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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

#151

Post by sonnyblarney »

wtvanhest wrote: post #98
sonnyblarney wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be the case that for a variety of reasons, salaries don't creep up that much past 8 years as it's just more difficult to either signal or create value then. Despite the fact that a polygot dev. with tons of experience is always good to have around, and you need some weighing in on big decisions ... most dev is just dev - and a competent mid-tier developer with good habits can do the job in most cases.

In most careers, you top out around 8 years of experience for individual contributor. After that, you add value through scale of managing direct reports.

Yes, exactly. Diminishing marginal returns after 8 years.

That said, I really wonder about management - a talented senior dev who can write clean code, is polygot and knows their way around everything, gives good estimates, communicates well ...

I think that might worth more than anything really.

Often tech is more like a sports team where individual contributors matter more than those making other decisions, i.e. coaches.

(That said, there could be a serious market inefficiency here: a spectacular coach may be worth more than great players, it's just really difficult to measure!)

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

#152

Post by mquander »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #121
rifung wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Candidates with stronger resumes are not going to be using third party recruiters to spray their resume around; they are going to be applying directly to the companies they want to work at or getting headhunted by the companies themselves. Why are those mutually exclusive? I like to think I have a decent resume and would apply to companies directly but if I can get more offers using Triplebyte why wouldnt I? Isn't…

There is a simple reason: scarcity of talent. Talent that can be commoditized through a platform instantly becomes cheaper, with employers much more easily able to sift through inventory (candidates) and look for deals or just waste peoples’ time gathering market data on interview performance. If you’re sincerely highly talented, you’re not going to advertise yourself as a commodity on a platform. Your increased skil…

I have a strong resume by most metrics, and I used Triplebyte because it seemed like a good method to learn about a ton of small companies I otherwise would never be able to find. (I didn't end up joining any of them, but they were solid 2nd/3rd/4th-choice offers.)

I'm confused about why you think this is irrational. If I find some startup through Triplebyte, and then apply to them, it doesn't seem like a substantially different process than if I applied directly. Once I'm talking to someone at the company, any signal based on how the recruiter found me seems like it should immediately be swamped by concrete observations about me.

If you know a better strategy for next time to find the kind of companies that Triplebyte will connect me with, I'm all ears.

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

#153

Post by Benjammer »

sciencewolf wrote: post #145
Benjammer wrote: post #37

(OT thoughts on Triplebyte) I think Triplebyte is stuck between a few incentives that aren't necessarily aligned with developers, and I'm not sure how to decide how I feel about their contributions overall to the job market for software. I absolutely love their outreach and data like this where they try to empower developers more. My problem I have is that they entered the market using the same exact worn-out old met…

> Do they have data about how their candidates perform after hire? 2 yr performance reviews? 2 yr turnover rates? How do they market to the recruiters who are their true "customers"? Software engineering hiring, and Triplebyte as a company, at least think about, and make an attempt to evaluate these concerns. Have you ever seen how non-technical people (sales/marketing/finance) are evaluated? I'd argue Triplebyte at…

Do they have any data about it? Or blogs or something? I'd be super curious to read thoughts directly from Triplebyte on this, if they have any public material out there.

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

#154

Post by e12e »

tsunamifury wrote: post #24
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”.

Its not unusual, its just not the average.

Feels like there's a joke in here about most programmers being above average... ;)

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

#155

Post by cbhl »

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…

In my experience, the one place where educational signaling affects outcomes in tech is the visa application process for immigrants. As in, can you get a visa at all, and how easy it is to cross the border (both to start work, as well as to go home to see family for the holidays).

I wouldn't expect Triplebyte to be able to observe this, because it only works with candidates who are US citizens, permanent residents, residents of Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Chile, Australia, or, have an existing H-1B visa (per the Candidate FAQ: https://triplebyte.com/candidate_faq).

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

#156

Post by mquander »

ams6110 wrote: post #35
danielparks wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Did you ever need to provide a resume/CV? If so were you honest about your education? Did you just omit it?

I have no degree, I've done probably 25 tech interviews so far in my career, and I don't recall it having ever come up. I write "No formal post-secondary education" under the "education" section on my resume.

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

#157

Post by bobwaycott »

ergothus wrote: post #70
ams6110 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you ever need to provide a resume/CV? If so were you honest about your education? Did you just omit it?

Not the above poster, but for me - I omit my degree from my resume, because in my mind it was so long ago as to be irrelevant. It's also a bit odd - I have a degree in "Letters, Arts, and Science" - a make-your-own major from Penn State. My last two jobs the recruiters asked me if I had a degree - this came up AFTER they had decided to interview me and when they were entering me in to the system - the degree was just…

I’ve been doing the same (omitting my degree). I really don’t know that mentioning my history degree with minors in French and philosophy are all that informative compared to just talking about what all I’ve done in the last 12 years as a full-time software professional.

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

#158

Post by wallflower »

dang wrote: post #123
wallflower wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I suspect the title will not be changed for SEO/targeting reasons, a slight improvement on your title is: “How much software engineers on Triplebyte received in base salary offers in SF, NYC, and Seattle” Yes, I know HTML titles cannot do any emphasis. EDIT: HN title has now been improved by dang. To be more accurate about “SEO/targeting”, I meant the title on the blog hosted by Triplebyte: “How much money do S…

We're happy to change titles to make them more accurate, but someone's going to need to make it fit 80 chars. Edit: I took a shot. "Triplebyte" doesn't fit, but probably shouldn't be in there anyway; it's already next to the title.

Thanks dang for editing the title well given those constraints!

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

#159

Post by bobwaycott »

bluedino wrote: post #72
ams6110 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you ever need to provide a resume/CV? If so were you honest about your education? Did you just omit it?

I've had companies ask for high school transcripts. What the heck.

That’s hilarious to me. I could maybe understand if an applicant graduated a year or two ago, and wasn’t in college. But for someone who graduated 20+ years ago? Come on.

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

#160

Post by r87 »

ohaideredevs wrote: post #127
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…

So are $300,000 Google salaries a myth, or Triplebyte doesn't place with FAANG?

Total comp is in that range at Google, not salary.
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