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

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#191

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

godelmachine wrote: post #188

sures wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I know one guy in my experience level with a pay of 12000000 rupees. He works in speech recognition and translation area in Bangalore. There are others in the 9500000 - 10500000 rupees range. But everyone is not an engineer in this sample. Some are directors too.

In contract based employees in specialized skills the numbers for my experience level goes even higher like in the 12000000 to 16000000 rupees range.

It gets me also thinking that I should take risk in life and choose contract based employment. But the work pressure is higher. There is also pressure of renewing contracts. So it is not an easy decision.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#192

Post by adarsh_thampy » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:02 AM UTC

codemonkeythrow wrote: post #189

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.

Curious to know why you decided to take a pay cut.

And you mentioned that you lied during the interview regarding your salary. In India, companies usually ask for 3 months salary slip as proof. Does it not happen in the country where you work?

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#193

Post by davedx » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:03 AM UTC

remify wrote: post #182

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.

Hi!

If you're working in the major cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, then it's fairly common to see salaries for a medior of something like 45-55k and more for a senior (I've seen upwards of 70k for some roles in finance).

Some other notes to keep in mind when considering moving here:

* There is a "30% ruling" for high demand skills workers like in IT that will reduce your income tax [1]

* But, income tax in the Netherlands is high! (~40%) [2]

* Quality of living, infrastructure, education is great though, arguably the high taxes do you give you a lot back

* Healthcare is pretty reasonable but it's a two-tier system that costs a decent amount of your paycheck and still requires you to pay for mandatory insurance

If you have any other questions, let me know.

[1] https://www.iamexpat.nl/expat-info/dutch-expat-news/expat-ta...

[2] https://thetax.nl/?year=2018&startFrom=Year&salary=50000&all...

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#194

Post by apexalpha » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:12 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/

Family, friends, football club, being in ones own culture?

Not everyone is ready, able or willing to start a new life somewhere.

And an important detail to remember is that Europeans usually work a lot less than Americans. Due to progressive taxes people tend to choose for more time off rather than more pay.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#195

Post by golergka » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:14 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.…

In Russia it's always #1 discussed and negotiated, because all the taxes and payments (like the retirement fund), including those that are supposedly paid by the employee, are handled by employer's accounting. Most people don't even know how much taxes and other payments they pay to the government each month, and most people don't even care that much whether the employer actually pays it all or doesn't. Just to clarify: not paying taxes and social payments on employee salary is, obviously, illegal, and employee is aware of that, but (1) in Russia, people generally don't care about breaking the law that much and (2) people don't believe in the pension system enough to care if they're paying anything into it or not. Most feel that by the time they get to retirement, government will find some way to steal their pension money, or it will be completely eaten away by hyperinflation or some other catastrophic economic event.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#196

Post by brod » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:24 AM UTC

toomanybeersies wrote: post #36

quickthrower2 wrote: post #11

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

The pay rates for tradies in Australia is phenomenal. If I had kids, I'd be encouraging them to become electricians, not software engineers. Even a lot of unskilled jobs pay really well in Australia. I have a friend who works for Aldi in their distribution centre as a general worker, and he's on $35 per hour (only 6 hour shifts though, I think), plus when he's rostered on Sunday he goes up to $70 an hour. Anecdotally…

Likewise, living in Melbourne Australia, I dropped out of school after year 11, tried an mechanical apprenticeship for a year but didn't like it so I started freelancing (Javascript) in 2013.

2013 $20k (freelance) 100+ clients

2014 $75k (salary + super) 100+ employees

2015 $70k (salary + super) ~50 employees

2016 $120k (freelance) 8 clients

2017 $70k (salary + super) 3 employees

2018 $90k (salary + super) ~15 employees

2016 was by far my best year, still living at home (with parents) and after tax almost all of it went into savings.

At this stage I plan negotiating for $120k after christmas which I think is inline with my peers.

And for those talking about $4 coffee's, most places I know give discount if you BYO cup!

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#197

Post by codemonkeythrow » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:24 AM UTC

adarsh_thampy wrote: post #192

codemonkeythrow wrote: post #189

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.

Curious to know why you decided to take a pay cut. And you mentioned that you lied during the interview regarding your salary. In India, companies usually ask for 3 months salary slip as proof. Does it not happen in the country where you work?

I was laid off from the $40,000 job due to downsizing, then I spent a few months job hunting, so I was extremely happy about getting a new job, regardless of the salary.

Lying about my salary was a huge gamble, I guess. But since the FAANGs are based in the US and I wasn't, I was counting on them not asking for the IRS tax returns since I obviously didn't have one.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#198

Post by sures » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:24 AM UTC

godelmachine wrote: post #186

sures wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Like simple algorithm and data structures problems and problems related to my domain expertise.

Simple algorithm problems are things that have some connection with my work like vector clocks, detecting duplicates, traversing trees, graph search algorithms. Another type of simple algorithm problems are things that use CS fundamentals only and no ingenious tricks like manipulating trees, matrices and likewise. I can manage these problems in an interview room.

But if it is more complex than this like banker's algorithm, manipulating segment trees, finding convex hull, printing numbers on screen in some weird fashion or like that I will get stressed in the interview room. I suck at these.

The best interviews for me are those that are related to domain expertise. Like problems involving maintaining integrity of data in a distributed database, implementing partial ordering of events, designing data consistency policies.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#199

Post by davidrm » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:25 AM UTC

golergka wrote: post #195

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.…

In Russia it's always #1 discussed and negotiated, because all the taxes and payments (like the retirement fund), including those that are supposedly paid by the employee, are handled by employer's accounting. Most people don't even know how much taxes and other payments they pay to the government each month, and most people don't even care that much whether the employer actually pays it all or doesn't. Just to clari…

pretty much the same in Croatia and I dare to guess, Serbia and Bosnia (maybe even Slovenia).

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#200

Post by Tade0 » Wed, Oct 31, 2018, 10:30 AM UTC

dmarucco wrote: post #120

This is certainly an intresting post and i likethe OP attitude. We should be totally transparent about our compensation as he did. Salary is just the result of a negotiation, nothing else, in the majority of cases it does not reflect anything more than your "perceived" value. White male born in the '88 in Italy. I have a bachelor degree and working since 2008. Here in Italy is quite uncommon to have big jumps in sala…

Are these figures after taxes/INPS/health insurance etc.?