6 ms·

What market in the US is a 100k comp competitive for a software engineer these days?

snowwrestler 5y ago
The announcement says “early career” and “recent graduates,” so pretty junior. $100k is a competitive salary for a junior software dev in DC. Heck, for someone right out of school, it’s probably competitive anywhere but the Bay Area, NY, maybe Seattle.
- vmception 5y ago
  Staying limited to a middle market region is a waste of time You only live once Make your bed and sleep in it, but at least do it objectively Regional cost of living discussions are cute - in that they masquerade as an insightful understanding of money - but most monetary thresholds do not take it into account. Accredited investor status or convincing anyone of it to get access to private equity for a better chance at making some real money? Cost of living is not a factor, its >200k income annually or >$1mm assets without including your home. Lying conveys no negative consequence but you still need the disposable money. Being responsibly ahead of rent/mortgage payments every paycheck means an extra $1500 - maybe - in a middle market place versus an extra $4500-$7000. These are worlds apart in capabilities. Impulse buy a new console? Flight to Europe? Everything is more accessible and faster. The former amount will get eaten up by some random repair or holiday activity or friend’s life event. The latter will get you all that and everything you want and accumulation at a much higher velocity. Saving up for various things is for the birds, we have all the same fixed amount of time with lots of randomness to shorten it. Not worth rationalizing lower comp, when the same or less work gets you 3-10x more.
crooked-v 5y ago
Also, the pay scale completely maxes out at GS-15 step 10, with a base of $142,180 and a maximum CoL adjustment of 41.44% in places like San Francisco.
- verst 5y ago
  I used to be a GS-15, Step 5 for a short stint in government while living in SF. I was within $5k of the pay cap due to the location adjustment. Cap was somewhere around $165k at the time. Still, this was significantly worse than my job before and after. For some people on the team their government salary was a good step up, others didn't necessarily need the money and were there for the mission only. I was there for the mission, but certainly also needed the money.
knownjorbist 5y ago
You'd be surprised what you find if you peek out of the HN/valley/techbro bubble.
- kortilla 5y ago
  So which market then? Because that’s not competitive in DC, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake, Minneapolis, Dallas, Austin…
  - ketzo 5y ago
    Yeah but like, those are still huge cities $100k/yr is still enough to provide for a family of four in a huge number of places in the U.S. if you're in a more suburban or rural environment, which is still 9 digits' worth of human beings easily
    - jcrites 5y ago
      If they're offering remote work from anywhere in the country, including areas with low cost of living, for recent college graduates, maybe this makes sense. For anyone who has been in the industry 5-10 years at successful corporations the max total compensation of under $150K would be taking a massive pay cut.
    - bushbaba 5y ago
      100k/year is roughly 5-6k/month after tax in most places. You can buy a house for 2.5k/month. Seems like enough for most
      - ketzo 5y ago
        Agreed, except that you can buy a house for a lot less than 2.5k/month.
      - bsagdiyev 5y ago
        Where the hell are you getting 2.5k/mo? The mortgage on my 350k house is 1600!

The announcement says “early career” and “recent graduates,” so pretty junior. $100k is a competitive salary for a junior software dev in DC. Heck, for someone right out of school, it’s probably competitive anywhere but the Bay Area, NY, maybe Seattle.

vmception 5y ago
Staying limited to a middle market region is a waste of time You only live once Make your bed and sleep in it, but at least do it objectively Regional cost of living discussions are cute - in that they masquerade as an insightful understanding of money - but most monetary thresholds do not take it into account. Accredited investor status or convincing anyone of it to get access to private equity for a better chance at making some real money? Cost of living is not a factor, its >200k income annually or >$1mm assets without including your home. Lying conveys no negative consequence but you still need the disposable money. Being responsibly ahead of rent/mortgage payments every paycheck means an extra $1500 - maybe - in a middle market place versus an extra $4500-$7000. These are worlds apart in capabilities. Impulse buy a new console? Flight to Europe? Everything is more accessible and faster. The former amount will get eaten up by some random repair or holiday activity or friend’s life event. The latter will get you all that and everything you want and accumulation at a much higher velocity. Saving up for various things is for the birds, we have all the same fixed amount of time with lots of randomness to shorten it. Not worth rationalizing lower comp, when the same or less work gets you 3-10x more.

crooked-v 5y ago

Also, the pay scale completely maxes out at GS-15 step 10, with a base of $142,180 and a maximum CoL adjustment of 41.44% in places like San Francisco.

verst 5y ago
I used to be a GS-15, Step 5 for a short stint in government while living in SF. I was within $5k of the pay cap due to the location adjustment. Cap was somewhere around $165k at the time. Still, this was significantly worse than my job before and after. For some people on the team their government salary was a good step up, others didn't necessarily need the money and were there for the mission only. I was there for the mission, but certainly also needed the money.

knownjorbist 5y ago

You'd be surprised what you find if you peek out of the HN/valley/techbro bubble.

kortilla 5y ago
So which market then? Because that’s not competitive in DC, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake, Minneapolis, Dallas, Austin…
- ketzo 5y ago
  Yeah but like, those are still huge cities $100k/yr is still enough to provide for a family of four in a huge number of places in the U.S. if you're in a more suburban or rural environment, which is still 9 digits' worth of human beings easily
  - jcrites 5y ago
    If they're offering remote work from anywhere in the country, including areas with low cost of living, for recent college graduates, maybe this makes sense. For anyone who has been in the industry 5-10 years at successful corporations the max total compensation of under $150K would be taking a massive pay cut.
  - bushbaba 5y ago
    100k/year is roughly 5-6k/month after tax in most places. You can buy a house for 2.5k/month. Seems like enough for most
    - ketzo 5y ago
      Agreed, except that you can buy a house for a lot less than 2.5k/month.
    - bsagdiyev 5y ago
      Where the hell are you getting 2.5k/mo? The mortgage on my 350k house is 1600!