Live data from Hacker News

My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

humanwhocodes.com

221–230 of 691 posts

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#221

Very interesting thread this link has spawned. Not telling each other how much we make is only good for our employers, not us. So here we go: The Netherlands, 26yo male: 45k ($50k) as a technical trainee. It's €3200 ($3600) pre-tax a month and €2350 ($2670) after tax with %12,5 end of year bonus. First job here, and this is already above modal for my country. I'm very happy with it, especially seeing I don't have a f…

It boggles my mind that salaries can be so much lower in parts of Europe, while expenses are about the same as the US. Of course if you are living in New York City or San Francisco area expenses are higher, but most places they are not.

Even the big companies do this. My employer is a FANG and I'm based in London. Rents are nearly as expensive as in San Francisco... But if I moved to Silicon Valley, I'd get 40% more base pay for the same work.

The only justification for this policy is something called "cost of labor" — in other words: "We've agreed with other tech companies that nobody's going to raise salaries locally."

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#222
post #148

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…

[deleted]

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#223

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…

Italian here too, 1978. Salary is after taxes:

1999 - 12000 €/year - Junior sysadm @ ISP (startup)

2002 - 19000 €/year - Sysadmin @ large ISP

Then I had issues paying my bills and mortgage, so I moved to Ireland

2007 - 42000 €/year - Senior Sysadmin @ small R&D company

2008 - 45000 €/year - Network Engineer @ large multinational

2009 - 52000 €/year - Senior Sysadmin @ fintech company

2010 - 65000 €/year - Senior Sysadm @ US startup based in IE

2012 - 70000 €/year - Devops Engineer @ US startup based in IE

2015 - 80000 €/year - Technical Lead @ remote job

Now - 90000 €/year as TechOps Lead for another remote position.

If I where you I'd try at least ranking up your salary moving out of Italy, then with the connections you make you can easily double or triple your salary. JM2EC.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#224
I’m a bit sad about seeing some of the numbers here, and happy about seeing some others to add some perspective.

For me:

- 2010 Company A €37000 - Netherlands

- 2011 Freelance €21000 - Netherlands

- 2012 Company B €34000 - Netherlands

- 2013 Company C ¥2.5M (€19000) - Japan

- 2014 Company C ¥3.6M (€27000) - Japan

- 2016 Company D ¥5.0M (€38000) - Japan

- 2017 Company D ¥5.5M (€42000) - Japan

- 2018 Startup E ¥6.0M (€46000) - Japan

- 2018 Company F ¥8.0M (€61000) - Japan

All have been some form of engineering position. I’d love to break into the ridiculous compensations I see around here, but it seems the only way to get any form of raise is to move around a lot.

I’m fairly convinced this is because companies are unable to properly assess skill in an interview, so they use previous salary as a proxy to determine if a candidate might be worth it.

I’m getting to the age/place in life where I’d prefer to stay at the same place, so I’m hoping company F is willing to see the light in that regard.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#225
post #103

I am a brown male working in India. The salaries are rounded to the nearest 100000 INR. USD values are rounded to the nearest 1000 USD. These are salaries per year . Need to emphasize this because when you see numbers like 3000 USD you may think this is per month. No it is indeed 3000 USD per year. When there are stocks involved, only the stocks that vest per year is included as part of the yearly salary. 2003 - 0 YO…

Please use commas or even quote numbers in thousands. Otherwise it is unreadable.

Edit: Here's an edited version for easy readability:

  2003 -  0 YOE -  200,000(  3,000 USD) - Software Engineer  - One of the very popular Indian IT firms
  2005 -  2 YOE -  300,000 (  4,000 USD) - Senior Engineer    - Same as above
  2007 -  4 YOE - 1,000,000 INR ( 14,000 USD) - Software Engineer  - A small American company with their office in India
  2009 -  6 YOE - 1,500,000 INR ( 20,000 USD) - Senior Engineer    - Another small American company with their office in India
  2011 -  8 YOE - 2,000,000 INR ( 28,000 USD) - Principal Engineer - Same as above
  2013 - 10 YOE - 3,500,000 INR ( 47,000 USD) - Principal Engineer - A big American company with their office in India
  2015 - 12 YOE - 7,000,000 INR ( 95,000 USD) - Principal Engineer - A big American company with their office in India
  2017 - 14 YOE - 9,500,000 INR (128,000 USD) - Principal Engineer - Same as above

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#226
post #103

I am a brown male working in India. The salaries are rounded to the nearest 100000 INR. USD values are rounded to the nearest 1000 USD. These are salaries per year . Need to emphasize this because when you see numbers like 3000 USD you may think this is per month. No it is indeed 3000 USD per year. When there are stocks involved, only the stocks that vest per year is included as part of the yearly salary. 2003 - 0 YO…

A quick question - presumably your first position was based in India - is this still true ? (I mean that's a 40-fold increase - well done, but if the India IT industry is seeing that sort of inflation it must be a weird ride.)

> but if the India IT industry is seeing that sort of inflation it must be a weird ride.

It depends, the IT out sourcing companies like Infosys and TCS wont pay such huge salaries, the American product based companies will be happy to pay them for the right candidate.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#227
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right, but I was referring to the Irish Sea. €95k (about $107k thanks to the atrocious euro atm) for that job would be ridiculously low in the valley, after all. As someone who left California for Europe because I wanted a better cultural fit I wouldn't tell Brits they should move to the US. But Ireland appears to offer better salaries, for all of its housing issues is still cheaper than southeast England, and isn't…

Hah, sorry, I assumed you meant the Atlantic and your username confirmed it in my head. Should have read your link more carefully.

Interestingly, Dublin ranked 19th in the Economist's 2018 Worldwide cost of living report, whereas London came 30th.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#228
post #148

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…

Depends of course where you are, but it sounds like you are getting underpaid.

In London a senior engineer will get at least £60k (depending on what 'senior' means and how many currently hot languages you list on your CV). I know people in obscure parts of the country, with next to no tech scene, who aren't far off that.

The real money in the UK is in contracting though, or go to the dark side and work in finance.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#229
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

At 2 years experience I was on ~50k package in Melbourne, and at 6 years ~200k. The pay tends to start off a lot lower here compared to the hot spots in the US but somewhat catches up from what I’ve seen.

Can you describe you position, I am assuming an architect?

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#230

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…

Get on Upwork, you will make more after ~2 years of developing your reputation.
Post reply on HN