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

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#181

Post by yitchelle » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:45 AM UTC

sunaurus wrote: post #141

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.…

I have worked in Australia, Singapore and Germany. When mentioning salary, we usually qualify it with either "Gross" or "Net", which corresponds to 1) and 2) respectively on your list.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#182

Post by remify » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:46 AM UTC

davedx wrote: post #127

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 + pensi…

I'm interested in moving to Netherlands. What would you say is the salary for a Full Stack dev with 5 year of experience. I work with Java / Node and have 2 years of experience with Angular.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#183

Post by badpun » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:47 AM UTC

ensiferum wrote: post #178

So the guy went in 14 years from zero to "principal architect" ? Can someone explain to me is this based on technical merit or is it just networking/office politics/bullying/elbow tactics/ass kissing/luck?

Principal Architect can mean literally anything, and in many more enterprisey places guys with such titles are often basically wankers who don't contribute much or are even a net negative for the company. And yes, in such cases getting to this role is all about appearances and politics. This is confirmed by the market when such guy has to leave the company for whatever reason and cannot get another job that is even remotely close in pay and ostensible responsibility.

A good rule of thumb on the value of the architect is IMO whether they can even check out, build and run the code. The kind of people I'm talking about often didn't even bother to get privileges to version control; they reside strictly in email&powerpoint land.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#184

Post by NZThrowaway » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:47 AM UTC

Graduted in NZ with a Bachelor in Computer Science in 2007

(never worked anywhere that has paid a bonus)

2007 - 2008 - 38.5K - grad position, web dev 2009 - 2011 - 55K NZD - new job, web dev 2011 - £60K - web dev contracting in London 2012 - £84K - web dev contracting in London 2013 - 150-180K NZD - remote senior web dev contracting from NZ

Tax in the UK was somewhere between 20-30%. Tax in NZ works out ~30% roughly.

Cost of living in the UK was expensive. In comparison I own my own house in NZ and my mortgage repayments are less than we were paying in rent in the UK.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#185

Post by stringyham » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:47 AM UTC

blauditore wrote: post #122

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)?

Yes, 70k is good in Paris.

I'm at 48k, live in Paris, and spend my time eating at restaurants, going out clubbing and still save money.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#186

Post by godelmachine » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:48 AM UTC

sures wrote: post #157

codesternews wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Is it really that high? I know people of my experience level who are earning even more. :-) I have no secret. I am decent at my work. Like to keep learning new tech and non-tech stuff. So I think the interviews go well and I get the good paying jobs. Not the algorithm puzzles type of interviews. I suck at those too.

So, what kind of interviews are you talking about, if not algorithm puzzles kind of interviews?

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#187

Post by yitchelle » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:49 AM UTC

LandR wrote: post #148

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 deve…

I am really amazed at the salaries you Brits are getting. I work in Germany and are getting headhunters calling me. When I question them about the salary, it becomes a immediately blocker as they are not able to match my German salary.

Once an engineer start working on the continent, I would imagine that it would be hard to go back to Britain solely for monetary reasons.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#188

Post by godelmachine » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:49 AM UTC

sures wrote: post #157

codesternews wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Is it really that high? I know people of my experience level who are earning even more. :-) I have no secret. I am decent at my work. Like to keep learning new tech and non-tech stuff. So I think the interviews go well and I get the good paying jobs. Not the algorithm puzzles type of interviews. I suck at those too.

And people of your experience earn ever more than you do?

Do you mind giving us a fair idea of how much they make? The highest amount in your experience range?

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#189

Post by codemonkeythrow » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 9:54 AM UTC

I'm probably the lowest paid person in the whole thread.

2015 - $40,000 USD - remote for a small company

2017 - $32,000 USD - on-site for a tiny company

2018 - $33,000 USD - remote for another small company

I was asked what my current salary is during one of my on-site interviews at FAANG. I had to put on a poker face and lie about it.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#190

Post by n4r9 » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:00 AM UTC

CalRobert wrote: post #160

LandR wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 deve…

I really can't understand why they stay in the UK then, to be honest. We seem to have better salaries and generally lower cost of living across the sea... I have no affiliation with this company but here's a recent example, quoted at 95k so you could presumably push higher: https://www.ninedots.io/job/lead-react-engineer/

Well, the places where you'd get better salaries than London probably don't have a much lower cost of living. Personally I'd consider working somewhere like California for a couple of years for the experience, but like a lot of Brits I just don't think the US would be a comfortable cultural fit.