Don't be an engineer? If you're purely in it for the money, I would suggest the way to get 1mn/year is to join a hedge fund or prop trading firm as a trader. Steps: 1. Graduate from an ivy league school with a good GPA so it's easy to get in the door 2. Pass rigorous math based interviews - lots of guides on studying for these 3. Make money on your desk, which requires the ability to learn financial concepts, and quick thinking on the job - if you can play Starcraft well, or multi task online poker, you can do this. You don't need social skills or anything for this, apart from the interview process, it's almost purely analytical.
Making that kind of money as an engineer is much more of a crap shoot. Just be the best engineer you can and have big influence wherever you work. Then get very lucky and work on the right project at the right time at the right company.
On a more philosophical note - if you spend your life chasing money, odds are you're going to end up pretty unhappy. Try not to succumb to the capitalist rat race - I know it's hard, but it will make you happier :).
edit: Updated to be less hyperbolic. It's still tough to make a lot of money even going the trader route.
Note that this is not guaranteed or even expected at a prop shop or hedge fund either. I know of a very large hedge fund where pay is not as good as you think. I will just say that I have never seen a trader who makes $1 million per year claim that this is a good way of doing it.
You're probably better off as a SWE at Google than as a trader at this hedge fund.
Yeah it's not guaranteed at all. You have to be at a profitable desk to make it happen. I don't want to give any numbers since it's too variable, but I would guess it would still be a minority of the traders who pull 1 million+ even at the most successful firms. But I think if you are aiming for that number it's the most straightforward way - it has the least amount of variability and just relies on your own personal skill generally.
Having worked as a trader, a lot of it comes not from personal skill, but just from being in the right product, at the right firm, at the right time.
Even at firms/desks that are in the right products at the right time, few people actually make 7 figures. If I'm not mistaken, you should be aware of this for a variety of reasons. I'm not convinced that making this kind of money is easier or more likely in finance than in tech.
Thanks for the insight! My experience is, admittedly, based on a limited sample size. I think you're right though, there is still huge variability for traders, and a lot of it is luck.
I think that a sufficiently motivated person could find a leaked list of bonuses from that firm and check for themselves if there were any new grads that made $1 million+ and also check how many such persons there were.
I was waiting for this post... are you saying traders at hedge funds can make this money... but engineers don't? I thought algo traders required engineers, or is there a systematic split from the pure traders who look at funky graphs and the engineers who work on the backend systems?
Yes, for the most part. It really varies of course, but traders are traditionally the top dogs. Engineers at a hedge fund / prop firm will generally get paid very well, but 1 million+ would be an extreme outlier, even for a quant dev unless they are also actively trading what they build.
Traders are usually the ones coming up with the strategies and executing them. They also take the most personal risk, since they can be held directly liable for mistakes. That is, the SEC can directly prosecute them, fine them, take away trading credentials, and so on - basically ruin their career if they make a stupid mistake. Very few engineers at these firms are credentialed traders or take any personal risk at all.
Making that kind of money as an engineer is much more of a crap shoot. Just be the best engineer you can and have big influence wherever you work. Then get very lucky and work on the right project at the right time at the right company.
On a more philosophical note - if you spend your life chasing money, odds are you're going to end up pretty unhappy. Try not to succumb to the capitalist rat race - I know it's hard, but it will make you happier :).
edit: Updated to be less hyperbolic. It's still tough to make a lot of money even going the trader route.