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Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

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Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#211

Post by geggam »

aantix wrote: post #208
sidlls wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't come out in the wash. It's much easier to max out the 401k when your salary is higher, and with the exception of housing specifically the cost of other things is on par with anywhere else I've lived (in the midwest). The commute (by train) is in fact less expensive than gas and maintenance on a car in many cases. If you double your housing cost, even moving from a mortgage to renting because you cannot aff…

Agree. Engineers outside the Valley often list the cost of living as a negative, but coupled with the insane amount of salary leverage (in part because of the COL), I never got financially ahead until I moved to the Bay Area. You're a King in SV as a software engineer.

Until you have kids

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#212

Post by geggam »

softawre wrote: post #210
aantix wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Engineers outside the Valley often list the cost of living as a negative, but coupled with the insane amount of salary leverage (in part because of the COL), I never got financially ahead until I moved to the Bay Area. You're a King in SV as a software engineer.

You're a king? So you live in a mansion? I live in the midwest, wife doesn't work, 10 years experience - we live in a 4k sqft house in the best school district in the state about 25 minutes from the city. How much does that cost in SV?

In the city... 10k + a month in rent alone... 25 minutes out 5-6k a month in rent alone

Keep in mind 25 minutes out can easily turn into 1 hour or more.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#213

Post by fokinsean »

dopamean wrote: post #113
Naritai wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree cost of living is a tough pill to swallow in California, a salary table is irrelevant to the concept of 'furthering ones's career'. To further your career is, in fact, usually about taking something that is not financially beneficial but valuable for the experience or worldview that it imparts.

I live in Austin. I think my career will be fine here.

Same, however my company is wanting me to relocate to the Bay Area.

For a bit of background, I have been in Austin for about 7 years, and coding professionally for almost 3 at this company. This has been my first full time job out of college and I have really enjoyed working for them.

The cost of living adjustment they're offering is not what I was hoping it would be. After you take out California state taxes, it is really only about a 15% bump. I would say I make slightly above average for austin, and it would put me about below average in SF/OAK according to this graph. Rent is the huge killer for me because we (wife and I) will probably be paying around $1000 more a month.

Long story short, the financials aren't ideal for moving out there, however part of me wants to get out for a bit and live somewhere new. Also I do think it would help me advance faster if I was out there, because Austin is a satellite office and HQ is in the Bay Area.

I'm really on the fence about it :/

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#214

Post by pedrosorio »

user5994461 wrote: post #156
what_ever wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see people quoting those amounts for all of valley but South Bay isn't $4000 for a flat, SF is. In MTV, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose 1 Bed starts from 2k, 2 Bed from 2.5k and 3 Bed from 3k. It gets cheaper as you go South. If you want better quality/newer apartments, add $500.

Do you realize that any of these flats would be less than 1000 in Germany?

Do you realize that at $150k gross pay, that's ~$96k net/year or $8k/month -> $6k after paying for rent?

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#215

Post by DerfNet »

softawre wrote: post #210
aantix wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Engineers outside the Valley often list the cost of living as a negative, but coupled with the insane amount of salary leverage (in part because of the COL), I never got financially ahead until I moved to the Bay Area. You're a King in SV as a software engineer.

You're a king? So you live in a mansion? I live in the midwest, wife doesn't work, 10 years experience - we live in a 4k sqft house in the best school district in the state about 25 minutes from the city. How much does that cost in SV?

do you have to commute an hour a day?

I'm not from silicon valley but priorities vary a lot from person to person. I value shortest possible commute time much higher than an extra ~2500 square feet I don't need.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#216

Post by tetha »

humanrebar wrote: post #184
jschwartzi wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You give them important projects to lead, and give them bigger budgets to manage those projects.

At some point, that's the job description of a manager, not an engineer.

Mh.

Answering from my position. I didn't get responsibility for more systems, or bigger projects, or things like that. They made me responsible for the technical side of production. All of it, zero wiggle room.

Overall, I would not consider myself a manager. I don't have disciplinary rights, even in my team. I guess if I want someone gone, they will leave the company, but I'm no disciplinary superior.

And in my space, technical considerations still dominate. My decisions just cost more or less, affect availability, maintainability, support of our software, alow teams to go faster.

I code less chef and terraform, yeah. I'd like to do so more. But fuck me, it's better for my team to tell people to do as my team wants. It's better for me to keep my head above single resources and servers, so we keep a tactical view.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#217

Post by angersock »

vkou wrote: post #185
regulation_d wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I'd be surprised if any employees, C-level or not, get preferred stock. Unless you're putting skin in the game, you're probably stuck with common stock.

Working for below market rates is putting skin in the game.

"B-but but but muh founder status!"

It's a scam.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#218

Post by csallen »

vkou wrote: post #185
regulation_d wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I'd be surprised if any employees, C-level or not, get preferred stock. Unless you're putting skin in the game, you're probably stuck with common stock.

Working for below market rates is putting skin in the game.

The reality of the situation is that it's not about what you do, but about how hard it is to find someone else to do what you do.

If it's easy to find programmers who will work for below-market rates, but hard to find investors who will contribute millions of dollars, then you can expect programmers to have much less negotiating power.

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#219

Post by twobyfour »

steverb wrote: post #9

I find it kind of amusing that someone with 5-7 years is generally considered a senior software engineer in SV. Maybe we need a different designation for engineers with 10-20 years of experience? Something other than "the old man/lady".

Let alone someone with 40-50 years programming?

Re: Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

#220

Post by corpMaverick »

humanrebar wrote: post #131
deepsun wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another possible explanation is that business just don't see much difference between junior work performance and senior work performance. I have 15 years of experience (both huge companies and own startups), but I keep wondering what if it's really the case: that there's simply no difference for company success? When I hire people myself, I only see value up until mid-seniority. From there what matters is just discip…

> that there's simply no difference for company success I've found that organizational structure and politics become a limiting factor past a certain level of skill and experience. That is, for one engineer to be obviously worth the price of three or four others, they'll need more responsibility and resources somehow. In finance, the responsibility is easy to delegate: it's the size (actual money) of decisions they'l…

> I've found that organizational structure and politics become a limiting factor past a certain level of skill and experience. > That is, for one engineer to be obviously worth the price of three or four others, they'll need more responsibility and resources somehow.

That is actually an excellent point. As a senior developer you need to be able to leverage your experience. That is, being able to make decisions, being able to teach and mentor, etc.

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