I'm at the point where I simply don't believe a word hiring people say about hiring anymore. I have 20 years of experience at world-class companies, and have shipped multiple very well known products that have collectively sold ~150 million copies. I've had nothing but stellar performance reviews and LinkedIn recs. Coworkers and managers have told me often that I'm one of the best devs they've had the pleasure of working with, and I believe they meant it. I'm very comfortable with every major OS and language, and every stack level.
Nobody is going to pay me $500K. Nobody is going to pay me $200K. As recently as 2015, I still had well-known companies trying as hard as they could to bring me on at under $100K! The last time I talked to an SV company publicly claiming to offer $250K, it turned out they were reserving the "top end" for imaginary devs. My work experience only weighed in at $150, according to them. Also, despite having a very rare combination of two unrelated specialties (the reason I applied), and being proficient in 6 languages, including JS, they passed because they felt my JS experience was too light. Writing the AJAX and UI framework used by a team of 30, and working on the front end of a major portal, both at BigCo, were apparently too small-time.
My whole career in the industry I was aggressively low-balled 9 times out of 10. Hiring people can't hire who they want, because they're scheming double-talkers, and they've convinced themselves that it's just good business. I started a small business that pays the bills, and I've never been happier. I sincerely would not go back to the industry even if you did pay me $500K.
Back when we were thriving (as recently as 2015) my top engineers made about $400K/year in salary, bonus, & 401K. That does not include health insurance, we footed the bill for 100% of the health insurance and we covered the whole family.
Truth in advertising though. I'm the founder, I'm weird, I ran that company much more like a cooperative than just about anyone else would have. So I don't expect that comp to be that commonplace.
I also tracked salaries at the big companies and made sure we were competitive. In general, we were very competitive but it is possible to get a better package, not common, but possible. One of my guys went to Saleforce or Linkedin, and I could not beat their package (well I could but then I'd have to bump everyone else up to that and we all agreed that didn't make sense for us).
I know a tiny handful of founders who are this kind of "weird" just on moral principle. They often get criticized as naive idealists, for actually valuing employees, including by paying them. All I can say is thank you for doing it your way.
Well I didn't get to where I had hoped, I really wanted to get each person who stuck it out some serious retirement money, like a couple million after tax. I really regret not getting to that but it is what it is.
On the other hand, I treated people really well, much better than most people would have. So I don't agonize over the retirement part.
And one of my guys, as we were winding it down, said something really nice: he pointed out that yeah, we didn't get to the retirement part, everyone got to work from home. He got to be there with his kids, watching them grow up. His best friend is out the door at 6am, 1.5 hour commute, rarely makes it back in time for dinner. The contrast is pretty stunning and I made that possible.
Hearing that was very cool. He's right, there are other rewards besides money.
Sounds like your negotiation skills aren't quite as good as your engineering skills.
The most important thing I luckily learned early was you never, ever say how much you currently make when negotiating salary for a new position. Tell them to make an offer first or kick rocks. If you want to be more polite about it, say you believe firmly that what your current compensation is is not relevant, what matters is the value you can bring to the company.
I would say that had I not followed that rule, I'd have lost tens of thousands in salary already in my relatively short career.
Marketing. You need marketing. You may be the hottest deal in town, but if no-one who knows you "personally", need your skills and can afford your rate, it will be rough riding.
Nobody is going to pay me $500K. Nobody is going to pay me $200K. As recently as 2015, I still had well-known companies trying as hard as they could to bring me on at under $100K! The last time I talked to an SV company publicly claiming to offer $250K, it turned out they were reserving the "top end" for imaginary devs. My work experience only weighed in at $150, according to them. Also, despite having a very rare combination of two unrelated specialties (the reason I applied), and being proficient in 6 languages, including JS, they passed because they felt my JS experience was too light. Writing the AJAX and UI framework used by a team of 30, and working on the front end of a major portal, both at BigCo, were apparently too small-time.
My whole career in the industry I was aggressively low-balled 9 times out of 10. Hiring people can't hire who they want, because they're scheming double-talkers, and they've convinced themselves that it's just good business. I started a small business that pays the bills, and I've never been happier. I sincerely would not go back to the industry even if you did pay me $500K.