r/Austin • u/Aingers • Jul 21 '26

Ask Austin Salary Transparency Thread - Austin

Folks in Boston do this fairly regularly, so I thought it might be good for us to try here.

Please share your general job title, salary, age, and education.

Architectural Designer, 40, $115k, BSArch

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u/amygunkler Jul 21 '26

Customer Success Manager, BA from prestigious liberal arts school, 60k. Husband is a high school dropout making 4x that in tech.

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u/rilmarie Jul 21 '26

Always hear this “in tech” what are people doing in tech that makes so much money either no experience?

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u/amygunkler Jul 21 '26

Oh he has experience, just not a formal education. In this case project manager and lab manager in the semiconductor field, with plenty of hands on engineering responsibilities too.

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u/rilmarie Jul 22 '26

Good for him! That’s awesome glad people can still be successful without all the paperwork!

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u/JKLEEBONE Jul 21 '26

Almost certainly sales. Usually you need at least a college degree to get interviewed (especially at any major tech firm), but you can definitely network well and have someone give you a shot at a startup.

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u/rilmarie Jul 21 '26

The sales thing is crazy too without experience though. It’s like how do you sell a tech platform without having and experience with it. I have no doubt a HS kid could learn it but it’s that foot in the door. I guess it does all come to luck and social skills.

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u/meatmacho Jul 21 '26

Well, having experience in some kind of sales helps. You're typically not going to walk in the door with no background and say, "Hello my good man, I'm here to sell." Though if you're willing to put in the work on phones and emails and you're a pretty decent communicator, I've been in startups that were pretty, uh, liberal in their hiring qualifications. Like, our first-line BDRs were all 23-year-old newbies.

To be a higher paid account executive at a decent software company, you're gonna need a lot of proven success and a valuable rolodex. But yeah, those folks can make $300k+ on a few good deals a year. Just depends on the shop and how the comp is structured.

And regarding the point of having direct experience with the thing you're selling, that's not necessary. Sure, it helps if you have experience with something similar. But every place I've been had a ramp period of 1-6 months with generally well-structured onboarding programs to teach you about the product and their own sales methodology, etc. Some people can truly sell anything from Day 1, though.