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Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

triplebyte.com

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Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#11

Post by gtirloni »

ar_lan wrote: post #6
beneichler wrote: post #2

Ben from Triplebyte here, I'm the engineer who built this tool from our offer data. The finding that most surprised me was that the mean salary for an engineer without a college degree is only $3k (~2%) less than for those with one; this gap is much smaller than in the labor market as a whole. One explanation is that CS really is a field where educational signaling doesn't (or at least needn't) matter as much as in o…

The biggest thing I've noticed between those w/o a CS degree and those with a CS degree (at least from an elite college) is the first job opportunities. Coming from a school with a very established CS program does provide a huge advantage for your first job because companies actively seek you out and give you an advantage far more than you would get if you're the one putting yourself out there (w/o a degree).

There's also the case of dropouts that start college but find so many job opportunities more exciting and just leave.

Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#12

Post by munchbunny »

themagician wrote: post #3

It’s so interesting to see actual data that confirms what most people might suspect, instead of what you see here on HN where people talk about $200k+ base being “not that unusual”.

I generally consider comp numbers on public forums to be a bit like salaries on dating profiles. Even if you're not inflating the number and even if you're anonymous, there's a status drive to "round up", and the ones open to talking about the numbers generally know their numbers are pretty good.

I trust Triplebyte's data to be more representative because it's not one internet identity at a time stating their own number.

Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#14

Post by [deleted] »

beneichler wrote: post #2

Ben from Triplebyte here, I'm the engineer who built this tool from our offer data. The finding that most surprised me was that the mean salary for an engineer without a college degree is only $3k (~2%) less than for those with one; this gap is much smaller than in the labor market as a whole. One explanation is that CS really is a field where educational signaling doesn't (or at least needn't) matter as much as in o…

[deleted]

Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#15

Post by danielparks »

beneichler wrote: post #2

Ben from Triplebyte here, I'm the engineer who built this tool from our offer data. The finding that most surprised me was that the mean salary for an engineer without a college degree is only $3k (~2%) less than for those with one; this gap is much smaller than in the labor market as a whole. One explanation is that CS really is a field where educational signaling doesn't (or at least needn't) matter as much as in o…

I suspect the boot camp thing is signaling. We don't quite know what to expect from boot camps yet.

I'm a high school drop out with no diploma. It's never come up during any hiring process in the 17 years I've been doing this.

That said, I've only had two long term jobs. I spent years doing contract work, and I mostly got contracts by word of mouth.

I've been on a number of hiring teams, mostly at Puppet. I was also a hiring manager at Puppet for a while. Education never came up once — I don't remember even talking about it in interview training.

Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#16

Post by friedman23 »

beneichler wrote: post #2

Ben from Triplebyte here, I'm the engineer who built this tool from our offer data. The finding that most surprised me was that the mean salary for an engineer without a college degree is only $3k (~2%) less than for those with one; this gap is much smaller than in the labor market as a whole. One explanation is that CS really is a field where educational signaling doesn't (or at least needn't) matter as much as in o…

A couple questions,

Are these base salaries or total compensation?

Can you share what the distribution of companies you source to is? Ie are they mostly early stage startups or do they include many large post ipo tech companies?

Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#17

Post by beneichler »

shereadsthenews wrote: post #5
beneichler wrote: post #2

Ben from Triplebyte here, I'm the engineer who built this tool from our offer data. The finding that most surprised me was that the mean salary for an engineer without a college degree is only $3k (~2%) less than for those with one; this gap is much smaller than in the labor market as a whole. One explanation is that CS really is a field where educational signaling doesn't (or at least needn't) matter as much as in o…

What’s the difference between any of these roles? Full-stack versus generalist?

Great question - these roles correspond to our notion of engineering archetypes (https://triplebyte.com/archetypes), which define what concentration of skills a company is looking for for a particular role. In this case, full-stack indicates a web focus, while a generalist engineer is a more, well, general programming role - often one that requires less specific web knowledge.

Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#18

Post by korethr »

Interesting to see that this is not a normal distribution. The modal salary is closer to $135k, the median $146k, and as we see labelled, the mean at $149. Not the idealized bell curve taught about in statistics class. That long tail on the right side is pulling the mean up and away from the mode and median.

Honestly, I'm not sure why I expected a classic bell curve instead of a long right tail.

Edit: playing with the data, looking at some of the sub-distributions, (e.g. front-end engineers with 3-5 years experience at all company sizes) do look a bit closer to normal distributions, but in many, there's still that long tail to the right.

Now, what to do with this information? Perhaps I can play it to my advantage when attempting to negotiate a raise or a salary with a new company.

Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#19

Post by danielvinson »

beneichler wrote: post #2

Ben from Triplebyte here, I'm the engineer who built this tool from our offer data. The finding that most surprised me was that the mean salary for an engineer without a college degree is only $3k (~2%) less than for those with one; this gap is much smaller than in the labor market as a whole. One explanation is that CS really is a field where educational signaling doesn't (or at least needn't) matter as much as in o…

This chart is absolutely beautiful, great job! Is this made using pure D3?

Re: Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle

#20

Post by friedman23 »

themagician wrote: post #3

It’s so interesting to see actual data that confirms what most people might suspect, instead of what you see here on HN where people talk about $200k+ base being “not that unusual”.

200k base is not that unusual for a senior engineer in a major tech hub working for a large tech company

Given that the median in SF is $150K, $200k base salary for an experienced engineer is in line with expectations

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