Listen, if you are a software engineer being brought back to a company or organization you were laid off from to fix their AI vibe coded mess, you have to do me a favor: please, charge them so much. Just so, so much. The only way they'll learn anything is if you make their shareholders cry.
0 Boosts
0 Likes
@AbandonedAmerica tell them how many "tokens" it will cost them
If it were me, I'd plop a fixed priced contract with a $ amount of several times your best guess at what it'll likely take or a monthly rate similarly inflated.
Under no circumstances would I quote an hourly rate and have them looking over your shoulder every day to see how many hours you worked or otherwise micromanage your work.
Before quoting, negative sell the hell out of them to get a read on how badly they're bleeding and based on that let them determine the upper bound.
@AbandonedAmerica Show them your Ray Patterson energy when they reinstate you.
@AbandonedAmerica click on the link for see viral
https://reelsave-guide.hatchable.site
@AbandonedAmerica the faulty software already cost them 800 millions. They seem to have budget, no need to be shy.
Executives and shareholders are incapable of learning.
@AbandonedAmerica that's my plan. The chalk tax.
@AbandonedAmerica click on the link to check
http://reelsave-guide.hatchable.site
@AbandonedAmerica How much would that be, then? Something like fifteen years ago an ordinary HPC (Highly Paid Consultant) was around two grand a day (in pounds), so maybe six or eight grand a day for an emergency AI fix in 2026? - just guessin'.
30 years ago, it was $5K a day for the engineer that wrote the program for a production line to be flown in across the world to install a cassette tape into the PLC and make sure the machine would run.
That machine made $5K a minute.
@TimWardCam @AbandonedAmerica "What does the CEO make per year?"
@TimWardCam @AbandonedAmerica salaries already into the hundreds of thousands per year category these days. So the 6-8K for a contract probably not far off, but certainly a lot if it's back to a salary.
@ragectl @TimWardCam @AbandonedAmerica when I was still working in tech five years ago, a senior engineer at a silicon valley company could get half a million in total compensation annually. the market may be in a different place now, but I certainly wouldn't take less than that in such a situation
@gwenverbsnouns @ragectl @TimWardCam @AbandonedAmerica I appreciated the take "well, how much does the CEO make?" which, let's ballpark that at 10 million total comp. Which works out to 40 grand a day or 200k per week.
Half mil annual cash comp is a "high end of mainstream staff engineer salary" number in silly valley today, most folks are below that but we all know someone who knows someone who got that offer. (And of course cash is only a small part of total comp, these roles are also expecting a million a year in equity, but we'll leave that aside.) That's 10 grand per week.
So there's your range: the absolute bottom is 2x staff comp or 20k per week, and your starting offer or "rate card" is more like 10k per day. "That's less than half what your CEO makes."
Maybe that's not where you end up negotiating as an engineer considering one of these companies, but this framing is completely reasonable and you should have high expectations.
@AbandonedAmerica
i quit a job where billionaire ownership had no money for me have a raise, but after i quit they had the money to offer me 2x what they had been paying me to maintain code i had written.
There's nothing like telling a billionaire "NO" they can't process it.
#priceless