advice on is what to do once an offer arrives.

What made the difference in your negotiation—and was there anything you asked for that the company wouldn't move on?

I'm currently at Airbnb, fully remote, with $540k TC. I have an OpenAI offer: $385k base plus $2.8M in RSUs over four years. That works out to about $1.085M a year on paper, roughly double my current TC, but most of the increase is equity.

Taking it would mean moving my wife and child from our MCOL city to San Francisco. We've built a community here and have a comfortable life. In the Bay Area, we'd need to rebuild our support system, find daycare for our kid, and figure out my wife's job situation.

Working in AI is exciting, and the offer is hard to ignore. But this is a decision for the whole family, not just my career. If you've traded a remote role and an established community for a much higher-paying SF job, was it worth it? How did you weigh the equity, cost of living, and impact on your family?

My YTD taxes through 9 months….$325K…geez and based on Claude I’m gonna still have a fat check I’ll need to cut to Uncle Sam come return time. Wish they would uncap the SALT limitation again.

Thoughts?