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My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

humanwhocodes.com

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Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#141

Post by sunaurus »

I always wonder when I read about salaries in other countries - what do the numbers usually mean? Not sure if this is how it works everywhere, but where I live, we have 3 different ways of talking about salary:

1) What you actually get

2) What you actually get + what you pay in taxes

3) What you actually get + what you pay in taxes + what your employer pays in taxes

Usually we talk about #2 when discussing salaries. So if somebody says they make 1000€/month, it generally means that they get 871€ every month in the bank, and their employer actually needs to pay 1338€ ever month in salary + taxes.

Can anyone shed some light on whether this is the same everywhere? Like if somebody in Silicon Valley says they make $200k/year, is that their "#2" number?

Edit:

Adding my own #2 history as well (software dev in Estonia), in case anybody is interested:

2015 - junior at employer A - 12 000€

2015 - mid-level at employer A - 21 204€

2016 - mid-level at employer B - 26 400€

2017 - senior at employer B - 30 000€

2017 - senior at employer C - 48 000€

2018 - senior at employer D - 58 500€

In my experience, it's very hard to get better salary without changing jobs all the time, so if you know of a company with good perks, it's better to change your job a bunch of times before ending up there (so you can start there with a relatively good salary) - at least, that's what I ended up doing.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#142

Post by codesternews »

sures wrote: post #139
godelmachine wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does your current employer pay you in rupees? If yes, that’s so great!! Do you have a Masters degree? If yes, may I ask from which university?

My current employer pays in rupees. I don't have a Masters degree. I cannot share which university to keep my privacy. But I am not from IIT, NIT, or any top state college. Basically I am not from any Tier 1 university or college. My university must be Tier 2 or Tier 3.

What is secret of your high salary. Can you please point out what thing helped to you get high salary?

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#143

Post by akhilcacharya »

symlinkk wrote: post #47
akhilcacharya wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend is making about that as a new grad at a trading company. He writes performant React code for high-speed table rendering. I know another guy making about that much at FB as a new grad. He works on Messenger games.

So in other words it's about how rich your company is, not how good your skillset is.

Not really. The richest companies (1T peak valuations) don’t pay new grads this much.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#145

Post by apexalpha »

Very interesting thread this link has spawned. Not telling each other how much we make is only good for our employers, not us. So here we go:

The Netherlands, 26yo male:

45k ($50k) as a technical trainee. It's €3200 ($3600) pre-tax a month and €2350 ($2670) after tax with %12,5 end of year bonus.

First job here, and this is already above modal for my country. I'm very happy with it, especially seeing I don't have a formal IT education I just thought myself through hobbies and messing around. Some salaries here are insane!

Of course my cost of living is lower but rent/mortgage has gone up _a lot_ in my country since the ECB started printing money. €1500 a month in or around Amsterdam for 2 people isn't weird anymore and there are practically no houses <€250k

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#146

Post by godelmachine »

codesternews wrote: post #142
sures wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My current employer pays in rupees. I don't have a Masters degree. I cannot share which university to keep my privacy. But I am not from IIT, NIT, or any top state college. Basically I am not from any Tier 1 university or college. My university must be Tier 2 or Tier 3.

What is secret of your high salary. Can you please point out what thing helped to you get high salary?

Same question :)

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#147

Post by seanmcdirmid »

yen223 wrote: post #78
iLemming wrote: post #73

Everyone excited about SF Bay salaries - please don't forget how expensive is to live here. My rent is $3K/m (half of my net salary) and that's considered "a decent rate" for 3 bedrooms. Simple salad or a sandwich will cost you ~$15. Round-trip fare on BART - $11. So just to get to work and eat something over lunch will cost you over $600/m. If you're offered a job here with relocation - negotiate! If possible - bett…

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.

Parent is obviously not saving much if they have to spend 50% net on rent, $6k/month is only $72k a year, which is really tough even in a lower cost place like Seattle or Austin.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#148

Post by LandR »

freditup wrote: post #26

I'm actually surprised that as a 'Principal Architect' he was only making $208,000 a year. Considering that entry-level positions at large companies which can have cash compensation of around $150,000+, it seems he may have been 'underpaid'. Of course $208,000 is nothing to scoff at, and money is hardly the most important thing when it comes to life. Just interesting to see that a reasonably large Bay-area company wo…

In the US, maybe.

In other countries like the UK, a principal architect is probably not getting half that.

I would guess from a quick google that an architect in the UK is on around £50k to £70k. Which is $63k to $90k.

I'm a senior software engineer with around 10years experience. I'm on £38k ($48k) plus a very small bonus, maybe £2 to £3k if I'm lucky.

Last job was a mid-level engineer on £28k. I've seen junior developers as low as £20k and senior engineers on as low as £35k.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#149

Post by cwtuk »

GlennS wrote: post #131
quickthrower2 wrote: post #11

Nice money at those big American companies. In Australia, you have to become a plumber to get to those levels :-)

If it makes you feel any better, Australian software salaries seem pretty high compared to most of the world. I more than doubled my salary moving from the UK (Bristol) to Australia (Sydney), while my living costs only went up a little higher.

How did you go about getting a work visa for Australia?

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#150

Post by seanmcdirmid »

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.

$600bn for a mile of subway in Seattle is absolutely nuts, I hoe that is a typo.
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