That this is currently the top comment reinforces the author&#x27;s hypothesis that many software engineers underestimate how much they could make at a large company.<p>&gt; 250k a year in 5 years at a big corporation, really?<p>Yes, really.<p>&gt; Yea if you&#x27;re lucky to work on a project&#x2F;team higher-ups care about and are also willing to bust your ass working long hours to meet insane deadlines.<p>Nope, not true.<p>&gt; So I think this article is spreading a myth that there is guaranteed piles of money to be made by working at Google, Facebook, Apple, etc.<p>Have you worked at Google, Facebook, or Apple for 5 years? If you do, and you&#x27;re a decent programmer (not a rock star, but a solid contributor), you&#x27;ll find there are guaranteed piles of money to be made.