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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

#451

Post by ThrowawayUry »

Montevideo, Uruguay (most expensive country in South America):

  2004-2008 - Programmer at Software Factory - U$ 10.000 / year
  2008-2016 - Functional Analyst (developer really) at non-software company - U$ 30.000
  2016-2018 - Programmer Analyst (still developer + pm) at U.S. company's outsourcing center - U$ 55.000
Mis-spent a lot of money on an MBA (30k) which didn't bring me any additional income, and didn't save anything after 15 years' career :(

Also, over half my salary goes to taxes as I'm on the 2nd highest income bracket.

I'm hoping to get way more as a remote worker (and there are ways to get tax breaks that way).

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#452

Post by dominotw »

ThrowawayUry wrote: post #451

Montevideo, Uruguay (most expensive country in South America): 2004-2008 - Programmer at Software Factory - U$ 10.000 / year 2008-2016 - Functional Analyst (developer really) at non-software company - U$ 30.000 2016-2018 - Programmer Analyst (still developer + pm) at U.S. company's outsourcing center - U$ 55.000 Mis-spent a lot of money on an MBA (30k) which didn't bring me any additional income, and didn't save anyt…

Its ok. You can start saving now, its not too late. Don't worry.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#453

Post by thrmsforbfast »

hudon wrote: post #433
BowBun wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I think the author is right and you are contributing to the systemic issue by trying to deflect their mention of privilege. If you are a white male, you have privilege. I don't think OP would ever say that's the only factor to their success, but recognizing privilege and where you have taken advantage of it in life is healthy progress towards equality. http://psycnet.apa.org/rec…

Anecdotal but at my previous employer, women and some racial minorities were given a higher score during interviews because of their gender or race (this was explicit) and white men were de-prioritized. It was actually a disadvantage to be white.

This is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as anything except a temporary, remedial, and aspirational policy (McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail, Steelworkers v. Weber, Johnson v. Santa Clara).

We can probably expect the current SCOTUS to either introduce stricter tests or strengthen the current test. My own prediction is that, absent any sort of legislative action [1], SCOTUS will strengthen of the second prong of the Weber test ("not unnecessarily trammeled") to include the entire recruitment/hiring process. And probably also reaffirmations/broadening in scope of the "no quotas" rule.

From what I can tell, this is also a fairly recent phenomenon in tech. This guy's career goes back to 2000, back when tech jobs didn't have the appeal (or paychecks) they do today and diversity wasn't front-and-center. So even if you and GP are 100% correct about today [2], that doesn't really say anything about the world 20 years ago.

--

[1] which appears to be unlikely at the moment, but I'd be more confident saying so if Nov 7 fell within the edit window for this comment ;-)

[2] I'm intentionally stating this is a hypothetical and reserving my own opinion on it, because I think arguments are especially constructive when we can identify ways in which conclusions might fail even when accepting premises from which the conclusion is claimed to follow. Otherwise, especially on issues like this one, we end up with an intractable duel between contradictory axioms and no one benefits/learns anything.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#454

Post by scarface74 »

sidlls wrote: post #449
scarface74 wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about shaming people. HN is full of West Coast FAANG SV employees who are outliers. It's easy for people to feel that their perfectly normal salaries are low.

I'm not FAANG, but I am in SV, and my salary is currently around $200k/year (give or take). That's low compared to FAANG, but it's much higher, even adjusting for COL, than most of the "perfectly normal" lower salaries in these comments. That's not good: those lower salaries should be considered abnormally low; mine should be considered on the high end of average, maybe. Most software development (where software is t…

That's low compared to FAANG, but it's much higher, even adjusting for COL, than most of the "perfectly normal" lower salaries in these comments. That's not good: those lower salaries should be considered abnormally low; mine should be considered on the high end of average

These are the "average" salaries across the industry in different metro areas:

https://www.matrixres.com/salary-surveys

As far as $200K being high adjusted for COLA, in the burbs where I live. $330K gets you a house - brand new build in a top rated school system with five bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3000 square feet with a yard, two car garage, and a separate nice size office. What does that get you in SV?

Anyone making at least $110K can buy that house with an FHA loan with 3.5% down.

What a company is going to pay is based on the supply and demand.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#455

Post by throwaway23897 »

To add another "boring" salary data point:

- $56-70K USD - 2013-2015 - Software developer at a big corporation in the midwest.

- $90K USD - 2015 - Same company, new department. Unusually good pay for the area.

- $41-45K USD ($54-60K CAD) - 2016-current - Moved to Prince Edward Island, Canada (to marry my wife) and took a job as a software developer at one of the very few software companies here. The paycut was brutal, but all things considered, one of the best decisions I've ever made!

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#456

Post by joshpearson »

hudon wrote: post #433
BowBun wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the risk of opening a can of worms, I think the author is right and you are contributing to the systemic issue by trying to deflect their mention of privilege. If you are a white male, you have privilege. I don't think OP would ever say that's the only factor to their success, but recognizing privilege and where you have taken advantage of it in life is healthy progress towards equality. http://psycnet.apa.org/rec…

Anecdotal but at my previous employer, women and some racial minorities were given a higher score during interviews because of their gender or race (this was explicit) and white men were de-prioritized. It was actually a disadvantage to be white.

Why the downvotes?

The parent post claimed without any evidence that white males systemically take advantage of white privilege. This post gave a counterexample while being open about the fact that it's anecdotal

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#457

Post by burn1540907206 »

Let me add to the sharing:

A developer, EU, central-europe country with a single room flat rent around 500$.

2011-2012 - 4k$/ year - QA engineer intern in fortune 500 corp (part-time) 2012-2014 - 10k$/year - QA engineer (part-time) 2014-2016 - 20k$/year - QA engineer 2016-2018 - 30k$/year - Senior QA engineer 2018- - 36k$/year - Backend engineer, 3 day weekends, but some on-call duty

I would like to figure out how to get to one of those 100k$/year jobs in reasonably close future :-) Not sure how would I justify that just now with my current skill-set (unless somebody really wanted somebody specialized on QA :)

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#458

Post by bronxbomber92 »

readingnews wrote: post #444

I think the author is in fact unhumble bragging. I have been in IT for 26 years, have managed IT teams, every boss I have had would hire me back. I live in a mid sized city. I don't make close to half those numbers. I have no idea how these people get these crazy high salary jobs.

If you describe yourself as being in IT, I suspect that means your job description is very different from that of the author’s. Comparing salaries across different types of job doesn’t make much sense.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#459

Post by scarface74 »

xapata wrote: post #440
scarface74 wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about shaming people. HN is full of West Coast FAANG SV employees who are outliers. It's easy for people to feel that their perfectly normal salaries are low.

On the positive side, if we all feel like our salaries are low, we'll collectively ask for more money. Don't be jealous, but do ask for a raise.

Outside of Silicon Valley/NYC/DC, no one is going to pay your "full stack web developer", 200K. Full stack developers are a dime a dozen and you can outsource your typical CRUD Software As A Service app overseas or "rural source" it to Middle America.

Re: My somewhat complete salary history as a software engineer

#460

Post by friedman23 »

scarface74 wrote: post #454
sidlls wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not FAANG, but I am in SV, and my salary is currently around $200k/year (give or take). That's low compared to FAANG, but it's much higher, even adjusting for COL, than most of the "perfectly normal" lower salaries in these comments. That's not good: those lower salaries should be considered abnormally low; mine should be considered on the high end of average, maybe. Most software development (where software is t…

That's low compared to FAANG, but it's much higher, even adjusting for COL, than most of the "perfectly normal" lower salaries in these comments. That's not good: those lower salaries should be considered abnormally low; mine should be considered on the high end of average These are the "average" salaries across the industry in different metro areas: https://www.matrixres.com/salary-surveys As far as $200K being high…

>As far as $200K being high adjusted for COLA, in the burbs where I live. $330K gets you a house - brand new build in a top rated school system with five bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3000 square feet with a yard, two car garage, and a separate nice size office. What does that get you in SV?

Nobody actually plans on retiring in SF. When I'm done working here for 10 or 15 years I'll have enough to move and own a mansion in whatever town you live in and retire. After 2 years of working I already have $170k in savings.

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