Silicon Valley Software Engineer Salaries by Experience Level

Post by klipt » Wed, Nov 29, 2017, 7:07 PM UTC

cairo140 wrote: post #65

ringaroundthetx wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, your analysis is correct. This is why the transparency is important. Check out www.h1bdata.info for what h1b holders are getting paid. The US Department of Labor forces this disclosure and is pretty up to date. Your tiny startup's cheap workers are probably in there too and you can deduce exactly who they are even though the names aren't in the disclosures.

H-1B applications often exclude expected value of bonus and RSUs (mine does) and can understate comp at bigtech by ~60k (entry level) to ~150k (mid level) to ~300k+ (senior+).

Post by regulation_d » Wed, Nov 29, 2017, 7:10 PM UTC

JonFish85 wrote: post #79

whataretensors wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at how little equity in startups engineers get. Don't settle for common stock, it's 95% of the time worthless. And if it isn't you should be a millionaire for your risk, definitely not less than RSU compensation at megacorp #3.

"Don't settle for common stock" Unless you're a C-level employee, you're not going to have the choice. And even then you're probably still not going to have a choice except in very rare cases (e.g. Uber's new CEO might have some decent protections). If you're "just" an employee, you're going to get laughed at if you demand anything besides common stock.

Post by pc86 » Wed, Nov 29, 2017, 7:12 PM UTC

rb808 wrote: post #34

santaclaus wrote: post #11

Is there any data on what the big companies (Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, ...) are starting software engineers at? Anecdotally, friends starting at Google out of school are getting base salary offers closer to the senior numbers here than the junior numbers.

One of the guys I work with has been working in NY for 30 years, his newly graduated daughter got a first job at Facebook and earns more than him in her first year. Either * SV is a bubble * NY is a bad places for devs * being an old dev doesn't pay probably all 3

Post by guyzero » Wed, Nov 29, 2017, 7:13 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #82

digitalsushi wrote: post #74

My god this is just another universe to me. I've got 19 years on the clock doing stuff, right now extending the jenkins model to make a usable 2.0 pipeline, for a fortune 50 hiding on the new hampshire seacoast, senior-straddling-principal level and just barely squeaking out a 6 figure salary. I know it all comes out in the wash, but it just blows my mind how different money is across the country. or, i am a country…

It really raises the question why anyone would put a software company in the Silicon Valley area. You could get cheaper and more experienced people pretty much anywhere in the world for at least 60 - 70% the price.

Post by otakucode » Wed, Nov 29, 2017, 7:13 PM UTC