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Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

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261–270 of 349 posts

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#261
post #49
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Consider: those who don't read HN are probably worse engineers that earn lower salaries, on average.

Confirmation bias 101? This is probably the most "echo chamber" friendly statement of any I've seen here. An assertion with no evidence, seemingly rooted in a self satisfying sense of superiority, based on the bizarre proposition that the only way to stay ahead in the field is by reading HN. The idea that a popularity contest might tell you stuff that's actually ahead of its time is arguably naive. It's not like we h…

>This is probably the most "echo chamber" friendly statement of any I've seen here.

And what does the fact that all the replies disagree, and the post was down-voted, tell you about the existence of an "echo chamber"? (Remember to avoid confirmation bias here!)

Also the poster didn't claim a causal relationship. The claim was the reading HN was correlated to success, not that it caused it.

> An assertion with no evidence, seemingly rooted in a self satisfying sense of superiority The evidence was in the survey, but if you don't believe in a particular causal relationship (in this case, better engineer -> higher salary) then any correlation can always be dismissed as "not evidence".

The assumption of "a self satisfying sense of superiority" was all yours. To many people it's simply obvious that there is a correlation between how good you are at your job and how much you get paid.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#262
post #30

depressing, midwest software engineer here, 6 years experience 60k.

I was you! In 2008 I left, first for a startup in Florida (a random place to end up, but compared to Ohio where I was, Florida was a booming tech hub). That brought me a 25-30% raise. There for a few years, then to SF, which brought literally a 120% increase.

Yes, housing is expensive here. Yes, everything else is expensive, too. But it's still easily worth it. Because a lot of the things we buy -- cars, computers, cell phone plans, a european vacation -- cost the same whether you make $60k in Ohio or 2-3x that in California.

Also, while moving is never cheap, and I've never had a 100% all expenses paid including housing relo package, I have gotten the basics paid for, meaning full-service pack-and-move and other travel costs.

Remember you can always move back. When I first left Ohio, I started thinking about it in June, sent my resume to a few places in July and August. Got a call back mid august, onsite interview early september, offer a week later, a start date 5 weeks forward from that.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#263
post #61
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having to uproot the family is understandable, but if you're worried about the competitiveness of the market, know that there are a ton of jobs as well (ask anyone on HN about recruiter spam, which seems to serve as a proxy to this fact), which perhaps balances things. Six years of experience is non-trivial, I'm sure if you wanted to you could find something.

What would be your guess for the average salary in the valley of someone with 6-8 years of experience?

Textminer is right, no need to mention your current wage.

But honestly, it seriously depends on what technologies you have experience with.

But to give you a number, you could very easily get $125k. I bet if you somehow got 100 offers, the vast majority of them would be normally distributed between $110 and $140k.

Mitigating factors: 1. The universe of companies willing to fly-in a candidate and pay for relocation is smaller, so you have less bargaining power. I was able to secure a 20% raise the first time I changed jobs here -- a year after relocating.

2. If you have impressive skills in more lucrative technologies you can certainly make more.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#264
What does it take to make 200k base as a software engineer? These numbers just don't seem to jive with what I've read else where -- according to glassdoor, for instance, last year the base salary at the top companies in the valley was around 110-120k. So, how is it that so many people are pulling down 200k, 300k base? Apparently I've been doing it wrong...

http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/15-tech-companies-software-eng...

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#265

What does it take to make 200k base as a software engineer? These numbers just don't seem to jive with what I've read else where -- according to glassdoor, for instance, last year the base salary at the top companies in the valley was around 110-120k. So, how is it that so many people are pulling down 200k, 300k base? Apparently I've been doing it wrong... http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/15-tech-companies-software-eng.…

Perhaps the glassdoor data is poor. Perhaps people are choosing their total compensation rather than base salary.

Probably both.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#266

What does it take to make 200k base as a software engineer? These numbers just don't seem to jive with what I've read else where -- according to glassdoor, for instance, last year the base salary at the top companies in the valley was around 110-120k. So, how is it that so many people are pulling down 200k, 300k base? Apparently I've been doing it wrong... http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/15-tech-companies-software-eng.…

Maybe half of them are untrue and the other half possess unusual skills or are the only people left with knowledge of some critical legacy system.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#267
post #225

As always, voluntary response data are worthless. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5538059 Good luck to all of you looking for higher salaries. I hope you gain the salary you desire, and more knowledge of statistics along the way.

"all of you looking for higher salaries" I would add also that a higher salary which is not sustainable for some reason and results in a lifestyle that you can't support (once you lose that salary) can be quite a problem. Not to mention the psychological impact of thinking you are a 250k a year person and having to drop to being an 80k a year person.

That's a really stupid way to manage your finances.

And your self esteem.

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#269
For context, the US national 2010 median pay for "Software Developers" was $90,530 per year according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which I believe is data provided by employer surveys.

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Computer-and-Information-Technology/S...

Here is data for San Jose:

http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/ncbl1627.txt

Computer software engineers, applications, Level 12 $58.23 median pay per hour ( $121,118 per year)

Re: Poll: Full-time software engineers in the Bay Area, what's your annual salary?

#270
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Just when you think America is just like countries you know, something like this comes along.

Don't worry. The comment that surprised you is not really true. The 81k figure is for "overtime-exempt" employees (often just shortened to "exempt"). I.e., if you make less than that, you are considered "overtime-eligible" (opposite of exempt), and in that case, if you work more than 40 hours per week, you have to be paid overtime. Also, the 81k figure pertains only to software people. There is a figure for other occ…

>they cannot redistribute their hours between work days the way salaried employees can.

As far as I can tell, they can, they just have to get compensated for it ie the employer can't abuse it.

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