9 ms·

Engineers Salary Data

23 points by throwaway713 10y ago

curiouscat321 10y ago
There's quite a bit of incorrect information on here. If you work for Facebook, I don't think the only sensible options are to ask for a 50% (!) raise or leave.
c0achmcguirk 10y ago
The numbers seem crazy inflated. Granted I'm in the midwest, but still, this guy's throwing around millions like candy.
kevlar1818 10y ago
> Starting salaries for fresh software engineering graduates is now $130K-160K. For the best ones its ~$180K. If you are doing a major in anything except CS you are a * I'm becoming convinced that this post is satire.
- bussierem 10y ago
  Logged in for the first time in a while to bring this up too. The moment I got to this part I just closed the tab. Doesn't matter how correct or incorrect this information is. The person posting this on Quora either succeeded in Poe's Law or is a complete a* themselves. This entire post just reeks of "if you're not a STEM graduate, specifically CS, you might as well just not exist, go do something useful"
  - throwaway713 10y ago
    I did not write the blog post but I did post it to HN. The reason is because I recently just accepted a position as data scientist fresh out of college and my salary is WAY WAY lower than those mentioned in this post. I was wondering if I got ripped off or not, and I figured the fastest way to determine whether these salaries were genuine was to post this here.
    - bussierem 10y ago
      Apologies. By "posting this", I meant the person posting to Quora, not you. I have edited my above response to clarify.
    - stale2002 10y ago
      So, it is complicated. If you graduated from a top 3 CS school, in the top 10 percent of your class, and you are going to go work for a top company like Google, FB, Uber, AND you are good at negotiating, then yes, these numbers are accurate. If you are not in that top percent in ALL of these categories, these numbers are not even close to accurate.
- bcherny 10y ago
  From what I've seen, this is accurate for medium-big tech companies in the Bay Area. Unlikely to be as high outside of the Bay.
- nunez 10y ago
  Not satire; they are including stock comp
tschwimmer 10y ago
>Facebook has lost relevance to Slack, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and Quora. If you are working at Facebook ask for a 50% raise else move to a startup. What? This is one of the more baseless assertions I've seen recently. Regardless of how you feel about Facebook's business practices and "relevance," 1.2 billion (yes, billion) people use it every single day.[0] In 2015, its revenues were 18 billion (yes, billion) dollars. [1] I just don't know how you can look at those figures and make an assertion you need to demand a 50% raise or quit. I think you could do a lot worse than being an engineer at FB right now (and for the foreseeable future). [0]http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ [1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/277229/facebooks-annual-revenue-and-net-income/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/277229/facebooks-annual-...
- CaveTech 10y ago
  I mean, isn't it the goal of SE's to chase the newest hottest, thing and switch jobs every 6 months? I mean that's the real way to have a lasting impact /s At this point I'm betting there's a real pool of engineers in SV who have never worked on a real product; they simply focus on getting in the door and then start working on the next step up somewhere else.
mrg3_2013 10y ago
Is this for real ? He probably caught the low tail of the distribution and is claiming to be the average.
- jeandejean 10y ago
  Throwing out loud numbers without any evidence or source… Just look like an annoyingly fruitful attempt to gather views on Quora to me. Maybe it is satire as some suggest, but still annoying!
  - mrg3_2013 10y ago
    Someone downvote this thread already! Yeah, it's a satire as proven by "UPDATE: I get lot of immigration related questions from Pakistan and Bangladesh. I think your best immigration option is CHINA. Thank you!"
    - jaclaz 10y ago
      Well, he is a prolific satire Author then, compare with: https://careeradvise.quora.com/Best-Ways-to-Save-Money-in-USA https://careeradvise.quora.com/Best-Ways-to-Save-Money-in-US... https://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-of-the-top-JEE-rankers-AIR1-AIR10-end-up-in-teaching-profession https://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-of-the-top-JEE-rankers-AIR...?
      - mrg3_2013 10y ago
        * If all Americans stop paying for Cable TV, it will also shrink the trade deficit by 8%* This guy...writes :)
pesfandiar 10y ago
> All US companies hire in Canada for roughly equal pay (after tax) if not more. It couldn't be more wrong. Even without considering the ~3/4 exchange rate or the lower income tax, the dollar value is a good 10-50% higher in the states. Source: I live in Vancouver and have many friends working 200 km to the South in Seattle.
- nick_ 10y ago
  I came here to say the same thing. I've been looking at moving to the US specifically to make more money. My gathered information showed me that the same job in the US pays at least 50% more (corrected for the different currencies).
  - divbit 10y ago
    Just hope you don't need to go to the hospital!
freyir 10y ago
Numbers are higher than I've heard anywhere else. The guy apparently spent time at Microsoft, Google, and Groupon (he joined right before it collapsed), so he should know what he's talking about. Or he's trying to make a name for himself.
- jeandejean 10y ago
  The only thing for sure is that he claims to have spent time at these companies. It might certainly be as phony as his numbers.
EduardoBautista 10y ago
Saying that India has better engineering programs than the USA really makes me believe this is some sort of satire.
- stale2002 10y ago
  I'm facebook friends with this guy. ..... Unfortunately, it is NOT satire.....
  - jeandejean 10y ago
    You are so convincing, we must believe you then if you are friend with the fraud on Facebook…
acconrad 10y ago
How is the HN community upvoting this? There is not a single piece of actual data that actually backs any single one of these outlandish salary claims. This is all hearsay from one single source with no proof whatsoever. Given that HN has been on a fake news crusade (and rightly so), I would expect we would have the critical thinking not to entertain this kind of nonsense.
- grzm 10y ago
  As of the time of this comment, the story is marked '[flagged]'. You do have some specific criticisms, which is great. Statements such as How is the HN community upvoting this? and Given that HN has been on a fake news crusade (and rightly so), I would expect we would have the critical thinking not to entertain this kind of nonsense. are generalized swipes at the community you're participating in. There are many more than 21 people on HN (the number of upvotes this has received so far). Painting the whole community with the same broad brush is unfair.
datatad 10y ago
There are no "data" in this post -- just "citation needed" assertions that, even if true, are skewed to tech giants in the Bay area, Seattle, and maybe NY finance scene. These numbers are easily the 90th or greater percentile of software engineering compensation. If you want rigorous random-sample survey data, look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics - Occupational Employment Statistics. The median software developer salary is around $100k ($65k for web developers - don't call yourself a web developer!), and $150k is 90th percentile. (However these don't include equity.) https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151132.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151132.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151133.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151133.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151134.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151134.htm
igotsideas 10y ago
I was trying to look at the post today and it was deleted.

23 points by throwaway713 10y ago

There's quite a bit of incorrect information on here. If you work for Facebook, I don't think the only sensible options are to ask for a 50% (!) raise or leave.

c0achmcguirk 10y ago

The numbers seem crazy inflated. Granted I'm in the midwest, but still, this guy's throwing around millions like candy.

kevlar1818 10y ago

> Starting salaries for fresh software engineering graduates is now $130K-160K. For the best ones its ~$180K. If you are doing a major in anything except CS you are a * I'm becoming convinced that this post is satire.

bussierem 10y ago
Logged in for the first time in a while to bring this up too. The moment I got to this part I just closed the tab. Doesn't matter how correct or incorrect this information is. The person posting this on Quora either succeeded in Poe's Law or is a complete a* themselves. This entire post just reeks of "if you're not a STEM graduate, specifically CS, you might as well just not exist, go do something useful"
- throwaway713 10y ago
  I did not write the blog post but I did post it to HN. The reason is because I recently just accepted a position as data scientist fresh out of college and my salary is WAY WAY lower than those mentioned in this post. I was wondering if I got ripped off or not, and I figured the fastest way to determine whether these salaries were genuine was to post this here.
  - bussierem 10y ago
    Apologies. By "posting this", I meant the person posting to Quora, not you. I have edited my above response to clarify.
  - stale2002 10y ago
    So, it is complicated. If you graduated from a top 3 CS school, in the top 10 percent of your class, and you are going to go work for a top company like Google, FB, Uber, AND you are good at negotiating, then yes, these numbers are accurate. If you are not in that top percent in ALL of these categories, these numbers are not even close to accurate.
bcherny 10y ago
From what I've seen, this is accurate for medium-big tech companies in the Bay Area. Unlikely to be as high outside of the Bay.
nunez 10y ago
Not satire; they are including stock comp

tschwimmer 10y ago

>Facebook has lost relevance to Slack, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest and Quora. If you are working at Facebook ask for a 50% raise else move to a startup. What? This is one of the more baseless assertions I've seen recently. Regardless of how you feel about Facebook's business practices and "relevance," 1.2 billion (yes, billion) people use it every single day.[0] In 2015, its revenues were 18 billion (yes, billion) dollars. [1] I just don't know how you can look at those figures and make an assertion you need to demand a 50% raise or quit. I think you could do a lot worse than being an engineer at FB right now (and for the foreseeable future). [0]http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ [1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/277229/facebooks-annual-revenue-and-net-income/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/277229/facebooks-annual-...

CaveTech 10y ago
I mean, isn't it the goal of SE's to chase the newest hottest, thing and switch jobs every 6 months? I mean that's the real way to have a lasting impact /s At this point I'm betting there's a real pool of engineers in SV who have never worked on a real product; they simply focus on getting in the door and then start working on the next step up somewhere else.

mrg3_2013 10y ago

Is this for real ? He probably caught the low tail of the distribution and is claiming to be the average.

jeandejean 10y ago
Throwing out loud numbers without any evidence or source… Just look like an annoyingly fruitful attempt to gather views on Quora to me. Maybe it is satire as some suggest, but still annoying!
- mrg3_2013 10y ago
  Someone downvote this thread already! Yeah, it's a satire as proven by "UPDATE: I get lot of immigration related questions from Pakistan and Bangladesh. I think your best immigration option is CHINA. Thank you!"
  - jaclaz 10y ago
    Well, he is a prolific satire Author then, compare with: https://careeradvise.quora.com/Best-Ways-to-Save-Money-in-USA https://careeradvise.quora.com/Best-Ways-to-Save-Money-in-US... https://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-of-the-top-JEE-rankers-AIR1-AIR10-end-up-in-teaching-profession https://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-of-the-top-JEE-rankers-AIR...?
    - mrg3_2013 10y ago
      * If all Americans stop paying for Cable TV, it will also shrink the trade deficit by 8%* This guy...writes :)

pesfandiar 10y ago

> All US companies hire in Canada for roughly equal pay (after tax) if not more. It couldn't be more wrong. Even without considering the ~3/4 exchange rate or the lower income tax, the dollar value is a good 10-50% higher in the states. Source: I live in Vancouver and have many friends working 200 km to the South in Seattle.

nick_ 10y ago
I came here to say the same thing. I've been looking at moving to the US specifically to make more money. My gathered information showed me that the same job in the US pays at least 50% more (corrected for the different currencies).
- divbit 10y ago
  Just hope you don't need to go to the hospital!

freyir 10y ago

Numbers are higher than I've heard anywhere else. The guy apparently spent time at Microsoft, Google, and Groupon (he joined right before it collapsed), so he should know what he's talking about. Or he's trying to make a name for himself.

jeandejean 10y ago
The only thing for sure is that he claims to have spent time at these companies. It might certainly be as phony as his numbers.

EduardoBautista 10y ago

Saying that India has better engineering programs than the USA really makes me believe this is some sort of satire.

stale2002 10y ago
I'm facebook friends with this guy. ..... Unfortunately, it is NOT satire.....
- jeandejean 10y ago
  You are so convincing, we must believe you then if you are friend with the fraud on Facebook…

acconrad 10y ago

How is the HN community upvoting this? There is not a single piece of actual data that actually backs any single one of these outlandish salary claims. This is all hearsay from one single source with no proof whatsoever. Given that HN has been on a fake news crusade (and rightly so), I would expect we would have the critical thinking not to entertain this kind of nonsense.

grzm 10y ago
As of the time of this comment, the story is marked '[flagged]'. You do have some specific criticisms, which is great. Statements such as How is the HN community upvoting this? and Given that HN has been on a fake news crusade (and rightly so), I would expect we would have the critical thinking not to entertain this kind of nonsense. are generalized swipes at the community you're participating in. There are many more than 21 people on HN (the number of upvotes this has received so far). Painting the whole community with the same broad brush is unfair.

datatad 10y ago

There are no "data" in this post -- just "citation needed" assertions that, even if true, are skewed to tech giants in the Bay area, Seattle, and maybe NY finance scene. These numbers are easily the 90th or greater percentile of software engineering compensation. If you want rigorous random-sample survey data, look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics - Occupational Employment Statistics. The median software developer salary is around $100k ($65k for web developers - don't call yourself a web developer!), and $150k is 90th percentile. (However these don't include equity.) https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151132.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151132.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151133.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151133.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151134.htm https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151134.htm

igotsideas 10y ago

I was trying to look at the post today and it was deleted.