Live data from Hacker News

Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

triplebyte.com

421–430 of 455 posts

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#421
How many hours a week are these people putting in? As a senior-level developer in the midwest, my pay looks paltry in comparison and yet I bet you I live a much more comfortable lifestyle overall--zero debt, a decent work day in a calm environment and decent time off.

If your cost of living is so ridiculous that you have to pay people 50-100% more than pretty much the entire rest of the continent what have you gained?

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#422
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't contradict what joshvm said, though. Outside finance and the tech giants, my observation has been that seniors make 60-90k. Hedge funds pay 100-130k base, with cushty bonuses, but there really aren't that many jobs like that to go around. Contracting, though, yeah. 500 a day for a competent but unexceptional Java developer? 800 for Scala? More if you happen to know whatever's hot right now? A contractor…

London is a weird market. Don't believe the incredibly low salaries you see on Glassdoor. There seems to be a handful of places that have reasonable salaries. I don't fully understand why contract pays so much higher. One interesting thing in London is many (most?) permanent roles have a two or even three month contractual "notice period". So if you hand in your notice, you're stuck working for another three months.…

I've only ever served out one-month notice periods. If i'd been a bit more senior at my last job, it might have been two. Where i am now is four and a half months or something insane like that.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only use these statistics as a guideline, and negotiate the hell out of your compensation, even at a startup. You would be shocked at how much leeway companies have in compensation if they need your skill set. I've worked at preeminent silicon valley companies, middle of the road ones, and startups (been doing this way too long I guess). I've managed to sign for almost 50% over their initial offer a couple of times.…

I keep seeing how recent graduates of top schools command very high salaries, and I wonder, has any company done a large scale study comparing the performance of graduates from different 'tier' schools? What about the performance after a number of years? I am really curious to see the difference in performance between two fresh graduates of different schools, and the difference after 2,5,10 years experience.

It seems like by the time they get done working, it's the next day, and then the next, and the next. What is their hourly pay when you break it all down and how much does rent/mortgage cost? Imho, it's not worth it to command that pay if all you are is a wage slave.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#424
post #380
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know, I'm 37 and I'm off the scale, apparently. And here in Florida I'm making about the median for a Junior dev in Silicon Valley. For sake of comparison, my first programming job (in Colorado) paid $55k, back in the mid 2000s. I'd jump at a remote gig in a heartbeat. Right now I'm stuck in an 80s vintage cubicle in a windowless office in an old, dust/mold/despair smelling office building while the beautiful Flori…

Is it so hard to get SV/Seattle remote jobs even for someone like you (national living in the US)? I know a bunch of people from eg. Eastern Europe who work for SV startups remotely. I'm European and planning on looking for remote US jobs within the next 2-3 years, hopefully the market is not that bad?

Yes, competition for dev jobs at actual software/tech companies is pretty fierce. I spent years trying to get hired by SV/SF/NYC tech companies (well-known, not so-well known, small startups, etc.), both onsite (when I was younger and more mobile), and remote (more recently).

Never could get to an offer :/ so I work in govt contracting, where the only requirements are having a clearance (which requires being a US citizen) and a butt capable of occupying a seat (actually having a pulse is a plus, but not necessarily required).

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#425
post #28

I understand that it’s hard to compare non-salary compensation. But these figures give the impression that compensation for a Bay Area software engineer is shockingly lower than the reality. RSUs and bonuses at established companies will easily double your take home pay. Even the salary figures themselves look low and are probably heavily skewed by an overrepresentation of underpaying startups. My base salary ~4 year…

I don't think anyone outside the BayBubble thinks the devs are underpaid

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out /r/cscareerquestions for their experienced dev salary https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/6yt8pl/o... Personally I bring in around $400k/year working remotely in a low COL area. That being said if I was working on the local market I'd probably be making somewhere between $120k - $150k.

What on earth do you do for $400k/year? Make moon rockets in your garage or something?

I wish. Sadly that's an example of a prestige job that wouldn't necessarily pay the max. If you're making $400k as an IC w-2 employee you are probably working for one of a few well known companies in a small number of industries like ecommerce, ad-tech, or fin-tech.

Basically I make fastish web servers. Turns out when your company makes billions of dollars small efficiency gains pay off.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And if it isn't you should be a millionaire for your risk What risk? The only risk I've ever had as an engineer at a startup was the risk of losing my job (which everyone has, they just ignore it). And let's be real, a good engineer can find a new job at the drop of a hat. The risk is nil.

I believe the parent was talking about the financial risk of being underpaid by a startup by something like $50k–$250k per year of nearly guaranteed income that you would make at BigCo.

But that is silly first you would have to have that BigCo opportunity like actuall offer otherwise it is like I can save 500k by not buying Ferrari. I do not have 500k and that is not how opportunity cost is working.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#429
post #259
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Contracting in the UK seems to be a sweet gig. It has good tax advantages for the contractor right? And companies like it because it is easier to scale up or down based on need?

Yes and yes. However the government seems keen on making the tax situation worse, introducing new laws which tighten the noose every couple of years, so it's entirely possible that it will get bad in the next 5-10 years. Also, for non-British people, Brexit may make it make it hard/impossible to contract in the UK.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#430
post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founders usually give up their family lives, social lives, leisure time, and sometimes their reputation, sanity, initial investment in the startup and self-esteem on top of what you list, depending on the outcome. The stress level for a founder is usually quite high, and the success rate is quite low.

This. +1000. When you are the person worrying about making your number on a monthly basis, so you can pay your team ... whom aren't worried about this, because they get a salary ... and you sometimes/often can't pay yourself, so that you make sure that everyone else gets paid ... ... yeah. When you do that, you are putting real skin, real risk into this game. Your reward should be commensurate with that risk if it pa…

> growing a business from nothing to millions in revenue, with no VC involvement (not for lack of trying). To watch it shot in the head by the bank after sinking my entire worth into it.

I'd be interested to hear more of the story if you're willing

Post reply on HN