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Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

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Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#31

Post by fooaway »

kelukelugames wrote: post #5
runako wrote: post #2

According to the data here, salaries for "Senior software engineer" in both SF and NYC are lagging rental inflation over the last 5 years. Does this jibe with reality? Is the data bad, or are engineers losing ground?

To be honest the numbers sound low. This could be because visa holders don't have a lot of leverage when negotiating. I have seen much higher paystubs and offer letters for the listed companies in Seattle. And I imagine the valley and NYC pays more than Seattle despite some companies claiming they don't change pay based on location.

Low? They seem high! Is this total comp or just base?

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#32

Post by kevingao1 »

smrtinsert wrote: post #23

If Yahoos engineering salaries are so great, why do we never hear about them? How's their worklife balance?

one piece which i tried to mention here is that salar.ly and LCA don't incorporate equity, incentive bonuses, and other pieces of compensation; this is just the base salary submitted in the application. for example ex-Google friend immediately felt like Google was too low, since a significant % of their comp is tied to incentive bonuses; and for startups, you'd have to consider the dollar value of equity

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#33

Post by spacehome »

wheaties wrote: post #17

One confounding factor not considered here is the number of "senior" engineers with less than 4yr work experience. Seriously, title inflation is just as rampant if not more in the tech sector than wage inflation. So how do you account for Senior Engineer vs here's a job we'll just add this nice title to.

Computer science is distinct in that it's common to gain experience without working.

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#34

Post by spacehome »

dpritchett wrote: post #7
namenotrequired wrote: post #3

> Marketing Director — $400,700 > Director of Marketing — $385,000 Are these different roles now?

There are actual reported data points underlying this. Likely they are just two similar jobs (maybe even the same one in different time frames) that were reported differently.

Could just be measurement error, too.

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#35

Post by kevingao1 »

dpritchett wrote: post #7
namenotrequired wrote: post #3

> Marketing Director — $400,700 > Director of Marketing — $385,000 Are these different roles now?

There are actual reported data points underlying this. Likely they are just two similar jobs (maybe even the same one in different time frames) that were reported differently.

agreed -- there's no uniformity in how companies fill out these apps; for example, as I briefly mentioned in the post but didn't look far into, even the company name "Google" was typed in 3 or 4 ways

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#36

Post by thejdude »

untog wrote: post #21
thejdude wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's low to you? Wow. Just wow. Over here in Europe (or at least Germany) salaries are incredibly uniform (doesn't really matter if you suck or get as much done in a day as others in 1-2 weeks; if your bugs get constantly reopened or your code is rock-solid), and most people seem to get maybe 35-50k€ after graduation (diploma/master's degree).

Bear in mind that the US is severely out of whack in terms of work/life balance. It's one of the things I find most difficult about living here - when I first arrived I had 10 days vacation a year. I currently only have 15. And don't forget to factor in healthcare costs and the like. Money certainly isn't everything.

Yes, but healthcare is a few 100 bucks a month, which we pay too, only for us it's mandatory by government.

Vacation sounds like a real problem, but it seems like you could circumvent that by going freelance and just taking off x days a year between projects.

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#37

Post by keerthiko »

wheaties wrote: post #17

One confounding factor not considered here is the number of "senior" engineers with less than 4yr work experience. Seriously, title inflation is just as rampant if not more in the tech sector than wage inflation. So how do you account for Senior Engineer vs here's a job we'll just add this nice title to.

My understanding that seniority had more to do with whether people report to you/you have more experience with the relevant tech stack than the not-Senior Engineers, in terms of being able to produce results. Why exactly does number of years have to be the only metric to measure seniority?

If say, my former classmate has been at a company for 3 years right out of college, and I was at a different employer(s) working on a different stack for the same 3 years. And then I join his company, I think it would make sense for him to be a senior engineer while I'm not, even though we have the same "experience as engineer" as far as time goes.

Although really, titles don't mean anything in the tech sector anyway, so not like that makes a difference. It's the company structure that matters a lot more.

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#38

Post by wyuenho »

thejdude wrote: post #19
simonsarris wrote: post #15

Why are tech salaries so low? Especially from these companies with large profit margins and huge revenue per employee numbers. It seems like engineers have captured almost nothing of the fruit of their labors.

That's low to you? Wow. Just wow. Over here in Europe (or at least Germany) salaries are incredibly uniform (doesn't really matter if you suck or get as much done in a day as others in 1-2 weeks; if your bugs get constantly reopened or your code is rock-solid), and most people seem to get maybe 35-50k€ after graduation (diploma/master's degree).

Hey ah guys. Most devs in HK earn < 30k USD a year. China is half that, Taiwan is even worse. When you factor in how freaking expensive everything is in HK, especially real estate, HK devs in general are basically slave labors.

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#39

Post by tromobne8vb »

suyash wrote: post #24
wheaties wrote: post #17

One confounding factor not considered here is the number of "senior" engineers with less than 4yr work experience. Seriously, title inflation is just as rampant if not more in the tech sector than wage inflation. So how do you account for Senior Engineer vs here's a job we'll just add this nice title to.

I never clearly understood how many years of experience you need to become Sr. exactly, seems like everyone follows different rules.

It is completely arbitrary. At our company the entry level developer is "Senior Developer". It is literally the lowest developer title you can have.

Re: Tech salary insights from 1.2M foreign worker visas

#40

Post by kin »

suyash wrote: post #24
wheaties wrote: post #17

One confounding factor not considered here is the number of "senior" engineers with less than 4yr work experience. Seriously, title inflation is just as rampant if not more in the tech sector than wage inflation. So how do you account for Senior Engineer vs here's a job we'll just add this nice title to.

I never clearly understood how many years of experience you need to become Sr. exactly, seems like everyone follows different rules.

It's all over the place. A college dropout who starts a start-up as CTO then fails within the year will apply as a senior. But, it's one of those things where I don't judge a book by its cover in either direction. After talking to the person in the right context there's a certain confidence and deep level of understanding that I expect from senior engineers and it never reflects their years of experience.
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