My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer • Hacker News Board

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#121

Post by madmax108 » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 7:51 AM UTC

sures wrote: post #103

I am a brown male working in India. The salaries are rounded to the nearest 100000 INR. USD values are rounded to the nearest 1000 USD. These are salaries per year . Need to emphasize this because when you see numbers like 3000 USD you may think this is per month. No it is indeed 3000 USD per year. When there are stocks involved, only the stocks that vest per year is included as part of the yearly salary. 2003 - 0 YO…

Just to clarify, salaries in India differ VASTLY across companies, FAANG or otherwise, depending on whether the org looks at the India center as a cost-saving measure, or as a secondary RnD center. And also, if the org is more services based (the notorious Infy/Wipro/Accenture types) or actually building products. The latter almost always pays more.

I'm a non-IIT Masters graduate with 3.5 years of experience and I work at the India center of a non-FAANG US-based company, and I make more than @sures made with 10 YoE (leaving aside stock options as well).

Salaries are higher in cities like Bangalore and Pune, but even there the salary ranges are very varied, so it's difficult to get a representative sample. Funnily, if you check on Glassdoor (for what it's worth), you'll find companies (both Indian and US/UK-based) where Director of Engineering in India as much as I make with Also, Indian companies are notorious for asking previous salary details/payslips etc before making offers. As such, if you start off at the lower end of the spectrum, you spend a lifetime playing catch up. Usual hikes between job switches is about 1.4-1.6x, so the 2x jump @sures got in 2015 is also not that common (Well negotiated @sures!) :)

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#122

Post by blauditore » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 7:52 AM UTC

alexis_fr wrote: post #112

White male, graduated from quite a good school in France in 2006. Wages in gross, 33% tax on it. And the employer also pays 33% tax on gross, for social insurances. - 2006: 36k€, Java/js dev in Luxembourg/banking - 2007-2010: 35k€, Java dev in France, service company, - 2011-2013: 70k$, Java dev in Australia - 2014: Startup founder (France), 30k€ - 2015: Startup founder, 50k€, - 2016: Startup founder, 60k€ - 2017: St…

Well, I guess startups are a risky endeavor, and I guess you could make much more in a boring enterprise software job. But the question is whether you really want that.

Also, can't you live quite well from € 70k in France (unless it's Paris)?

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#123

Post by pure-awesome » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 7:53 AM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #117

yen223 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you earn 3 times as much, but wind up spending 3 times as much, you are still saving 3 times as much. It's almost always better to get high pay in a high CoL area, than to get low pay in a low CoL area.

A number on a bank statement is the map, not the territory. Money's value is what it can be exchanged for. Saving 3 times as much is merely keeping up.

I think the implication in the comment above yours is that you can save up at 3 times the rate, and then move to somewhere it is cheaper to live with your extra savings.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#124

Post by yetanotherburnr » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 7:59 AM UTC

Yet another White Male. Salaries are actually from multiple different countries, but I've converted all to GBP (as that's what I think in, mostly). Which has varied in value a lot over the years, so probably take it with a grain of salt.

  1997 £18k First real web-dev work
  1999 £60k Contract developer making the most of the dotcom boom
  2000 £45k First attempt at running my own business (didn't go well)
  2002 £28k Took a job that seemed stable and came with visa
  2006 £40k Last permanent job
  2008 £90k Working for myself part 2 - much improved
  2014 £10k Had daughter - buttoned off work big time for a couple of years
  2016 £50k Still doing my own gig, but better work-life balance
  2018 £115k Working much harder than I’d planned. But enjoying it. Combo contract/own gig

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#125

Post by wfriesen » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 7:59 AM UTC

shoo wrote: post #116

wfriesen wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around $4. And developers can certainly make over 100/hr, but in my experience that would mean contracting/consulting as a specialist with at least 5 years experience in a given technology.

(in melbourne) $4 a coffee for fancy cafes in expensive parts of town. $0 a coffee if you dont care and are happy to swig whatever is free at work. can certainly hit $aud 100 / hour and upwards for full-time contract gigs with bigcos (banks, finance, telcos). can hit that with less than 5 years experience. if the client knows what they're doing they may also assess for ability, not just years experience. but at least…

Private companies are probably more likely to account for actual experience. I've mostly dealt with government contracting where 5 years seemed to be the magic threshold.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#126

Post by innomansland » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 7:59 AM UTC

using my throwaway account but have some comment history on my career (i did a Ask HN post on pivoting my "career" last year). I saw someone from Sydney posting their history so I thought I add my perspective from another Australian lurker:

Date - Company ID | Starting Salary | Percentage Increase Role | Role

2005 - Company A | $20/hour | 100%! :) | Part Time Tester

2007 - Company B | $48,000 annual | 20.0% | Graduate Engineer

2009 - Company B | $65,000 annual | 25.0% | Engineer

2010 - Company B | $70,000 annual | 16.7% | Consulting Engineer

2011 - Company B | $78,000 annual | 11.5% | Consulting Engineer

2011 - Company C | $120,000 annual | $53.8% | Engineering Specialist

2012 - Company C | $125,000 annual | 4.2% | Team Lead

2013 - Company C | $128,000 annual | 4.5% | Team Lead

2014 - Company D | $210,000 annual | 64.0% | Solutions Architect

2015 - Company D | $225,000 annual | 7.1% | Solutions Architect

2016 - Company D | $195,000 annual | -1.3% | Solutions Architect

2017 - Company D | $205,000 annual | 5.1% | Solutions Architect

2018 - Company E | $150,000 annual + bonus | -26.8% | Management Position

edit: took out notes since it wasn't relevant and rearranged fields to look more uniform. If you have any questions, on each role, feel free to AMA.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#127

Post by davedx » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 8:01 AM UTC

White male, born and raised in the UK, lived and worked in Australia and lately, the Netherlands.

1999: Intern developer at investment bank, £1500/month

2000: Java Developer at above, £40,000/year

2004: C++ Games Developer in Australia, AU$26,000/year

2006: C++ Games Developer in UK, £27,000/year

2007: C++ Senior Software Engineer in UK, £31,000/year + pension

2011: Java Developer in Netherlands, €44,000/year + pension

2012: C# Unity Developer in Netherlands, €31,800/year

2013: Contract Frontend Developer in NL, €50/hour

2015: Frontend Developer in NL, €50,000/year

2017: Contract Frontend Developer in NL, €75/hour

2018: Contract Frontend Developer in NL, similar to above

Fairly obvious here is that I a) like working in the games industry, b) the pay is much worse in the games industry, and c) that I never ended up staying for long in the games industry...

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#128

Post by wfriesen » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 8:01 AM UTC

onetimemanytime wrote: post #111

wfriesen wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around $4. And developers can certainly make over 100/hr, but in my experience that would mean contracting/consulting as a specialist with at least 5 years experience in a given technology.

so you just make and save money in Australia? Rent and all are normal prices or what's the story ? I know the economy has been booming for 20+ years.

The housing market, and thus rents, have also boomed in that time. General cost of living is also pretty high in Australia.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#129

Post by sures » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 8:06 AM UTC

codesternews wrote: post #107

sures wrote: post #103

I am a brown male working in India. The salaries are rounded to the nearest 100000 INR. USD values are rounded to the nearest 1000 USD. These are salaries per year . Need to emphasize this because when you see numbers like 3000 USD you may think this is per month. No it is indeed 3000 USD per year. When there are stocks involved, only the stocks that vest per year is included as part of the yearly salary. 2003 - 0 YO…

That's great. What's your stack and on what technologies are you working?

I don't have a specific stack. I have moved between stacks over the years. Programming languages involved were Java, Scala, Clojure, Python, C, JavaScript (Node.js), Go, R. So the stacks change based on the programming language. The area of technology I work on have more or less been more constant. I work on distributed computing. Like implementing message passing protocols between nodes, writing job schedulers for distributed database systems that can synchronize jobs, and likewise.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#130

Post by allendoerfer » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 8:13 AM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #119

sincerely wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if your workload would be the same either way, you'd want to be in a world where there are more tax dollars than less :)

Not really - the same tax dollars buy less service and infrastructure when the workers and suppliers also need to function in high CoL areas. A $2.5bn mile of subway in New York isn't a priori better than a $600bn mile of subway in Seattle. A $59k entry level teacher in San Francisco isn't a priori better than a $33k entry level teacher in Wisconsin.

A mile of subway in New York serves more people. But I get the notion.