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Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

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Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#241

Post by badpun »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #169
badpun wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And your next contract might go down, which is unlike a salary. and you’re exempt from climbing the ladder to a corporate position where the really big bucks are. My impression is that the big bucks are actually in contracting, unless you're near the top of the corporate ladder.

Contracting scales only with the hours you work, so you can’t earn more than a day rate x number of days you work. You have to leverage capital and/or people to go beyond that.

Yes there's a limit, but with contracting rates reaching 2500 GBP per day (a real life example) I'm fine with that limit.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#242

Post by TimPC »

jldugger wrote: post #109
digitalsushi wrote: post #74

My god this is just another universe to me. I've got 19 years on the clock doing stuff, right now extending the jenkins model to make a usable 2.0 pipeline, for a fortune 50 hiding on the new hampshire seacoast, senior-straddling-principal level and just barely squeaking out a 6 figure salary. I know it all comes out in the wash, but it just blows my mind how different money is across the country. or, i am a country…

Think about it like this: those salaries are what it takes to recruit people like you into the worlds most expensive real estate market, in a high tax state. Like you say, it's often a wash after those factors.

The salary is roughly a wash and then the RSU's and bonus are serious bank. I've saved more in 2.5 years in the Valley than in 33 years outside it, and my bank considered me good at saving and ahead of the game before I left for SV.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#243

Post by user5994461 »

csallen wrote: post #218
vkou wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working for below market rates is putting skin in the game.

The reality of the situation is that it's not about what you do, but about how hard it is to find someone else to do what you do. If it's easy to find programmers who will work for below-market rates, but hard to find investors who will contribute millions of dollars, then you can expect programmers to have much less negotiating power.

Correction. It's easy to find inexperienced programmers.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#244

Post by borski »

DonHopkins wrote: post #189
ng12 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've actually had the opposite experience: I've found way more silver-tounged developers outside of the Bay. It's hard to bullshit in SV because most worthwhile companies have at least a few people who have been around the block a few times. The smaller the market the easier it is to hype yourself up. I've even noticed it in NYC -- a lot of developers who are able to talk a big game because many of the finance/ad-tec…

>It's hard to bullshit in SV... The how did people like Robert Scoble thrive for so long in Silicon Valley? I agree that New York in particular (and also London) is also full of silver tongued charlatans, and that has a lot to do with the culture and cocaine of finance/ad-tech firms.

Strawman. Robert Scoble never claimed to be an engineer.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#245

Post by loftyal »

pzo wrote: post #59

People in Europe can be envy of salaries in US. Even in London which is not cheap either it's common for dev to get around $60k annually before tax (and taxes are high). This beg to ask a question : why employeers are so reluctant to hire remote devs even within similar timezone?

Most decent devs go contracting to make decent money in London

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#246

Post by borski »

sdesol wrote: post #177
noirknight wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadians have a TN visa option which is much simpler to get than H1B. There is no quota limit.

But software programmers don't qualify for TN visa. System analyst is the closes I think.

They do under either Engineer or Computer Systems Analyst, depending on the case.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#247

Post by regulation_d »

csallen wrote: post #218
vkou wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working for below market rates is putting skin in the game.

The reality of the situation is that it's not about what you do, but about how hard it is to find someone else to do what you do. If it's easy to find programmers who will work for below-market rates, but hard to find investors who will contribute millions of dollars, then you can expect programmers to have much less negotiating power.

Exactly. In my experience it's hard enough to find investors, try insisting that they have the same liquidation preference as the employees. Good luck with that.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#248

Post by jandrewrogers »

pzo wrote: post #59

People in Europe can be envy of salaries in US. Even in London which is not cheap either it's common for dev to get around $60k annually before tax (and taxes are high). This beg to ask a question : why employeers are so reluctant to hire remote devs even within similar timezone?

When comparing European and USian salaries, it is important to remember that companies primarily care about what it costs to employ you, which is different than the number on your paycheck. Generally speaking, the cost to employ software engineers in the EU is much higher than in the US, so even though the differences in salaries seem large the cost to the companies are often similar. The proportion of that cost that goes to salary is simply much higher in the US.

Places like Silicon Valley and Seattle are still outliers but if you looked at "typical" software engineering salaries in the US the differences in salaries are explainable almost entirely by differences in payroll costs (various taxes, regulations, etc) that the employee never sees.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#249

Post by notyourwork »

s73ver_ wrote: post #181
notyourwork wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. I think it discourages ship jumpers after 12-24 months which isn't a bad thing in my opinion.

I think it is a bad thing because it encourages the company to treat people like shit.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this?

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#250

Post by nawgszy »

sdesol wrote: post #177
noirknight wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadians have a TN visa option which is much simpler to get than H1B. There is no quota limit.

But software programmers don't qualify for TN visa. System analyst is the closes I think.

They do if they have a Software (or otherwise) Engineering degree, and getting in as a CSA just means you need to have 'microservices' and 'managerial' duties in your role
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