6 ms·

$91k for an engineer salary is unusually high everywhere outside of the united states and switzerland.

humanrebar 8y ago
It's still low if you invented flash memory. Looking at market rates is the wrong paradigm for that kind of breakthrough. It presumes you could replace the flash inventor with another engineer for about the same salary.
- SagelyGuru 8y ago
  "It presumes you could replace the flash inventor with another engineer for about the same salary." Yes, you can, if you already own his patent and do not expect him to invent anything else. It seems that is how the management looked at it.
msh 8y ago
91k is not uncommon (it's often higher) for senior developers/engineers in Scandinavia.
- GordonS 8y ago
  Sure, but everything in Scandinavia is expensive compared to the rest of Europe (I work for a Scandinavian company).
- philangist 8y ago
  I'd love to work in Norway or Sweden one day. Do you know what the tech scene in Oslo or Stockholm are like? My experience is mostly in building backend/distributed systems.
  - mseebach 8y ago
    The scene is great in Stockholm, anchored in Spotify, King and a good representation of games companies (EA has a decent representation if I remember correctly). My knowledge of Oslo is limited, but from what I have heard, thing are a bit stunted there. Copenhagen (my former home turf) used to be not great, basically software engineering was/is considered low status and all the smart devs in corporations were steered to higher status, but less technical, roles like architect, consulting or project management (or other middle management). Denmark really bought into the idea that we're the ideas people, the grunt work can be done in India or Poland or whatever. Some successful software startups came out of there, like Endomondo, Vivino and Zendesk, but they moved their centre of gravity to the bay area at first opportunity. This has since changed, and from what I've heard there's a fairly happening startup scene there now (still an awful place to be a corporate dev, though).
- ImSkeptical 8y ago
  Aren't taxes and cost of living much higher though?
eliben 8y ago
That's not a particularly high salary for a senior SW engineer in Israel (where the cost of living is lower than in Japan)

It's still low if you invented flash memory. Looking at market rates is the wrong paradigm for that kind of breakthrough. It presumes you could replace the flash inventor with another engineer for about the same salary.

SagelyGuru 8y ago
"It presumes you could replace the flash inventor with another engineer for about the same salary." Yes, you can, if you already own his patent and do not expect him to invent anything else. It seems that is how the management looked at it.

msh 8y ago

91k is not uncommon (it's often higher) for senior developers/engineers in Scandinavia.

GordonS 8y ago
Sure, but everything in Scandinavia is expensive compared to the rest of Europe (I work for a Scandinavian company).
philangist 8y ago
I'd love to work in Norway or Sweden one day. Do you know what the tech scene in Oslo or Stockholm are like? My experience is mostly in building backend/distributed systems.
- mseebach 8y ago
  The scene is great in Stockholm, anchored in Spotify, King and a good representation of games companies (EA has a decent representation if I remember correctly). My knowledge of Oslo is limited, but from what I have heard, thing are a bit stunted there. Copenhagen (my former home turf) used to be not great, basically software engineering was/is considered low status and all the smart devs in corporations were steered to higher status, but less technical, roles like architect, consulting or project management (or other middle management). Denmark really bought into the idea that we're the ideas people, the grunt work can be done in India or Poland or whatever. Some successful software startups came out of there, like Endomondo, Vivino and Zendesk, but they moved their centre of gravity to the bay area at first opportunity. This has since changed, and from what I've heard there's a fairly happening startup scene there now (still an awful place to be a corporate dev, though).
ImSkeptical 8y ago
Aren't taxes and cost of living much higher though?

eliben 8y ago

That's not a particularly high salary for a senior SW engineer in Israel (where the cost of living is lower than in Japan)