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

triplebyte.com

191–200 of 301 posts

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

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. The sample set of people using TripleByte is not going to be remotely representative of the market for developers as a whole. Candidates with stronger resumes are not going to be using third party recruiters…

> Candidates with stronger resumes are not going to be using third party recruiters This is an interest statement. It is interesting, because the data I am seeing is that apparently Triple Byte is able to give people quite successful results. (Yes, 150k base salary is pretty good). But your statement seems to imply that candidates that use them are apparently below average or something. And yet even though they arent…

It’s very location dependent. In Florida, 150k is great for a principal engineer. In the Bay Area, that’s terrible comp. Also, the faangs of the world do pay twice as much in total comp.

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-taught programmer here. A long time ago, I lucked out with an internal promotion that helped me bridge the gap from support to engineering. Getting a foot in the door was the hard part. Ever since then, lack of a degree has been a non-factor during the hiring process. I've got years of experience and plenty of references to vouch for my abilities. The only thing I feel like I missed out on compared to a CS grad…

I find Big O to be useful when designing solutions just to be able to quickly decide what data structures are appropriate for a task, though, admittedly, this doesn't come up that often.

I find big o really helpful for designing back end caching algorithms and for optimizing sql queries. On a very rare occasion for spa ui as well.

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

#193
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The above data is only of engineers hired using TripleByte platform. I saw only a handful of open positions with Apple. The data is based on the type of companies uses the platform to hire which probably doesn't involve big paying companies such as Googles, FB, Uber etc

These companies have massive hiring pipelines already.

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

#194

It's nice to know what a competitive base salary is for an engineer but when negotiating an offer I think you really should be looking at Total Compensation. RSU, Stock Options, Bonuses all play a very significant role when looking at offers. Especially if you work at one of the large tech companies (Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc) the stock grants are a VERY large portion of your compensation.

You should, but it looks like triplebyte was explicitly ignoring that because it would add too many dimensions to the graph and those benefits are hard to value. Stock options are not a liquid asset, and their value can change wildly and unpredictably. Ask all those programmers around in 2001 how much their options were worth.

Rsu’s vest monthly at many top companies.

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

#195
post #6

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…

The biggest thing I've noticed between those w/o a CS degree and those with a CS degree (at least from an elite college) is the first job opportunities. Coming from a school with a very established CS program does provide a huge advantage for your first job because companies actively seek you out and give you an advantage far more than you would get if you're the one putting yourself out there (w/o a degree).

yea, thats a double edged sword. i deal with dozens of engineers at a number of FAANG level companies and frankly the incompetence and lack of knowledge blows my mind every time. Not only about pretty basic tenants of how things work, most don't even know how their own internal systems work.

MS is the exception to that rule.

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

#196

(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…

Great marketing execution.

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

#197

If you're working at a company that has multiple offices around the country (say SF, NYC, Boston), is it unreasonable to ask for the same compensation that a worker in the most expensive office gets? Assuming the role/responsibilities will be the same and the team consists of people from all offices.

So I work in a cheaper location for one of these companies and while I get paid a bit less, it's so much cheaper to live here that I can pocket a lot more.

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

#198

I'm in Boston & went through an intensive FT job search here about 18 months ago. I'm a mobile developer with 20+ years total experience in desktop, backend, web+mobile, product management, started my own company, etc. Worked with lots of recruiters, personal network etc., felt like I really got a sense of what the salary landscape is here. Some facts: - I was leaving a job at a hot unicorn startup that paid $125K ba…

Having lived in Seattle and knowing several software engineers at various companies, I would have to say Triplebyte's numbers are being inflated by the FAANG companies. I have one friend at Microsoft that is making probably 160 to 180ish right now, and another friend at a startup that is making between 80 and 100. Most other engineers make around what you've been offered. I really would take Triplebyte's numbers with…

Damn they are getting ripped off.

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

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems a rather glaring omission—as a software engineer in NYC, roughly 55% of my total annual compensation comes in the form of a cash bonus. Since total compensation tends to vary more significantly than base salary, I would continue showing the salary-only graph by default, with an option to toggle total compensation as a second series.

Wow, over half? Is this a finance company?

I'm in a similar situation (~55% of comp is bonus) which is in finance, but most FAANG devs will see something similar, especially as you go more senior, although with an emphasis on equity rather than bonus.

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

#200
post #64

That's sad. For the senior levels, you can almost make that much in St. Louis.

yeah that money goes way further than in SF. WTF?

getting big city coastal salary without living there is pretty awesome!
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