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My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

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Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#401

Post by codemonkeythrow »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #351
codemonkeythrow wrote: post #189

I'm probably the lowest paid person in the whole thread. 2015 - $40,000 USD - remote for a small company 2017 - $32,000 USD - on-site for a tiny company 2018 - $33,000 USD - remote for another small company I was asked what my current salary is during one of my on-site interviews at FAANG. I had to put on a poker face and lie about it.

> I'm probably the lowest paid person in the whole thread. Maybe. Where do you live?

Turns our I'm not the lowest. This Indian guy got me beat: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18343659

>Where do you live?

Southeast Asia where my total annual expenditure is less than $10k USD. Thanks to this I'm putting more than 50% of my gross salary into my retirement savings. Despite my low salary I probably have higher net worth than most HNers.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#402

Post by rootusrootus »

I don't remember my total history exactly (yearly increments especially), but it went something like this...

- 1999: 32K, sysadmin, tiny ISP

- 2000: 48K, sysadmin, small telecom co

- 2002-2013: 65K->105K, sysadmin->developer, small telecom

- 2014-2018: 120K->140K, developer, medium sized co

This is all in Portland Oregon, and does not include bonus or stock numbers. Having recently been a manager for a while, I'm paid slightly higher than average for an experienced developer at my company. I'm in the process of looking for my next gig. Mostly because I'm bored, not because I'm looking for more money.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#403

Post by throwaway_sw_12 »

- 2013-2015 student - 2013-2014 $25/hr internship 20 hours/week - 2015 50k internship converted to full time - 2016 105k software engineer at startup - 2017 130k software engineer at same startup - 2018 145k lead software engineer at same startup

all of these are in low cost southwest (not Phoenix, think mountains)

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#404

Post by esotericn »

https://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation is a pretty interesting read, I think.

It does seem to me based on reading these topics that there's a set of developers that think anything above X is crazy, and a set of developers that think anything below X is crazy, and they don't really overlap.

That's the case across all disciplines/people, of course (I guess you'd call it... the class system?) but I think it's a lot less discrete.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#405

Post by varjag »

fileeditview wrote: post #357
varjag wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone needs to pay for housing either, but most do. Point is, cost of living isn't just about groceries on the farmers' market.

It's pretty sensible to assume that housing is one of the most important aspects of cost of living contrary to a Macbook. Also the parent was stating "for example" which implies there are other factors.

Housing is also a lot more variable than a Macbook. Even within the same country, it can easily differ 3-4x depending on the region. There's a reason it's not counted when calculating consumer price indexes or GDP PPP figures.

For Estonia above, the cost of most everything else than local produce is comparable to the Western Europe or the States. Clothing, petrol, consumer electronics, foreign vacations are not any cheaper.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#406

Post by memyselfi66 »

Not many ops or 40+ answers. White male only high school educated. Self taught CS.

Here is mine from an ops management perspective. Missouri.

$30K 88-89 - Progress database developer Insurance $50K 89-94 - Citi started as technical support ended up LAN Manager $60K 94-96 - Independent Consultant for PC sellers doing LAN/WAN installations $65K 96-97 - National reseller as Systems Engineer Manager $100K - 99-09 National telecom company as international call center technical manager $150K - 09 to current VP of IT for legal software company responsible for ops and development

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#407

Post by eertami »

CalRobert wrote: post #364
eertami wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And an important detail to remember is that Europeans usually work a lot less than Americans. Due to progressive taxes people tend to choose for more time off rather than more pay. Yep, anecdotal but time is just so much more valuable in my 20s than the extra (taxed) money. The sweet spot atleast for me is a 3 day work week. Pays enough and it has a decent balance. I could never trade this situation for a US dev job…

Yeah - but I was referring to Ireland. When headhunters contact me it's weird how the British ones offer surprisingly low salaries compared to Ireland, Germany, Finland, etc. (obviously this is after converting to EUR). I suppose I should have been more specific about which sea I referred to. And time is incredibly valuable, if only because for most of us enjoying time is the whole damn point of working. I find playi…

Yeah that's fair, but (again, purely personal) I also wouldn't want to move from the Alps to live in Dublin, no matter the salary.

I agree that the salaries are lower, but also tax is a fair bit less in the UK than some EU countries. When I did the math on paying UK taxes vs registering in France for French taxes, the take home would only have been ~50% of net salary on the French system.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#409

Post by bambamb »

It amazes me that someone as intelligent as this guy can say something asinine as “as a white man I know I can negotiate without backlash.” Not only is there no evidence to support this, he seems completely oblivious to the fact that he is not a representative white man at all. He has written widely used books on JavaScript! Don’t you think THAT might be the reason he can negotiate without backlash rather than his race and sex which he has in common with probably half of all applicants? Please don’t paint all of us just average, struggling white men as undeserving and privileged just because you have been extremely fortunate and successful.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#410

Post by sures »

8sigma wrote: post #380
sures wrote: 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…

Hi,I am also from India(staying in Bangalore) and would like some advice from you.I have over 5 years of experience as a Programmer.For the first 3 years I have worked as a contractor.From the last 2 years I am working as a Software Engineer in a small startup and my take home salary is 70000INR(monthly).I want to switch to a more stable job with better salaries.I have never worked for a big company.What does it take…

I see this thread has become a point of interest for many. I wish I could offer some wise advice. But the truth is that I have not done anything special or done any special preparation in my career.

The only thing I have done is learn tech and non-tech stuff. I do it everyday. It is easy for me because I like technology. Computers have been my hobby for a long time. I read a lot of books in all kinds of domains. And I read a lot more for my special domain of interest (distributed systems). So I think this naturally makes me equipped for most kinds of interviews. I do not like solving or reading about puzzles that do not have a relation with real world projects, so I am naturally bad at such kind of interviews.

I am myself not a fan of CTCI. But I think CLRS is a good start. Sorry I don't have better advice than this. Someone else in this awesome forum could be of better help to you.

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