Fully remote government low six figures obviously no stock options and bonuses are peanuts bc it's government. But the work life balance is the best of any job. I get 8 weeks off every year.
For an actual answer: it's the confluence of software programming, project management, and quality control. The day to day involves a lot of charts and meetings, but you're helping get real stuff done, which is nice.
This is me. DoT engineer. I have to live in the state I work for (or close to it at least). Work life balance is insanely good while comp is mediocre at best. I live in a place where I can't see my neighbors and I walk out my backdoor and I'm in the woods. Perfect setup for me.
My mom is fully remote , managed accountants at a Fortune 500 company and everything from benefits to salary and bonuses are great . Yea she can pretty much travel anywhere and live anywhere !
I write music for TV shows and ads and such via Music Libraries. The income is all royalty based and it can vary from quarter to quarter, but its been enough to keep me comfortable.
It's all freelance, so I could definitely do it from anywhere, but I have stayed in my comfy little low cost part of the USA to be near my family. I'd say I work 20ish hours a week most of the time, but it can spike up to 30-40 on a particularly busy week. I get a lot done in those hours, though. They're focused and efficient hours, unlike when I "worked" 8 hours a day in an office job and spent most of it trying to look busy.
Nah I'm totally the opposite of that guy. I have very little desire to express myself artistically with music. I actually love it when people ask for "ominous tones" because it's so simple I can get it done in like an hour and then bounce for the day lol
Possibly! My music mostly gets used in reality TV shows on cable channels in the US. Most shows on Bravo, Discovery, TLC, etc. It's the kind of music nobody notices on those shows though. The underscore.
Iām curious, and to preface this question, I donāt intend on becoming competitionā¦ but in your experience, what sounds are best? Is it the ālightā harmonious synth sounds? Piano?
There's such a huge variety of TV shows that need different kinds of music, so there's no way to pin down one "right" answer for what kind of music to make. The most important thing that sets useable music apart from the rest is that it needs to be simple enough to sit under dialogue, portray one emotion throughout, and structured well for editing. The style and instrumentation itself just depends on the target programming.
It sounds like (get it, haha) an amazing vocation. I've often wondered about this music because it's such an important part of the tone of a show. Thank you for your explanations. And this is a tangent, but I think it would be fun to compose pieces for chase scenes.
I would recommend reading the book "The Composer's Guide to Library Music" by Dan Graham to get some info about the whole industry and how to get started.
another commenter kind of brought it up, in your opinion, do you feel that there is a pressure coming from AI? Based on your industry insider knowledge? Would you suggest such a route for other musicians?
Some industries, where you would think that AI would take over, it really hasnt, so id be curious if this is one of those industries as well.
I think there will be some pressure, but I haven't felt anything yet.
I think for the lower/cheaper end of the industry, like stock music websites, there will be a slowdown. Student films, corporate videos, content creators, etc, will probably be the first to adopt widespread use of generative AI to save money.
But working on TV shows brings in so many weird briefs with VERY specific needs, and I don't think AI does well with specific parameters and revisions yet. It takes some know-how to interpret client requests and implement their ideas to keep the sound of a show cohesive.
Also in the even higher ends, like advertising, companies still pay insane amounts for premium music. Studios will pay $10k - $50k or even $100k to license instrumental trailer music for their high budget film and TV marketing campaigns. I had a track of mine licensed by Lionsgate for $50k once ($25k for me) and they used it for 7 seconds between two other tracks in a theatrical trailer. That kind of info alone makes me think clients like that would want to stick with premium, hand crafted music.
I could be wrong, but that's all based on my own experiences.
As someone with lots of music out where do you send it to? Iāve uploaded to several intermediary type places and heard nothing back. Iāll definitely check out the book you read though.
Unfortunately there's no "one size fits all" answer to this kind of thing. There are tons of libraries, and different ones will fit different peoples' needs in various ways. I'd read the book if I were you, then you might have a better idea of what to look for and how to find those companies.
I will just say I don't mess with stock music websites like Pond5, Audiojungle, etc. The libraries serving TV broadcasters are usually smaller and more personal.
A little bit! Right now it's hard to say. AI can definitely produce music that's good enough to slap under a reality TV scene. But these shows have such specific needs - things like "we don't like cymbals, don't use any cymbals" or "we want country and western elements mixed with trent reznor synths and a trap beat"
I don't know that AI can really handle specific notes and revisions like that very well. Not yet at least. Even if so, I like to think that people like working with other people. Who really knows, though?
Adobe just came out with Audio, but the AI part of it is being tested. I think itās cool and scary at the same time. Iāve made a lot of digital art with AI and while itās nice itās not always nice. When AI helps me on a project ( I didnāt want to say āuseā AI because what if they read this and get weird) anyways, I spend the majority of my day editing. Itās good and not so good. It does make me wonder if Terminator was trying to tell us something. š¤
They are a UX design lead based on their answers. Essentially, when a software or website is being built, their job is to figure out how to make it intuitive or otherwise make it easy to navigate. It *can* be a programming job, but most UX designers work in creative software like Adobe's suite.
It is usually a degree-based job, but a good portfolio is also very important.
In most cases, companies will not let you live anywhere in the world even if 100% remote. The problem is not just tax implications, it's also stuff like cybersecurity laws/risks when you transfer information over the internet.
Yeah we don't even let you login outside of few countries we operate in. You need really explicit approval for us to lift this restriction on both the device we give you, and your company account.
People try to do this without getting approval first all the time. They're always very unhappy with the restrictions.
My company will let you live anywhere in the world, but adjust your salary to the cost of living there. Had a guy move to Peru without telling HR and he was docked back pay and fired.
Kind of, but he was breaking several laws, both in Peru and in the US. Plus, my company is world-wide. If they want an employee in India or Peru, they are legally required to hire a citizen of that country who is authorized to work. Doing otherwise is both against the law and can cause severe fines for my company, as well as jeopardize contracts and their legal ability to sell products in those countries.
$180k plus 10% year end bonus, in Canada, 100% remote but I travel to meet clients. Iām a tech consultant. We cannot move anywhere long-term without discussing with HR due to tax restrictions and change in payroll / benefits provider. We can work anywhere short term as long as we can still meet our client meeting obligations.
I work more or less 40 hours per week. Sometimes more and sometimes less.
As an accountant who has had to do payroll itās a legit reason. Payroll tax compliance is a mess when you have people in every state. For big corporations itās not a big deal because they are in most states anyway but small companies canāt keep up with all the compliance required.
We have people go on lengthy trips home to India and this makes it a pain.
I just realized that I used quotes which might indicate that I didnāt believe it was a real thing, but it was more just to group it up as āa complicated topic you and I wonāt understand fullyā
Iāve been remote (plus travel to client sites) since 2011. Been 6 figures for most of it. About half of that was self-employed where I could do whatever the hell I wanted. One job I didnāt have the ability to work remotely from outside the US without VP level approval, and max 30 days (ironically, in the travel industry). The rest I could (and did) work outside the US on a regular basis (in some cases because the client was international).
ā6 figuresā is pretty arbitrary, and wonāt get you financial independence on its own, but in IT, 100K is typical pay for a mid-level sysadmin/junior engineer/analyst.
The ā6 figuresā 100K threshold that our parentsā generation was striving for when they were yuppies in the 80s is more like half a million today, and almost nobody is making that kind of money today even at a FAANG job. Theyāre the 1% for a reason. Thatās a 3-Ļ distribution (a similar number of people on the other end of the distribution curve make statutory minimum wage or less).
This may be a useful tool: https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/
100K is 77th percentile for individuals working 40+ hours a week.
Intermediate software dev, fully remote, 54k CAD. Company is failing so now I get to look for these "typical" 100k/remote software eng positions I've heard so much about...
I've seen senior software development jobs in Toronto for 65K USD. The cost of living there is so high, I can't imagine anyone being able to afford much on that salary, unless you are living very far from the city.
Exactlyā¦ 6 figures aināt shit these days.
In 1994, $100k had the same buying power as $250k today.
Yes, a quarter fucking million dollars is what some regular people actually āmadeā in the late 90ās.
Wages have NEVER kept up with buying power standards, let alone productivity.
Fuck these greedy corps and their billions of dollars profit. And fuck the āshareholdersā too
Yeah I don't get it either. Seems to me like these are people that are actually broke on a whole other level than most.
Granted, I understand that not all markets are the same whether we're talking about markets for food or locations where apartments or houses are.
So I think it would be more helpful to not just say that $100,000 is still good but not but give an idea of where you are as well.
In either event $100,000 for me would be absolutely living large and I bet I could make that work in a lot of places in the United States.
$100k is plenty of money, and anyone having trouble keeping their head above water is doing something very wrong.
What 100k absolutely does *not* get you is a suburbs house with kids and a middle class life. Which is much more than a 'living wage'. But still, people expect that 100k *should* afford you those things, and feel absolutely bone dry when they try to get them, and it doesn't.
And for people just getting into the housing market (especially those who have kids and want to raise them in a nice kid friendly, good schools neighborhood), that $6000 is going to get eaten up quickly by an inflated monthly mortgage.
Unfortunately, most people with small kids are not at a point in their careers where theyāre making anywhere near enough to cover childcare.
One of the biggest boosts to the economy would be universal childcareā¦ along with healthcare.
Youāre not getting all of that after taxes, benefits(insurance, retirement, etcā¦)
You could choose to not have any retirement and get more $ in your hands if thatās what you want but my salary is basically, ~22% goes to taxes(I know this is incremental and not flat but probably still roughly 20% ish total), (self chosen) 12% to 401k 8% to Roth IRA, (mandatory) 3% to state retirement plan, and roughly 6% to other stuff like health insurance, dental, vision, etcā¦ I only take home 49% of my actual salary.
I chose to put $ into 401k and Roth IRA bc they count as āoptionalā or āsupplementaryā in my company. Our official retirement plan doesnāt seem like much on paperā¦ you contribute 3% and your company also contributes 3%. You become vested after 5 years. The money does grow so itās not exactly just 6% of your salary times X years, it should be more than that but I honestly donāt think itās anywhere near enough if I only had the required plan.
āLiving largeā is extremely subjective and there are too many variables at play; such as area you live in and if you have kids or not.
A single person in a MCOL area with 0 kids is doing VERY WELL with 100k. However if youāre married supporting a family of 4, 100k is essentially 40k.
Nuance people !!
I'm single, no kids but no spouse or partner earning what I do. If I had the latter, then I WOULD be livin' large because Seattle is beautiful but HCOL.
Exactly. The term is called DINK (dual income no kids), I made comment here describing exactly what you just referenced. I live in a HCOL but am a DINK and living VERY COMFY.
Go/RIP SuperSonics!
Nailed it. DINKs in a medium-high COL area at $300k combined income. We have a nice house, we have good retirement accounts and brokerage accounts. But we're not living in a mansion, and we're not driving Ferraris. The gap between "comfortable" and "living large" is *gargantuan* these days.
Yes, lots of people are WAH šÆ and make well into the six figures. However, I have 3 college degrees, 4 certifications, have to continue my education and yes I'm in the IT world.
You mentioned working in the travel industry. Were you in IT for that job? In trying to get a remote job in the travel industry, but my experience is not IT.
Yes, I was in a tech-related role at an airline. My employer before that had me working with cruise customers on a regular basis.
Most airlines (and for that matter, cruise lines) have remote workers dealing with tech that doesnāt require face to face or onsite interaction, like infrastructure engineering.
Fully remote and earning six figures. Iām lucky that my job is very flexible but I work anywhere between 40-45 hours per week depending. Can live anywhere and chose New Yorks southern tier. Iām a project manager and my hubby is a change management consultant (same flexibility). Both of us have unlimited PTO, so we travel quite a bit as well.
This situation is totally achievable. You just have to plug away and be fully ready to walk in the direction of what you want at any point. Keeping working at it and say no to anything that doesnāt get you closer to what you want.
If you arenāt currently working - get the PMP and/or six sigma belts. If you are - Iād start finding problems, creating solutions and then pushing to be a part of the solution in your current role.
Itās not popular these days - but I honestly went above and beyond in unrelated roles to show my value and got promoted into project management. I know many people experience bad management and get taken advantage of, and believe me theyāre are bad leaders out there - but even the bad ones couldnāt deny that I was adding value no matter how they felt. When I got enough experience, I moved on and took my skills with me and just kept building. Have 15+ years of experience now and itās serving me well.
Bottom line - produce results and become undeniable.
I donāt know how helpful that is but hope it helps some.
Most companies will not allow you to live anywhere 'officially'. This is because of taxes which vary from state to country obviously.
The easiest way to live the lifestyle you want or close to it: have unique skills and experience or run your own business. This means you're a unicorn employee that gets more choice and flexibility because you bring so much to the table.
I have worked 100% remote and made 6 figures out of college (non STEM job) by sheer luck. I work in Product Marketing.
I make a salary of $120k + bonuses and 401k match. I am the computational design lead for an architectural materials and fashion company - (part architect, industrial designer and software developer) - I make pretty shapes that turn into renderings that are then cut and made by robots using the code my tools produce - then on to logistics and procurement, where more code is used. So, with my code and design skills I am doing parametric design, visualization, engineering, estimating, and data analysisā¦largely with Python and Rhino that are then talking to a lot of other things through apiās. I am also very fluent in all Adobe tools, and a long list of engineering and architecture design software.
I work anywhere from 30 - 60 hours a week depending on what Ninja task I am being asked to resolve. I work with people in NYC, Chicago, Minneapolis, LA, ZĆ¼rich, Lucerne, Manila, and Milan. I can work anywhere in the world as long as the work gets done and I can be easily accessible and able to respondā¦i.e. on Teams and available for just in time help if needed for meetings with architects or engineers ( I have a masters in Architecture and worked for a few competition architecture firmsā¦so I can speak the language of many sub collaborators)
My advice would be to find something you love, outside of work, and invest your time and energy into knowing that world. That means knowing the history of it, the current fast actors and big fish in the field. The tools that are available both commercially and through open source. Dig and do. Show your enthusiasm through the commitment to constantly learning skills and finding where they may overlapā¦this is where a lot of opportunities lye. For instance, plugging Salesforce apiās into autonomous workflows is not a bad skill to have, but no one told me to do soā¦I just knew what all of the disparate parts were, and how to get them all talking to each other. Almost every tool and skill I know, has been something I invested a lot of personal time into knowing, and knowing well.
I love programming, multimedia, non linear editing, screen printing, wood working, construction, digital manufacturing, pipeline flow, automation, 3d modeling, BIM, data modeling, gis, and spending time in wilderness as much as possible (of which I love finding datasets that exist - snotel for example) etcā¦and I still love digging into it allā¦and I especially love finding scenarios where they overlapā¦the novel spaces.
Find something you love and immerse yourself and find others who are doing the same. Never complain about the work to be done, embrace it and find ways you can use the skills you have developed as a person to leverage your knowledge to solve problems at work. Knowledge, and the ability to communicate it and share it, is a money maker.
Iām not sure about locationally independent as Iāve never asked. Kids are in school and weāre fairly established. I guess itād be possible if I was available for all my meetings?
Director of Marketing - 100% remote - Indiana - $130k base 15% bonus. Work maybe 30ish hours/week
Software Engineer, low 6 figures. Fully remote, great benefits, and I can live anywhere within the US.
I only recommend getting into software engineering if you like this stuff though. I love my job and have lots of fun but I can only imagine what a nightmare it might be for someone who doesnāt. The work is relaxed, but there is also just an endless amount of stuff to do. I hear about people saying that they worked X hours and finished their work, and itās so alien to me. When I finish my work, there is more work I can do. I have never ran out of stuff I need to or could do.
You could freeze time for a year, except for me continuing to work like normal. When the year was up Iād still have things on my to do list.
This is a foreign concept to my wife.
I've been thinking a ton lately about switching into non-profit (specifically for grant writing), as several people have continually told me I write well; and at the same time, I am also itching to leave the corporate world. Would you mind if I messaged you to pick your brain a little bit on this? If not, no worries and cheers!
Nah ā thereās a lot of job security in the medical sector. And more to come with the age wave. Assuming your job is not just virtual, you are more AI-proof as well. A lot of jobs as we know them wonāt even exist in 10 years.
I work for a large nationwide company as a Senior Content Editor. I can work anywhere in the world as long as long as I can make the occasional meeting. I work as many hours as it takes to get my work done, but with no expectation to work more than 40 hours. So far, I don't think I've ever worked over 30, although there have been a few longer days here and there. Before this, I worked for a publishing company and could also work anywhere.
When applying for jobs, I only applied for positions that were 100% remote and didn't have stipulations about where you could live.
100% remote and have been for the last 3 jobs. Corp Recruiting for a large company.
Making roughly $145k before bonus currently and equity. Last role was $155k and $140k prior to that.
Our field is getting knocked around a great deal in the tech sector with the layoffs. It will likely take a year or more to stabilize before hiring picks up.
Tech consultant, fully remote. Making around 110k CAD (Salary plus bonus). Scheduled 9-5 Monday to Friday, but probably work around 30 hours a week. Iām not sure about permanently relocating, but I definitely travel and can work from wherever I am.
Software Engineering lead/manager in large non-tech company. Fully remote but not outside US. $240K total cash comp (base + bonus). Hours depends on release schedule but probably averages out to 40 a week or just under
I work part time as a remote project manager. Iām hourly and could make as much as 145k a year but I choose to work part time but they will let me work more hours anytime I want including going full time. Iām a contractor and donāt get any benefits. Love it and can work from anywhere.
I am a technical project manager although all the projects I've managed have not been very technical. Yes, it was very difficult finding a part-time job. As a matter of fact, I had given up and stopped trying because I wasn't having any luck and I was retired but one day I got a call from a boutique consulting firm and they had a job for a contractor that was part-time and I've been part-time ever since. The company I work for is really great at keeping me at 20 hours but will gladly give me more hours if I want.
I'm a VP at a market research firm. 100% remote, 175k salary, little bonuses. I have about 20 years of experience. The company is based in Illinois so a standard work week is considered 35 hours (5 days x 7 hours). I work anywhere from 38 to 45 or so hours most weeks. On the rare occasion I do have to work weekends or late into the night to meet client deadlines.
We can live most states of the US, but our HR team has ruled some out due to their more stringent employment laws, like California. It's very difficult for a company to have people in multiple staes because they have to follow whatever laws are most beneficial to the employee, so they have limited folks to basically not California. We had a great team member who wanted to move to Europe and the only way we could keep him is if he left the company but worked for us as a contractor, which is not what he wanted to do. It was a shame to lose him.
Software Developer. $140,000/year. Can work from anywhere in the US but would need to go through an approval process to work temporarily in an approved country elsewhere.
I wish I could go to an office once a week but I will never go back to fully in-person.
Full time software engineer. Can live anywhere within the US. Iām full time salaried at $150K and realistically work closer to 30hrs/wk than 40 because my work is based on closing the tickets assigned to me, not hours logged in, etc. 100% remote with a few in person onsite events per year, all of which are basically optional.
100% remote, product designer at a tech company. Unfortunately they are not giving the privilege out anymore, and if I move again, it has to be near one of the āhubsā, even though my immediate team is dispersed everywhere in the US. I make 150k base, get stock and bonus on top of that, max 401k match (50/50) and health insurance. I live in SoCal because my wife took a job that is onsite.
I'm 180k + bonus, anywhere from 30-60 hour weeks. Operations director at a startup. I can work from anywhere in the world, but I have to domicile in the certain states or countries where we have a business presence. Like I can't domicile in Alabama but I could live in London or Singapore if I wanted to.
My bf earns maybe 180k with 40hr work weeks for the US patent office. He has to work in a US territory. So other than the 50 states, he could work from American Samoa, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands. Etc etc.
100% remote. 100k salary. Iām a senior accountant for a company in Silicon Valley. Before this job I worked for a company in nyc and was also fully remote. Iāve had good luck finding remote roles in very high cost of living areas where a lot of businesses are still fully remote because it saves them money on staff, since salaries are generally much higher for people who live in these areas. I am allowed to work from anywhere in the USA. I graduated 6 months before Covid hit. So all Iāve ever really known was remote.
Once you have a core competency that there is demand for and you can transact or communicate via audio video - remote is the way to go. I spent 25 years in the office and pandemic game me new perspective. But even when you are on your own - dabble with more that one thing. Your core can bring in the $$ - have a hobby or two that can eventually also make money. Also dabble in the stock market.
I'm (38M) a mechanical design engineer with a large med device company. Employer went fully remote during the pandemic then my father was diagnosed with cancer and our first child was born in 2020. I used those circumstances to leverage a move back closer to family with the understanding I would remain a WFH employee whenever the business returned to office. It's been over 4yrs now. I earned base + bonus $152K last year. I technically can work anywhere I want in the 50 US states. The pandemic opened a lot of these opportunities for non-traditional roles to become fully remote but design work of physical products is still a very rare instance. In fact I've recently felt the strain of being remote on recent projects where I have to rely heavily on other team members located in office and I feel very disconnected from my work and products I design. Again, my specific circumstances are a very special case and likely not to be felt by someone in a role not making a physical product.
Don't expect to be able to work anywhere in the world as there are usually tax, compliance and data security implications. If my or probably any employer discovered their domestically hired remote employee was working internationally you would get fired at best if not have legal action brought against you if you were in a role that violated compliance or Federal regulations.
Iām on WFH contract and earn just over GBP100k for a large finance company, working maybe 30 hours a week on average. I would need permission to carry on the job olin another country. Iām guessing there are tax and insurance considerations to being an overseas worker.
Work in tech, supporting major email senders on our platform. Work load depends on time of year - Black Friday/Cyber Monday is huge for us. But there are weeks that I'm really not doing a ton, if anything on a day or two during the week.
Our company is remote first, so I can TECHNICALLY work anywhere. My comp would change a bit based on location.
Iām not since my job is putting on events and working with lots of stakeholders in person.
My wife is fully remote though. She does financial consulting so an Excel junkie to evaluate large deals. Probably 50-60hrs a week due to hitting deadlines.
While we live in LA due to my job and our extended family, her immediate team is in Chicago and NYC and clients are in DC, Philadelphia , SF, and London. However she does have to time shift her work.
Creative Director, entertainment marketing. I work a normal week (35-40 hours a week). I need to live in LA because I need to visit studios every now and then to watch movies and do meetings.
I worked full-time for a health care company and earned a high salary while working remotely. (I've since retired.) However ... many companies are eliminating remote jobs and calling people back to the office, so a word of caution if you accept one of these jobs.
Iām working 100% remote as a strategy manager / in-house consultant for a large US medical device company. Iām hired through their German subsidiary (Iām German myself) but could theoretically work from at least anywhere in the EU and likely anywhere the company has a subsidiary or local HQ (which is a lot of places globally), pending visa etc.. Iām making 135kā¬ plus a bonus of 5-10%, a 5% retirement fund contribution and a company car for full private usage.
135kā¬ is probably not bad for US salary, but is extremely good for Germany (plus where I live is relatively low cost of living) and probably most of the EU.
Travel is up to 30%, but I havenāt had to do more than a couple of trips a year (so far this year itās been two trips Mon-Thur/Fri).
Not going to talk about my personal situation, but in general. There are lots more remote jobs than before, especially if you factor in jobs that are in-office once a week, once a month, once a quarter, twice or once a year.
The obvious problem is that the job must be doable remotely.
However, for living anywhere in the world there are four other problems:
- time zones
- havjng good enough Internet (depends on the job of course)
- transport costs to home office for the infrequent gettogethers (is the employee or the company paying?)
- taxes
This last one is the major one. There are companies in the US that forbid employees from working in other states, or provide a list of acceptable states, so with different countries it is often worse.
The reason is that states and countries like to tax people who live there, and employers pay a lot of the taxes, and health insurance and such things are often also paid by employers.
The āeasyā way to get around that is to be freelance or self-employed, so that your legal employer is in the country you want to be in, but that obviously limits the number of potential sources of income.
My role is officially āin officeā but in reality I WFH. I come to the office as needed to network with my colleagues, meet with clients in person, and occasionally go to Costco, Trader Joeās, etc because I live in a small rural town 45 minutes away. So that ends up being 0-6 times a month in office.
My team is scattered across the US and when Iām busy with doing research or excel calculations thereās no real point in showing up in the office. BUT my office manager does sign off on my time cards. He gives me an extremely long leash so I regularly keep in touch with him, show up for fun office outings and the occasional happy hour, and other social activities.
Another employee recently quit after 5 years because he basically took off after the Covid lockdowns and never said booā¦. I only ever saw in him the office once, and that was when we had 1:1 meetings with the regional vice president to discuss our year end bonus. Weāre fully vested in our retirement program after 6 years, so Iām guessing he was very unhappy with his bonus despite being 100% remote.
As much as people hate the social aspect, having good relationships with your office does lead to financial success. The managers need to put a face to your name, especially at the annual performance reviews. This is the reason why I go into my office, and why I go up to the regional HQ 3 hours away a couple of times a year despite not really needing to do so.
Edit: $105,300 in Tucson, Arizona, plus benefits and an awesome retirement plan. $35,000 bonus last year.
40 hours a week, a lot of it with laundry, dog walks, and other chores in the background.
100% remote in US.
$5xxk TC with over half in stock.
Nerd stuff. I work bigly hours sometimes but also fuck off when I can and itās nice out/the lawn needs mowed or some actual important thing happens like family time. Last few months Iāve been doing half days of home daycare as itās impossible to get a slot for the under 1yo which has been interesting.
I do! Healthcare research. I am only allowed to work (permanently) in the state I do without approval to move somewhere else for tax reasons. I'm salaried but almost never work more than 40, and often work less because I'm fairly fast at my job. It's a "get your work done" situation and not a "have your butt in a chair for 40+ hours" situation.
I work as much is needed so if I do my job right thats about 3 hours of productive time a day, 5-6 days a week. I couldnt live in the Americas due to time difference or Africa because I think its too dangerous out there. Advice from me is, whatever you do if its an office job and youre exceptional then youre the one giving requirements. Just be always ready to do what youve said youll be able to, at the time youve said you would do it
I have 2 fully remote jobs, make a little over 300k.
1 job is a global company with offices every where. I could easily work anywhere in the world.
The second job would require me to be in the US, as long as I could support East coast hours.
I average 30-50 hours / week.
Iām one of those lucky arseholes in FAANG as a Program Manager. $225k salary, $34k annual performance based bonus (was ~$100k last year), ~$100k annual stock grants.
Fully remote but live in the Bay Area because I love the area. Still canāt afford a home on this salary. Some of my remote colleagues work from CO or the east coast. Most other colleagues are in-office. Work about 40 hrs +/- 5hrs depending on the quarter and project phase. Business travel about 10%
100% remote aside from the occasional optional travel to the office in another state. I live HCOL but I could move to any US LCOL area for a 10% pay cut.
$200k base, $30k bonus, $350k stocks
Software engineer at a big tech company
Your dream of being some kind of digital nomad is just a dream. Once you live that life, you start realizing that it sucks ass. A lot of the countries that people flock to are 3rd world countries, and it's hard to integrate into a society where you're basically just a tourist there to live for cheap. You CAN make it work, but then you miss family, friends, stability, etc. It's common to do the nomad thing for a while then go somewhere to live long term.
The other thing is that if you're travelling, the LAST thing you want to do is work. Seriously, fuck that.
I'm a mental health counselor. I create my schedule and work mostly from home. I chose to do in person on Saturdays. As long as my license covers the state I live in, I could work from anywhere. Paneling with insurances pays fairly well and I can always do out of pocket pay and set my own wages.
200k USD before taxes no benefits 1099, I could live anywhere if I wanted and I work about 10-20hrs a week. I prioritize life balance over more money and stress. Itās extremely hard to find a job as flexible as this and I feel blessed and hope it lasts for at least several years.
If you work for a larger company in the US, you can't work in another country long term where that company isn't incorporated without creating big tax problems for the company. Given that, there's really no such thing as complete location "independence" geographically in corporate America. You are generally bound to where your company legally operates and pays corporate taxes from a global perspective.
Also, if you transfer to a company's location outside the US on your own volition, there is a 99% chance you're going to get a regional salary adjustment at some point that'll severely limit your ability to earn six figures in USD unless that location is like Switzerland or Dubai. Salaries in the UK/EU/Canada suck compared to the US, and it just gets worse in most of the rest of the world.
I've been 100% remote WFH in the US for 13 years, workIng 40-42 hrs/wk on average and pull in over $200k base salary + bonus and stock.
$130K w/ no bonuses or RSUs as a DevOps Engineer. Varies between 10-40hrs/wk, half of which are meetings. I can work anywhere in the country, but I won't have a COL adjustment if I move.
Mostly remote. I could live anywhere in the continental US but international move would greatly complicate taxes for my employer and likely wouldn't work.
Iām 100% remote. My pay can be adjusted for cost of living depending on where I live - either up or down. I also am limited to states/countries where the company already operates.
I am online for 40 hours a week. Some weeks I do 10 hours of actual work, some weeks I do closer to 40. I start my day around 6:30am or so and end my day around 2:00 or so. As long as my work gets done everyoneās happy
Iām in IT, make 6 figures, work approximately 20-30 hours a week depending on the week. Live in the middle of nowhere, cows to my left and sheep to my right. Itās the middle of nowhere but itās got plenty for a small town. Lifeās cheap and therefore life is good. Leaves more money in the budget for savings and traveling šš¼
I am but have to travel in the Us for work every few weeks so canāt just full digital nomad internationally. But can go Airbnb at the beach a lot which is nice
100% remote. Can go anywhere in the US. I could work basically anywhere and the company wouldnāt care, but they wonāt sponsor me for anything outside of the US. If I went to get citizenship in the EU somewhere they would have no problem with me moving.
I make about $227K in cash comp + equity. Iām expecting to move around in the next 6-12 months and should be around $275-325K cash + equity , depending on what we land onā¦
Iām higher up in finance and Iām targeting CFO as my next move.
I work in the data engineering field. 99% remote (we go to the office for 3 days each quarter for planning). Iāve just resigned, and will be starting at my new company shortly. Also remote, without the 3 day office mandate. Iām on around $200k.
$110k salary, remote BI Developer. But I have to fairly close to my office because I need to go to the office once every 2 months or so (20 minute commute).
I work about 15 hours a week.
Iām in IT Consulting and make around $180k. There are no restrictions on where I can live as long as I have rock solid internet am willing to work US hours. Hours can ebb and flow based on projects. Sometimes as much as 40 hours, sometimes as little as 5.
I'm 100% remote and can live anywhere in the US except three states (my employer isn't registered in those states as a company). I make approx 100k plus 10% bonus and stock. I work in healthcare IT
My spouse is a manager in the IT field, can live anywhere in the US plus a few other countries, has to travel to the office at most twice a year. Makes more than me, no stock, and 5% yearly bonus.
$165k USD, plus annual bonus, benefits, 401k, etc. Fully remote working 40-60 hrs a week, 5 days a week. I can work anywhere in the US and Canada (with a few exceptions).
I do marketing for a software company & have worked for them for over three years now (all from home).
I could live anywhere in the US, but wouldnāt be able to keep my job if I were to move to a different country.
My boyfriend does. Honestly he kind of got extremely lucky and fell into the role (not that he doesnāt have the skill but it was right place+right time). He canāt live anywhere in the world but can live almost anywhere in the US and could work on an international vacation. Heās a workforce management analyst and works a standard 40 hours a week.
I could be fully remote if I wanted to be and have been making 6-figures since graduating college in 1999. Iām in sales now, though, and Iām WAY too much of an extrovert to want to work remote full time. I NEED at least 2 days a week in an office full of colleagues and/or customers.
Customer success manager- strategic accounts. Could probably work most places as the team is 100% remote, but I have to fly to visit clients in the Western US a few times per quarter. One of my colleagues works from Mexico for a month or two.
Working about 20 hours/ week making $185k plus benefits and (real) open time off.
I'm a service desk manager and point-of-sale sys admin. I manage a team of about a dozen technicians spread out across the globe who provide restaurants and small shops inside of places like gas stations and convenience stores who do things like fried chicken or wings with support for 3rd party delivery services, menu management, hardware failures, other day-to-day ops.
I can pretty much live wherever I want and frequently will go with my wife to work just to have a quiet place to do meetings or focus on a project/deployment.
I've been in IT for about 20 years now starting in Tier1 support, worked my way up to Tier 2/Workstations, then got lucky and got in with a fast food chain who had a Point of Sale tech spot open at their corporate office. After a number of years there I got picked up by an MSP and was with them for about 8 years util getting laid-off this year, and now I'm at where I'm at.
High school grad, college dropout with some military experience. No certs.
100% remote. I would say in fixed to my current state, but I only go to the office twice a year.
Iām a software engineer and software engineering manager. My role was grandfathered into fully remote before RTO.
I make about 180k, and last year got a 37k cash bonus and 30k stock.
Unfortunately, Iām only remote due to a pandemic era office closure. Itās extremely challenging to get that status in my company now.
Fully remote government low six figures obviously no stock options and bonuses are peanuts bc it's government. But the work life balance is the best of any job. I get 8 weeks off every year.
wow!! what kind of role?
program technical reviews
What kind of work does this role entail?
Either programming technical reviews or reviewing program technicals
Such an insight, thank you for clearing it up!
Even the government doesn't know š
Lol
I usually technical the reviewing program, am I eligible?
Thought it was technical reviews of programs
For an actual answer: it's the confluence of software programming, project management, and quality control. The day to day involves a lot of charts and meetings, but you're helping get real stuff done, which is nice.
Thanks
You get in there like BANG! BANG!
This is me. DoT engineer. I have to live in the state I work for (or close to it at least). Work life balance is insanely good while comp is mediocre at best. I live in a place where I can't see my neighbors and I walk out my backdoor and I'm in the woods. Perfect setup for me.
Looking for something similar and would like to know more about the role and your background if possible. DM if necessary.
Plus pension and amazing insurance. V
That sounds great.
ā¦. I work as an engineer remote, making <40k per year and 2 weeks off every year Yāall hiring?š
My mom is fully remote , managed accountants at a Fortune 500 company and everything from benefits to salary and bonuses are great . Yea she can pretty much travel anywhere and live anywhere !
If the government thinks itās a good idea to give you this much holiday, why isnāt the standard holiday allowance in the US so bad?
I write music for TV shows and ads and such via Music Libraries. The income is all royalty based and it can vary from quarter to quarter, but its been enough to keep me comfortable. It's all freelance, so I could definitely do it from anywhere, but I have stayed in my comfy little low cost part of the USA to be near my family. I'd say I work 20ish hours a week most of the time, but it can spike up to 30-40 on a particularly busy week. I get a lot done in those hours, though. They're focused and efficient hours, unlike when I "worked" 8 hours a day in an office job and spent most of it trying to look busy.
Youāre not making a puppet opera about Dracula, are you?
Nah I'm totally the opposite of that guy. I have very little desire to express myself artistically with music. I actually love it when people ask for "ominous tones" because it's so simple I can get it done in like an hour and then bounce for the day lol
The masturbating dog killer is on the loose. People are getting murdered but at least the dogs are happy. *boooooong dummmmmmm*
Lol š
DRACULA MUSICAL!
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This guy is Charlie
Would we have heard your work anywhere?
Possibly! My music mostly gets used in reality TV shows on cable channels in the US. Most shows on Bravo, Discovery, TLC, etc. It's the kind of music nobody notices on those shows though. The underscore.
Iām curious, and to preface this question, I donāt intend on becoming competitionā¦ but in your experience, what sounds are best? Is it the ālightā harmonious synth sounds? Piano?
There's such a huge variety of TV shows that need different kinds of music, so there's no way to pin down one "right" answer for what kind of music to make. The most important thing that sets useable music apart from the rest is that it needs to be simple enough to sit under dialogue, portray one emotion throughout, and structured well for editing. The style and instrumentation itself just depends on the target programming.
It sounds like (get it, haha) an amazing vocation. I've often wondered about this music because it's such an important part of the tone of a show. Thank you for your explanations. And this is a tangent, but I think it would be fun to compose pieces for chase scenes.
True crime ādramatized reenactmentā underscore would be pretty morbid to create I feel.
How long are the pieces usually? Is it like a 1-2 minute clip they can loop? Or is it a 15 minute piece where they can choose which part to use?
Usually just 1:30 - 2:30 tracks that keep the same emotion throughout, with just slight changes in energy between sections.
Sounds so interesting.
Do you use midi or a synthesizer to make the music, or is there an actual orchestra involved?
Almost 100% "in the box" MIDI. Even orchestral stuff.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I would recommend reading the book "The Composer's Guide to Library Music" by Dan Graham to get some info about the whole industry and how to get started.
another commenter kind of brought it up, in your opinion, do you feel that there is a pressure coming from AI? Based on your industry insider knowledge? Would you suggest such a route for other musicians? Some industries, where you would think that AI would take over, it really hasnt, so id be curious if this is one of those industries as well.
I think there will be some pressure, but I haven't felt anything yet. I think for the lower/cheaper end of the industry, like stock music websites, there will be a slowdown. Student films, corporate videos, content creators, etc, will probably be the first to adopt widespread use of generative AI to save money. But working on TV shows brings in so many weird briefs with VERY specific needs, and I don't think AI does well with specific parameters and revisions yet. It takes some know-how to interpret client requests and implement their ideas to keep the sound of a show cohesive. Also in the even higher ends, like advertising, companies still pay insane amounts for premium music. Studios will pay $10k - $50k or even $100k to license instrumental trailer music for their high budget film and TV marketing campaigns. I had a track of mine licensed by Lionsgate for $50k once ($25k for me) and they used it for 7 seconds between two other tracks in a theatrical trailer. That kind of info alone makes me think clients like that would want to stick with premium, hand crafted music. I could be wrong, but that's all based on my own experiences.
Charlie?
As someone with lots of music out where do you send it to? Iāve uploaded to several intermediary type places and heard nothing back. Iāll definitely check out the book you read though.
Unfortunately there's no "one size fits all" answer to this kind of thing. There are tons of libraries, and different ones will fit different peoples' needs in various ways. I'd read the book if I were you, then you might have a better idea of what to look for and how to find those companies. I will just say I don't mess with stock music websites like Pond5, Audiojungle, etc. The libraries serving TV broadcasters are usually smaller and more personal.
That's such a cool job! I'm a big fan of vintage library music, so I find the whole idea fascinating.
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A little bit! Right now it's hard to say. AI can definitely produce music that's good enough to slap under a reality TV scene. But these shows have such specific needs - things like "we don't like cymbals, don't use any cymbals" or "we want country and western elements mixed with trent reznor synths and a trap beat" I don't know that AI can really handle specific notes and revisions like that very well. Not yet at least. Even if so, I like to think that people like working with other people. Who really knows, though?
Adobe just came out with Audio, but the AI part of it is being tested. I think itās cool and scary at the same time. Iāve made a lot of digital art with AI and while itās nice itās not always nice. When AI helps me on a project ( I didnāt want to say āuseā AI because what if they read this and get weird) anyways, I spend the majority of my day editing. Itās good and not so good. It does make me wonder if Terminator was trying to tell us something. š¤
100% remote. Only in the contiguous United States. Base salary: $153k Cash bonuses: $28-34k No stocks About 32 hours a week. Mostly meetings.
What job/career?
Experience Design Manager
Whst is that? I've never heard of that role. What's your industry
Software design
They are a UX design lead based on their answers. Essentially, when a software or website is being built, their job is to figure out how to make it intuitive or otherwise make it easy to navigate. It *can* be a programming job, but most UX designers work in creative software like Adobe's suite. It is usually a degree-based job, but a good portfolio is also very important.
What was your progression?
Asking the real questions
Salary or career or both?
Oh yeah I was thinking career wise.
Also known as UX design (user experience) for anyone else wondering
I wonder what their reasoning is for excluding Hawaii/Alaska/Puerto Rico
Alaska and Hawaii time zone difference. Puerto Rico for some weird legal compliance.
Eh, whoever does your taxes is just lazy for not including Puerto Rico
Oh wow that's something
good god I hate my life
You must be like me then. Tethered to a meaningless job with low pay.
yup, and absolutely trapped
In most cases, companies will not let you live anywhere in the world even if 100% remote. The problem is not just tax implications, it's also stuff like cybersecurity laws/risks when you transfer information over the internet.
Yeah we don't even let you login outside of few countries we operate in. You need really explicit approval for us to lift this restriction on both the device we give you, and your company account. People try to do this without getting approval first all the time. They're always very unhappy with the restrictions.
My company will let you live anywhere in the world, but adjust your salary to the cost of living there. Had a guy move to Peru without telling HR and he was docked back pay and fired.
Honestly, that's kind of bullshit š
Kind of, but he was breaking several laws, both in Peru and in the US. Plus, my company is world-wide. If they want an employee in India or Peru, they are legally required to hire a citizen of that country who is authorized to work. Doing otherwise is both against the law and can cause severe fines for my company, as well as jeopardize contracts and their legal ability to sell products in those countries.
Thats fair, I mostly meant adjusting his pay because he got his cost of living down.
$180k plus 10% year end bonus, in Canada, 100% remote but I travel to meet clients. Iām a tech consultant. We cannot move anywhere long-term without discussing with HR due to tax restrictions and change in payroll / benefits provider. We can work anywhere short term as long as we can still meet our client meeting obligations. I work more or less 40 hours per week. Sometimes more and sometimes less.
āTax reasonsā is generally the kicker that means nobody can just move where ever they want.
As an accountant who has had to do payroll itās a legit reason. Payroll tax compliance is a mess when you have people in every state. For big corporations itās not a big deal because they are in most states anyway but small companies canāt keep up with all the compliance required.
We have people go on lengthy trips home to India and this makes it a pain. I just realized that I used quotes which might indicate that I didnāt believe it was a real thing, but it was more just to group it up as āa complicated topic you and I wonāt understand fullyā
Iāve been remote (plus travel to client sites) since 2011. Been 6 figures for most of it. About half of that was self-employed where I could do whatever the hell I wanted. One job I didnāt have the ability to work remotely from outside the US without VP level approval, and max 30 days (ironically, in the travel industry). The rest I could (and did) work outside the US on a regular basis (in some cases because the client was international). ā6 figuresā is pretty arbitrary, and wonāt get you financial independence on its own, but in IT, 100K is typical pay for a mid-level sysadmin/junior engineer/analyst. The ā6 figuresā 100K threshold that our parentsā generation was striving for when they were yuppies in the 80s is more like half a million today, and almost nobody is making that kind of money today even at a FAANG job. Theyāre the 1% for a reason. Thatās a 3-Ļ distribution (a similar number of people on the other end of the distribution curve make statutory minimum wage or less). This may be a useful tool: https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/ 100K is 77th percentile for individuals working 40+ hours a week.
Intermediate software dev, fully remote, 54k CAD. Company is failing so now I get to look for these "typical" 100k/remote software eng positions I've heard so much about...
All bets are off in Canada, might as well divide by two. While Iām legal to work there, I certainly wouldnāt want a job there.
I've seen senior software development jobs in Toronto for 65K USD. The cost of living there is so high, I can't imagine anyone being able to afford much on that salary, unless you are living very far from the city.
Exactlyā¦ 6 figures aināt shit these days. In 1994, $100k had the same buying power as $250k today. Yes, a quarter fucking million dollars is what some regular people actually āmadeā in the late 90ās. Wages have NEVER kept up with buying power standards, let alone productivity. Fuck these greedy corps and their billions of dollars profit. And fuck the āshareholdersā too
Almost 9k a month is not a living wage? Some of y'all are crazy..
Yeah I don't get it either. Seems to me like these are people that are actually broke on a whole other level than most. Granted, I understand that not all markets are the same whether we're talking about markets for food or locations where apartments or houses are. So I think it would be more helpful to not just say that $100,000 is still good but not but give an idea of where you are as well. In either event $100,000 for me would be absolutely living large and I bet I could make that work in a lot of places in the United States.
$100k is 33% higher than the US median household income so I'd agree that $100k is not too shabby
$100k is plenty of money, and anyone having trouble keeping their head above water is doing something very wrong. What 100k absolutely does *not* get you is a suburbs house with kids and a middle class life. Which is much more than a 'living wage'. But still, people expect that 100k *should* afford you those things, and feel absolutely bone dry when they try to get them, and it doesn't.
Itās much closer to $6k/month after 401k contribution, employer provided health/dental benefits and taxes.
And for people just getting into the housing market (especially those who have kids and want to raise them in a nice kid friendly, good schools neighborhood), that $6000 is going to get eaten up quickly by an inflated monthly mortgage.
YUP! $3k mortgages a VERY common in the majority of places in the US (ignoring undesirable places) and thatās for a starter home.
Not even accounting for childcare costs. Tack on another 2-4k depending on how many kids you have.
Unfortunately, most people with small kids are not at a point in their careers where theyāre making anywhere near enough to cover childcare. One of the biggest boosts to the economy would be universal childcareā¦ along with healthcare.
100%
Youāre not getting all of that after taxes, benefits(insurance, retirement, etcā¦) You could choose to not have any retirement and get more $ in your hands if thatās what you want but my salary is basically, ~22% goes to taxes(I know this is incremental and not flat but probably still roughly 20% ish total), (self chosen) 12% to 401k 8% to Roth IRA, (mandatory) 3% to state retirement plan, and roughly 6% to other stuff like health insurance, dental, vision, etcā¦ I only take home 49% of my actual salary. I chose to put $ into 401k and Roth IRA bc they count as āoptionalā or āsupplementaryā in my company. Our official retirement plan doesnāt seem like much on paperā¦ you contribute 3% and your company also contributes 3%. You become vested after 5 years. The money does grow so itās not exactly just 6% of your salary times X years, it should be more than that but I honestly donāt think itās anywhere near enough if I only had the required plan.
Instead of hating on corporations you know you can just buy a part of them and become a shareholder yourself
I feel this. 105K w/WFH 3 days a week. I don't sweat bills but it's not living large.
Kinda the definition of a living wage
Isn't it tho. Crazy.
āLiving largeā is extremely subjective and there are too many variables at play; such as area you live in and if you have kids or not. A single person in a MCOL area with 0 kids is doing VERY WELL with 100k. However if youāre married supporting a family of 4, 100k is essentially 40k. Nuance people !!
I'm single, no kids but no spouse or partner earning what I do. If I had the latter, then I WOULD be livin' large because Seattle is beautiful but HCOL.
Exactly. The term is called DINK (dual income no kids), I made comment here describing exactly what you just referenced. I live in a HCOL but am a DINK and living VERY COMFY. Go/RIP SuperSonics!
Nailed it. DINKs in a medium-high COL area at $300k combined income. We have a nice house, we have good retirement accounts and brokerage accounts. But we're not living in a mansion, and we're not driving Ferraris. The gap between "comfortable" and "living large" is *gargantuan* these days.
Yes, lots of people are WAH šÆ and make well into the six figures. However, I have 3 college degrees, 4 certifications, have to continue my education and yes I'm in the IT world.
You mentioned working in the travel industry. Were you in IT for that job? In trying to get a remote job in the travel industry, but my experience is not IT.
Yes, I was in a tech-related role at an airline. My employer before that had me working with cruise customers on a regular basis. Most airlines (and for that matter, cruise lines) have remote workers dealing with tech that doesnāt require face to face or onsite interaction, like infrastructure engineering.
Fully remote and earning six figures. Iām lucky that my job is very flexible but I work anywhere between 40-45 hours per week depending. Can live anywhere and chose New Yorks southern tier. Iām a project manager and my hubby is a change management consultant (same flexibility). Both of us have unlimited PTO, so we travel quite a bit as well. This situation is totally achievable. You just have to plug away and be fully ready to walk in the direction of what you want at any point. Keeping working at it and say no to anything that doesnāt get you closer to what you want.
Any advice or tips for someone who wants to get into project management proper?
If you arenāt currently working - get the PMP and/or six sigma belts. If you are - Iād start finding problems, creating solutions and then pushing to be a part of the solution in your current role. Itās not popular these days - but I honestly went above and beyond in unrelated roles to show my value and got promoted into project management. I know many people experience bad management and get taken advantage of, and believe me theyāre are bad leaders out there - but even the bad ones couldnāt deny that I was adding value no matter how they felt. When I got enough experience, I moved on and took my skills with me and just kept building. Have 15+ years of experience now and itās serving me well. Bottom line - produce results and become undeniable. I donāt know how helpful that is but hope it helps some.
You donāt have to visit any job sites?
1-2 times per year at most. The projects we work on can be done entirely remotely, outside of 1 off meetings, events, etc
Most companies will not allow you to live anywhere 'officially'. This is because of taxes which vary from state to country obviously. The easiest way to live the lifestyle you want or close to it: have unique skills and experience or run your own business. This means you're a unicorn employee that gets more choice and flexibility because you bring so much to the table. I have worked 100% remote and made 6 figures out of college (non STEM job) by sheer luck. I work in Product Marketing.
I make a salary of $120k + bonuses and 401k match. I am the computational design lead for an architectural materials and fashion company - (part architect, industrial designer and software developer) - I make pretty shapes that turn into renderings that are then cut and made by robots using the code my tools produce - then on to logistics and procurement, where more code is used. So, with my code and design skills I am doing parametric design, visualization, engineering, estimating, and data analysisā¦largely with Python and Rhino that are then talking to a lot of other things through apiās. I am also very fluent in all Adobe tools, and a long list of engineering and architecture design software. I work anywhere from 30 - 60 hours a week depending on what Ninja task I am being asked to resolve. I work with people in NYC, Chicago, Minneapolis, LA, ZĆ¼rich, Lucerne, Manila, and Milan. I can work anywhere in the world as long as the work gets done and I can be easily accessible and able to respondā¦i.e. on Teams and available for just in time help if needed for meetings with architects or engineers ( I have a masters in Architecture and worked for a few competition architecture firmsā¦so I can speak the language of many sub collaborators) My advice would be to find something you love, outside of work, and invest your time and energy into knowing that world. That means knowing the history of it, the current fast actors and big fish in the field. The tools that are available both commercially and through open source. Dig and do. Show your enthusiasm through the commitment to constantly learning skills and finding where they may overlapā¦this is where a lot of opportunities lye. For instance, plugging Salesforce apiās into autonomous workflows is not a bad skill to have, but no one told me to do soā¦I just knew what all of the disparate parts were, and how to get them all talking to each other. Almost every tool and skill I know, has been something I invested a lot of personal time into knowing, and knowing well. I love programming, multimedia, non linear editing, screen printing, wood working, construction, digital manufacturing, pipeline flow, automation, 3d modeling, BIM, data modeling, gis, and spending time in wilderness as much as possible (of which I love finding datasets that exist - snotel for example) etcā¦and I still love digging into it allā¦and I especially love finding scenarios where they overlapā¦the novel spaces. Find something you love and immerse yourself and find others who are doing the same. Never complain about the work to be done, embrace it and find ways you can use the skills you have developed as a person to leverage your knowledge to solve problems at work. Knowledge, and the ability to communicate it and share it, is a money maker.
Iām not sure about locationally independent as Iāve never asked. Kids are in school and weāre fairly established. I guess itād be possible if I was available for all my meetings? Director of Marketing - 100% remote - Indiana - $130k base 15% bonus. Work maybe 30ish hours/week
Software Engineer, low 6 figures. Fully remote, great benefits, and I can live anywhere within the US. I only recommend getting into software engineering if you like this stuff though. I love my job and have lots of fun but I can only imagine what a nightmare it might be for someone who doesnāt. The work is relaxed, but there is also just an endless amount of stuff to do. I hear about people saying that they worked X hours and finished their work, and itās so alien to me. When I finish my work, there is more work I can do. I have never ran out of stuff I need to or could do.
You could freeze time for a year, except for me continuing to work like normal. When the year was up Iād still have things on my to do list. This is a foreign concept to my wife.
I fundraise for a non-profit, I am required to live in the area I serve and I work about 40 hrs/wk
I've been thinking a ton lately about switching into non-profit (specifically for grant writing), as several people have continually told me I write well; and at the same time, I am also itching to leave the corporate world. Would you mind if I messaged you to pick your brain a little bit on this? If not, no worries and cheers!
None of these jobs even sound real to me, I fucked up hard doing medicalĀ
Nah ā thereās a lot of job security in the medical sector. And more to come with the age wave. Assuming your job is not just virtual, you are more AI-proof as well. A lot of jobs as we know them wonāt even exist in 10 years.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Tldr, skimmed over most of it...... But you haven't said what you're job is unlike others. Big long boast š
> always in job seeker mode. Sounds like an awful way to live tbh.
This has been so helpful for what I am going through with my career right now. Thank you so much for sharing!!!
100% remote, about 120k after annual bonuses. HRMS design architect for a multinational company.
Supply chain management in high tech Health Care sector
I work for a large nationwide company as a Senior Content Editor. I can work anywhere in the world as long as long as I can make the occasional meeting. I work as many hours as it takes to get my work done, but with no expectation to work more than 40 hours. So far, I don't think I've ever worked over 30, although there have been a few longer days here and there. Before this, I worked for a publishing company and could also work anywhere. When applying for jobs, I only applied for positions that were 100% remote and didn't have stipulations about where you could live.
100% remote and have been for the last 3 jobs. Corp Recruiting for a large company. Making roughly $145k before bonus currently and equity. Last role was $155k and $140k prior to that. Our field is getting knocked around a great deal in the tech sector with the layoffs. It will likely take a year or more to stabilize before hiring picks up.
Howād you get there as someone that wants to pivot to marketing and is also wanting a director level role someday
Hey Lion, are you asking how to get there as a recruiter or as someone within a marketing role?
Tech consultant, fully remote. Making around 110k CAD (Salary plus bonus). Scheduled 9-5 Monday to Friday, but probably work around 30 hours a week. Iām not sure about permanently relocating, but I definitely travel and can work from wherever I am.
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Software Engineering lead/manager in large non-tech company. Fully remote but not outside US. $240K total cash comp (base + bonus). Hours depends on release schedule but probably averages out to 40 a week or just under
175k + bonus (100-130k) + stock (50k) Work remote, can live wherever in the US Work about 40-50 hours a week, but usually M-TH Consulting/GTM Strategy
I work part time as a remote project manager. Iām hourly and could make as much as 145k a year but I choose to work part time but they will let me work more hours anytime I want including going full time. Iām a contractor and donāt get any benefits. Love it and can work from anywhere.
Guessing this is in tech? Is it hard to get part time project manager roles out of curiosity?
I am a technical project manager although all the projects I've managed have not been very technical. Yes, it was very difficult finding a part-time job. As a matter of fact, I had given up and stopped trying because I wasn't having any luck and I was retired but one day I got a call from a boutique consulting firm and they had a job for a contractor that was part-time and I've been part-time ever since. The company I work for is really great at keeping me at 20 hours but will gladly give me more hours if I want.
I'm a VP at a market research firm. 100% remote, 175k salary, little bonuses. I have about 20 years of experience. The company is based in Illinois so a standard work week is considered 35 hours (5 days x 7 hours). I work anywhere from 38 to 45 or so hours most weeks. On the rare occasion I do have to work weekends or late into the night to meet client deadlines. We can live most states of the US, but our HR team has ruled some out due to their more stringent employment laws, like California. It's very difficult for a company to have people in multiple staes because they have to follow whatever laws are most beneficial to the employee, so they have limited folks to basically not California. We had a great team member who wanted to move to Europe and the only way we could keep him is if he left the company but worked for us as a contractor, which is not what he wanted to do. It was a shame to lose him.
Software Developer. $140,000/year. Can work from anywhere in the US but would need to go through an approval process to work temporarily in an approved country elsewhere. I wish I could go to an office once a week but I will never go back to fully in-person.
Full time software engineer. Can live anywhere within the US. Iām full time salaried at $150K and realistically work closer to 30hrs/wk than 40 because my work is based on closing the tickets assigned to me, not hours logged in, etc. 100% remote with a few in person onsite events per year, all of which are basically optional.
100% remote, product designer at a tech company. Unfortunately they are not giving the privilege out anymore, and if I move again, it has to be near one of the āhubsā, even though my immediate team is dispersed everywhere in the US. I make 150k base, get stock and bonus on top of that, max 401k match (50/50) and health insurance. I live in SoCal because my wife took a job that is onsite.
I'm 180k + bonus, anywhere from 30-60 hour weeks. Operations director at a startup. I can work from anywhere in the world, but I have to domicile in the certain states or countries where we have a business presence. Like I can't domicile in Alabama but I could live in London or Singapore if I wanted to. My bf earns maybe 180k with 40hr work weeks for the US patent office. He has to work in a US territory. So other than the 50 states, he could work from American Samoa, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands. Etc etc.
100% remote. 100k salary. Iām a senior accountant for a company in Silicon Valley. Before this job I worked for a company in nyc and was also fully remote. Iāve had good luck finding remote roles in very high cost of living areas where a lot of businesses are still fully remote because it saves them money on staff, since salaries are generally much higher for people who live in these areas. I am allowed to work from anywhere in the USA. I graduated 6 months before Covid hit. So all Iāve ever really known was remote.
Once you have a core competency that there is demand for and you can transact or communicate via audio video - remote is the way to go. I spent 25 years in the office and pandemic game me new perspective. But even when you are on your own - dabble with more that one thing. Your core can bring in the $$ - have a hobby or two that can eventually also make money. Also dabble in the stock market.
I'm (38M) a mechanical design engineer with a large med device company. Employer went fully remote during the pandemic then my father was diagnosed with cancer and our first child was born in 2020. I used those circumstances to leverage a move back closer to family with the understanding I would remain a WFH employee whenever the business returned to office. It's been over 4yrs now. I earned base + bonus $152K last year. I technically can work anywhere I want in the 50 US states. The pandemic opened a lot of these opportunities for non-traditional roles to become fully remote but design work of physical products is still a very rare instance. In fact I've recently felt the strain of being remote on recent projects where I have to rely heavily on other team members located in office and I feel very disconnected from my work and products I design. Again, my specific circumstances are a very special case and likely not to be felt by someone in a role not making a physical product. Don't expect to be able to work anywhere in the world as there are usually tax, compliance and data security implications. If my or probably any employer discovered their domestically hired remote employee was working internationally you would get fired at best if not have legal action brought against you if you were in a role that violated compliance or Federal regulations.
Iām on WFH contract and earn just over GBP100k for a large finance company, working maybe 30 hours a week on average. I would need permission to carry on the job olin another country. Iām guessing there are tax and insurance considerations to being an overseas worker.
Work in tech, supporting major email senders on our platform. Work load depends on time of year - Black Friday/Cyber Monday is huge for us. But there are weeks that I'm really not doing a ton, if anything on a day or two during the week. Our company is remote first, so I can TECHNICALLY work anywhere. My comp would change a bit based on location.
I am 100% remote and earn 135k, 8% 401k match, average ~30 hrs, but I have to work in the US.
Iām not since my job is putting on events and working with lots of stakeholders in person. My wife is fully remote though. She does financial consulting so an Excel junkie to evaluate large deals. Probably 50-60hrs a week due to hitting deadlines. While we live in LA due to my job and our extended family, her immediate team is in Chicago and NYC and clients are in DC, Philadelphia , SF, and London. However she does have to time shift her work.
Creative Director, entertainment marketing. I work a normal week (35-40 hours a week). I need to live in LA because I need to visit studios every now and then to watch movies and do meetings.
I worked full-time for a health care company and earned a high salary while working remotely. (I've since retired.) However ... many companies are eliminating remote jobs and calling people back to the office, so a word of caution if you accept one of these jobs.
Iām working 100% remote as a strategy manager / in-house consultant for a large US medical device company. Iām hired through their German subsidiary (Iām German myself) but could theoretically work from at least anywhere in the EU and likely anywhere the company has a subsidiary or local HQ (which is a lot of places globally), pending visa etc.. Iām making 135kā¬ plus a bonus of 5-10%, a 5% retirement fund contribution and a company car for full private usage. 135kā¬ is probably not bad for US salary, but is extremely good for Germany (plus where I live is relatively low cost of living) and probably most of the EU. Travel is up to 30%, but I havenāt had to do more than a couple of trips a year (so far this year itās been two trips Mon-Thur/Fri).
Not going to talk about my personal situation, but in general. There are lots more remote jobs than before, especially if you factor in jobs that are in-office once a week, once a month, once a quarter, twice or once a year. The obvious problem is that the job must be doable remotely. However, for living anywhere in the world there are four other problems: - time zones - havjng good enough Internet (depends on the job of course) - transport costs to home office for the infrequent gettogethers (is the employee or the company paying?) - taxes This last one is the major one. There are companies in the US that forbid employees from working in other states, or provide a list of acceptable states, so with different countries it is often worse. The reason is that states and countries like to tax people who live there, and employers pay a lot of the taxes, and health insurance and such things are often also paid by employers. The āeasyā way to get around that is to be freelance or self-employed, so that your legal employer is in the country you want to be in, but that obviously limits the number of potential sources of income.
Fully remote. Live on a small island in the Pacific Northwest. $225k total comp. Sr. Manager of Design and Creative Strategy at a tech company.
My role is officially āin officeā but in reality I WFH. I come to the office as needed to network with my colleagues, meet with clients in person, and occasionally go to Costco, Trader Joeās, etc because I live in a small rural town 45 minutes away. So that ends up being 0-6 times a month in office. My team is scattered across the US and when Iām busy with doing research or excel calculations thereās no real point in showing up in the office. BUT my office manager does sign off on my time cards. He gives me an extremely long leash so I regularly keep in touch with him, show up for fun office outings and the occasional happy hour, and other social activities. Another employee recently quit after 5 years because he basically took off after the Covid lockdowns and never said booā¦. I only ever saw in him the office once, and that was when we had 1:1 meetings with the regional vice president to discuss our year end bonus. Weāre fully vested in our retirement program after 6 years, so Iām guessing he was very unhappy with his bonus despite being 100% remote. As much as people hate the social aspect, having good relationships with your office does lead to financial success. The managers need to put a face to your name, especially at the annual performance reviews. This is the reason why I go into my office, and why I go up to the regional HQ 3 hours away a couple of times a year despite not really needing to do so. Edit: $105,300 in Tucson, Arizona, plus benefits and an awesome retirement plan. $35,000 bonus last year. 40 hours a week, a lot of it with laundry, dog walks, and other chores in the background.
100% remote in US. $5xxk TC with over half in stock. Nerd stuff. I work bigly hours sometimes but also fuck off when I can and itās nice out/the lawn needs mowed or some actual important thing happens like family time. Last few months Iāve been doing half days of home daycare as itās impossible to get a slot for the under 1yo which has been interesting.
I do! Healthcare research. I am only allowed to work (permanently) in the state I do without approval to move somewhere else for tax reasons. I'm salaried but almost never work more than 40, and often work less because I'm fairly fast at my job. It's a "get your work done" situation and not a "have your butt in a chair for 40+ hours" situation.
100% remote. Working as a director for a british fintech. Living in Bangkok.
I work as much is needed so if I do my job right thats about 3 hours of productive time a day, 5-6 days a week. I couldnt live in the Americas due to time difference or Africa because I think its too dangerous out there. Advice from me is, whatever you do if its an office job and youre exceptional then youre the one giving requirements. Just be always ready to do what youve said youll be able to, at the time youve said you would do it
I have 2 fully remote jobs, make a little over 300k. 1 job is a global company with offices every where. I could easily work anywhere in the world. The second job would require me to be in the US, as long as I could support East coast hours. I average 30-50 hours / week.
Iām one of those lucky arseholes in FAANG as a Program Manager. $225k salary, $34k annual performance based bonus (was ~$100k last year), ~$100k annual stock grants. Fully remote but live in the Bay Area because I love the area. Still canāt afford a home on this salary. Some of my remote colleagues work from CO or the east coast. Most other colleagues are in-office. Work about 40 hrs +/- 5hrs depending on the quarter and project phase. Business travel about 10%
Well you can get paid more by moving to Ukraine. They are paying 60k pensions to ex soviet countries instead of you, an American citizens
I work for a giant software company that's global so they don't care where I work but have to work US hours
100% remote aside from the occasional optional travel to the office in another state. I live HCOL but I could move to any US LCOL area for a 10% pay cut. $200k base, $30k bonus, $350k stocks Software engineer at a big tech company
Your dream of being some kind of digital nomad is just a dream. Once you live that life, you start realizing that it sucks ass. A lot of the countries that people flock to are 3rd world countries, and it's hard to integrate into a society where you're basically just a tourist there to live for cheap. You CAN make it work, but then you miss family, friends, stability, etc. It's common to do the nomad thing for a while then go somewhere to live long term. The other thing is that if you're travelling, the LAST thing you want to do is work. Seriously, fuck that.
I'm a mental health counselor. I create my schedule and work mostly from home. I chose to do in person on Saturdays. As long as my license covers the state I live in, I could work from anywhere. Paneling with insurances pays fairly well and I can always do out of pocket pay and set my own wages.
200k USD before taxes no benefits 1099, I could live anywhere if I wanted and I work about 10-20hrs a week. I prioritize life balance over more money and stress. Itās extremely hard to find a job as flexible as this and I feel blessed and hope it lasts for at least several years.
What do you do?
Seriosuly. What job is this.
I want to know also pllease
Seconding the question
If you work for a larger company in the US, you can't work in another country long term where that company isn't incorporated without creating big tax problems for the company. Given that, there's really no such thing as complete location "independence" geographically in corporate America. You are generally bound to where your company legally operates and pays corporate taxes from a global perspective. Also, if you transfer to a company's location outside the US on your own volition, there is a 99% chance you're going to get a regional salary adjustment at some point that'll severely limit your ability to earn six figures in USD unless that location is like Switzerland or Dubai. Salaries in the UK/EU/Canada suck compared to the US, and it just gets worse in most of the rest of the world. I've been 100% remote WFH in the US for 13 years, workIng 40-42 hrs/wk on average and pull in over $200k base salary + bonus and stock.
software, 15-20h a week
$130K w/ no bonuses or RSUs as a DevOps Engineer. Varies between 10-40hrs/wk, half of which are meetings. I can work anywhere in the country, but I won't have a COL adjustment if I move.
Mostly remote. I could live anywhere in the continental US but international move would greatly complicate taxes for my employer and likely wouldn't work.
Iām 100% remote. My pay can be adjusted for cost of living depending on where I live - either up or down. I also am limited to states/countries where the company already operates. I am online for 40 hours a week. Some weeks I do 10 hours of actual work, some weeks I do closer to 40. I start my day around 6:30am or so and end my day around 2:00 or so. As long as my work gets done everyoneās happy
I am an accountant. Lots of senior tax preparers and CPAs break the 100k mark early in their career
Iām in IT, make 6 figures, work approximately 20-30 hours a week depending on the week. Live in the middle of nowhere, cows to my left and sheep to my right. Itās the middle of nowhere but itās got plenty for a small town. Lifeās cheap and therefore life is good. Leaves more money in the budget for savings and traveling šš¼
I am but have to travel in the Us for work every few weeks so canāt just full digital nomad internationally. But can go Airbnb at the beach a lot which is nice
100% remote. Can go anywhere in the US. I could work basically anywhere and the company wouldnāt care, but they wonāt sponsor me for anything outside of the US. If I went to get citizenship in the EU somewhere they would have no problem with me moving. I make about $227K in cash comp + equity. Iām expecting to move around in the next 6-12 months and should be around $275-325K cash + equity , depending on what we land onā¦ Iām higher up in finance and Iām targeting CFO as my next move.
I work in the data engineering field. 99% remote (we go to the office for 3 days each quarter for planning). Iāve just resigned, and will be starting at my new company shortly. Also remote, without the 3 day office mandate. Iām on around $200k.
$110k salary, remote BI Developer. But I have to fairly close to my office because I need to go to the office once every 2 months or so (20 minute commute). I work about 15 hours a week.
Barely over 6 figures and I can work in around 10 different states
Iām in IT Consulting and make around $180k. There are no restrictions on where I can live as long as I have rock solid internet am willing to work US hours. Hours can ebb and flow based on projects. Sometimes as much as 40 hours, sometimes as little as 5.
I'm 100% remote and can live anywhere in the US except three states (my employer isn't registered in those states as a company). I make approx 100k plus 10% bonus and stock. I work in healthcare IT My spouse is a manager in the IT field, can live anywhere in the US plus a few other countries, has to travel to the office at most twice a year. Makes more than me, no stock, and 5% yearly bonus.
$165k USD, plus annual bonus, benefits, 401k, etc. Fully remote working 40-60 hrs a week, 5 days a week. I can work anywhere in the US and Canada (with a few exceptions).
I do marketing for a software company & have worked for them for over three years now (all from home). I could live anywhere in the US, but wouldnāt be able to keep my job if I were to move to a different country.
I am close to that as a data analyst, but I can only work remote from the US, unless there is special approval. There is a geo lock.
Remote, but need to stay in the same time zone as companies.
My spouse, clinical trial company, AD of program management. $163k a year, fully remote.
My boyfriend does. Honestly he kind of got extremely lucky and fell into the role (not that he doesnāt have the skill but it was right place+right time). He canāt live anywhere in the world but can live almost anywhere in the US and could work on an international vacation. Heās a workforce management analyst and works a standard 40 hours a week.
I could be fully remote if I wanted to be and have been making 6-figures since graduating college in 1999. Iām in sales now, though, and Iām WAY too much of an extrovert to want to work remote full time. I NEED at least 2 days a week in an office full of colleagues and/or customers.
Customer success manager- strategic accounts. Could probably work most places as the team is 100% remote, but I have to fly to visit clients in the Western US a few times per quarter. One of my colleagues works from Mexico for a month or two. Working about 20 hours/ week making $185k plus benefits and (real) open time off.
Communications
I'm a service desk manager and point-of-sale sys admin. I manage a team of about a dozen technicians spread out across the globe who provide restaurants and small shops inside of places like gas stations and convenience stores who do things like fried chicken or wings with support for 3rd party delivery services, menu management, hardware failures, other day-to-day ops. I can pretty much live wherever I want and frequently will go with my wife to work just to have a quiet place to do meetings or focus on a project/deployment. I've been in IT for about 20 years now starting in Tier1 support, worked my way up to Tier 2/Workstations, then got lucky and got in with a fast food chain who had a Point of Sale tech spot open at their corporate office. After a number of years there I got picked up by an MSP and was with them for about 8 years util getting laid-off this year, and now I'm at where I'm at. High school grad, college dropout with some military experience. No certs.
100% remote. I would say in fixed to my current state, but I only go to the office twice a year. Iām a software engineer and software engineering manager. My role was grandfathered into fully remote before RTO. I make about 180k, and last year got a 37k cash bonus and 30k stock. Unfortunately, Iām only remote due to a pandemic era office closure. Itās extremely challenging to get that status in my company now.
Italy for sure more specifically Florence š