Base salaries offered to software engineers in SF, NYC, and Seattle • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by lrajlich » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:54 PM UTC

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…

bootcamps have been around for only a few years so that's also likely filtering based on years of experience.

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

#22

Post by many_indicator » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:55 PM UTC

I imagine the signaling is partly due to the selective admissions processes at elite universities. MIT, Stanford, Harvard already vetted for you, so surely you must be intelligent, driven and cut above the rest.

But I wonder if there are recent studies on the demographics of who attends elite universities in general? I'd assume it is mostly kids from the upper middle class to upper class backgrounds.

These sort of places pat themselves on the back for saying they do target minorities and the less privileged, but they have such an insurmountable background to overcome they may never make it to such schools, despite being smart enough to attend.

You may miss people like: https://www.uidaho.edu/engr/news/features/tom-mueller

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

#23

Post by RandallBrown » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:55 PM UTC

Recently made a switch from Seattle to NYC and was actually a bit surprised that the salaries in NYC were lower. People at my job didn't really believe me, so it's nice to have some numbers to back up my feelings.

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

#24

Post by tsunamifury » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:56 PM UTC

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.

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

#25

Post by ThirdFoundation » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:56 PM UTC

bluedevilzn wrote: post #7

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”.

The data is on average base salary. Nearly half of my total comp is stock plus guaranteed bonus. That's how my total comp is $200k+ with 1 yoe at a low CoL city.

If you don't mind me asking, what city?

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

#26

Post by beneichler » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:57 PM UTC

friedman23 wrote: post #16

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…

A couple questions, Are these base salaries or total compensation? Can you share what the distribution of companies you source to is? Ie are they mostly early stage startups or do they include many large post ipo tech companies?

These are base salaries - we have data on equity and other compensation factors, but those factors are difficult to meaningfully compare in an anonymized way.

Triplebyte works with over 400 companies, including Apple, Dropbox, Instacart, and numerous early stage companies (including many YC companies). The Open Positions section on the salary tool page should give a pretty good feel for the kinds of specific roles and companies that work with us

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

#27

Post by RandallBrown » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:58 PM UTC

bluedevilzn wrote: post #7

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”.

The data is on average base salary. Nearly half of my total comp is stock plus guaranteed bonus. That's how my total comp is $200k+ with 1 yoe at a low CoL city.

Base compensation is typically just your salary, which is where the distinction between base and total compensation comes from.

I don't know of many engineers with salaries of 200k, but many who will make more than that when you include stocks and bonuses.

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

#28

Post by wellreally » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:59 PM UTC

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…

Do you have this data for management roles as well? Could be helpful for career planning.

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

#29

Post by beneichler » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:59 PM UTC

danielvinson wrote: post #19

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…

This chart is absolutely beautiful, great job! Is this made using pure D3?

It uses Uber's wonderfully declarative react-vis library https://uber.github.io/react-vis/

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

#30

Post by jalgos_eminator » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:59 PM UTC

garyguo110 wrote: post #4

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.