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Ask HN: What is an acceptable starting salary for Upper Middle Class in USA
Being An Indian student studying computer science in a US university (Cornell), what is an aspirational starting salary?
The course i am going to embark upon M.Eng. in CS has 36k$ tuition (its year long course) and salaries are 80k$ per Annum on average. However i know quite a few ppl who went to Microsoft as SDET or Tech Analyst in Amazon who got 85K$ base + ~30-40k$ in stock!
So the question is what is an aspirational starting salary in USA.
I am interested in creating my own startup as well but just to get an idea.
- vital101 16y agoThis depends heavily on location and field. If you are outside of the valley, anywhere between 45k-65k seems about right to me in almost any programming related position.
- lightbeing 16y agofor nyc or sfbay or seattle?
- vital101 16y agoYou may want to look at Salary.com, PayScale.com, and Glassdoor.com. They should give you a pretty good idea.
- starkfist 16y ago$80K is normal in those places if you're pretty good. Maybe more at Amazon since it's a hardship post.
- lightbeing 16y agoAnd how much do companies such as Goldman/McKinsey pay?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- yalurker 16y agoCost of living varies widely across the US. HFT jobs most likely take place in Manhattan where 150k is the same quality of life as maybe 80k in a place like Austin. As others have suggested, the location is as important as the salary. Check out the various cost of living calculators on the web to be able to compare jobs in different cities.
- lightbeing 16y agothank you all for commenting