This is the most common pattern I see
Every week I talk to engineers who are some version of the same story: 5-8 years of experience, solid technical skills, currently making somewhere between $120K and $160K, and feeling stuck. They've been at their current company for 2-3 years. Annual raises have been 3-5%. They know they're underpaid but can't seem to break through.
I don't say this to be discouraging — I say it because if this describes you, you're not alone, and the fix is more straightforward than you think.
According to Levels.fyi, the median total comp for a US software engineer is about $152K. Half of all engineers are below that number. There's a massive cluster right around the $130K-$160K range. But the distribution above $200K is bigger than most people realize.
The gap isn't about skill. It's about five specific things.
You're applying to companies that don't pay $200K
This sounds obvious, but I'm constantly surprised by how many engineers don't check compensation bands before applying. A senior engineer at a 50-person bootstrapped startup might top out at $140K. The exact same engineer at Stripe, Datadog, or a well-funded Series C company earns $220K+.
I worked with an engineer last year who'd been at a mid-size agency for four years. Great work, well-respected, kept getting promoted internally. His comp was $138K. He assumed that was roughly market rate. It wasn't. His first external offer came in at $205K. Same skills, same experience — different company's pay band.
If you haven't spent 30 minutes on Levels.fyi researching what companies actually pay for your role and level, that's your first homework assignment. It's free. Do it tonight.
Your resume talks about tasks instead of impact
I've reviewed thousands of resumes at this point. The pattern is immediately obvious. Engineers at $130K list their responsibilities:
"Developed features using React and Node.js"
"Collaborated with cross-functional teams"
"Participated in code reviews"
Engineers at $200K+ describe their impact:
"Reduced checkout page load time by 60%, increasing conversion by 12% — roughly $2.4M in annual revenue"
"Designed and shipped the real-time notification system serving 3M daily active users with 99.97% uptime"
"Led the monolith-to-microservices migration, cutting deployment time from 2 hours to 8 minutes"
Same work, different framing. The formula is simple: what you did + what changed + why it mattered to the business.
Here's my challenge to you: take your top three resume bullet points and rewrite them with a specific metric and a business outcome. If you can't quantify it exactly, estimate. "Improved API response times by approximately 40%" is infinitely better than "Improved performance."
You're not generating enough offers
This is the leverage problem, and it's a big one. Engineers who accept the first offer they get leave $30K-$50K on the table. Every single time. I'm not exaggerating.
Here's why: when you have one offer, you're negotiating from hope. When you have three offers, you're negotiating from leverage. The recruiter knows you have options. The conversation changes completely.
I had a client with a single offer at $190K. Solid offer. She was ready to sign. I asked her to wait two weeks while we pushed two other processes forward. She ended up with three offers. The original company came back at $218K without her even asking — they heard she had competing offers and preemptively raised. That patience was worth $28K.
The math: to get 3 offers, you typically need about 10 interviews. To get 10 interviews at a 4% response rate, you need 250 applications. Manually, that's months. With automation, it's weeks.
You're failing a specific interview round
Here's something people don't want to hear: if you keep getting to the same round and not advancing, that round is your ceiling. Not bad luck — a skill gap you need to close.
For most engineers stuck at $150K, it's system design. They've never had to design systems at the scale that $200K+ companies care about. They're fine with coding rounds. They can handle behavioral. But when someone asks them to design a rate limiter or a real-time chat system, they freeze.
Other common bottlenecks:
• Coding: not the algorithm itself, but communication. Solving a problem silently for 35 minutes is a fail, even if you get the right answer.
• Behavioral: not having prepared stories. If you have to invent an example of "a time you dealt with conflict" in real-time, it's going to sound vague.
• Architecture deep-dives: not being able to articulate why you made the decisions you made in your past work.
Figure out which round is your bottleneck. Then practice that specific thing. Not "general interview prep" — targeted reps on your weak spot. That's what moves the needle.
You don't negotiate (or you negotiate badly)
I've coached engineers through hundreds of negotiations. The mistakes are remarkably consistent:
Accepting the first number. Sharing current salary (anchoring yourself low). Only negotiating base (ignoring stock, signing bonus, PTO, remote flexibility). Being "grateful" instead of professional.
Here's a simple script that works:
1. "Thank you for the offer. I'm really excited about the role and the team."
2. "Based on my research and the other opportunities I'm evaluating, I was expecting total compensation closer to $X."
3. Then stop talking. Seriously. The silence feels awful. Let the recruiter fill it.
4. If they counter, take 24-48 hours to respond. Never negotiate in real-time.
5. If they hold firm on base, ask about signing bonus, stock refresh, or review timeline.
This works because it's professional, it's data-driven, and it signals that you have options. You don't need to be aggressive. You just need to not fold immediately.
Putting it together
Here's the timeline I walk my clients through:
Weeks 1-2: Rewrite resume with impact bullets. Optimize LinkedIn headline and summary. Get clear on target companies and roles.
Weeks 2-4: Start high-volume, targeted applications. Begin interview prep — especially whatever round is your weakest.
Weeks 3-6: Interview loop. Practice before each one with someone who knows the specific company's process.
Weeks 6-8: Offers come in. Negotiate using competing offers as leverage.
Weeks 8-12: Accept the right offer. Give notice.
At HiringFunnel, this is what we do. Your coach is a senior software engineer who's been through this process personally — not someone reading from a playbook. They know what Stripe's system design round looks like because they've done it. They know how to negotiate with a Series C startup's head of engineering because they've sat on that side of the table too.
We pair that with automated applications so the pipeline stays full while you're preparing. The coaching makes you dangerous. The automation makes sure you get enough shots.
Here's what it comes down to
The gap between $150K and $200K+ isn't a skill gap. It's a strategy gap. You probably already have the technical ability. What you might be missing is the right targets, the right framing, enough interview reps, and the confidence to negotiate.
Those are all fixable. And the cost of staying where you are — $50K+ per year in unrealized income — adds up fast.