4 ms·

> A mere 4~ years and 4 jobs later I now make 175,000 dollars as a senior software engineer. I'm in shock at just how underpaid I am as a gov't contractor. Is

by mdmglr 4y ago

> A mere 4~ years and 4 jobs later I now make 175,000 dollars as a senior software engineer. I'm in shock at just how underpaid I am as a gov't contractor. Is this 175k salary in a tech hub or the Midwest?

tylerhou 4y ago
$175k is mid to low end of new grad at FAANG in Bay Area.
noahtallen 4y ago
You do have to zoom in to a specific part of the economy to get these salaries. It’s jobs in the “tech” industry (places like startups, FAANGs, etc) rather than software dev in general. (So not programming stuff for an electric company.) And you have to have a few years experience; it’s not normal to get paid that much for entry level even at some of the biggest tech companies. So that excludes the Midwest for the most part, except remote tech companies are changing that. Places like Automattic or Airbnb (from their recent announcement) don’t pay based on location anymore, and won’t dock your pay if you move to the Midwest. These higher salaries are driven by VC money and demand for sure. In my personal experience and network, small startups, midsize startups, and massive tech companies are are all hiring as much as possible. Plus, the classic startup approach is to use VC money to fund product development by quickly increasing the number of devs, and then figuring out profitability down the road after you have tons of users. This leads to an environment where smaller startups don’t need to cut dev teams or hiring to increase profit margins — the main goal is to build the product asap and grow users. And that means hiring lots of decent devs. And then big companies like Amazon just have loads of money and tons of products that need constant improvement, which only happens with devs. So with significant competition and need to hire devs and lots of available money, developers have space to negotiate pretty great salaries. Again, this varies everywhere and maybe isn’t the same for “non-tech” companies quite as much (because that VC money and massive scale might not exist as much outside of tech).
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  > And you have to have a few years experience; it’s not normal to get paid that much for entry level even at some of the biggest tech companies. There’s someone in Pittsburgh on L3 (entry level) at Google, earning $158K total compensation. https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/Pittsburgh-Area/ https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/Pittsburgh... That’s substantially below what Google usually pay for entry level, $195K but that’s the joy of living in the Midwest, right? https://www.levels.fyi/company/Google/salaries/Software-Engineer/ https://www.levels.fyi/company/Google/salaries/Software-Engi...
leesec 4y ago
It's a global company but not particularly known for being Tech-y. It's also my first position that's entirely globally remote, I'm currently working from Montenegro for a month, then Greece. Pay has really jumped in the last year or so as demand has risen.
- mdmglr 4y ago
  Wow that's a sweet gig!
  - leesec 4y ago
    Hell yeah brother. A decade long dream come true.
matwood 4y ago
Around that salary is getting pretty normal for big companies, even if they are not 'tech'. I think it's a combination of inflation, lack of competent supply, and old school companies realizing their dependence on technology.

by mdmglr 4y ago

tylerhou 4y ago

$175k is mid to low end of new grad at FAANG in Bay Area.

noahtallen 4y ago

You do have to zoom in to a specific part of the economy to get these salaries. It’s jobs in the “tech” industry (places like startups, FAANGs, etc) rather than software dev in general. (So not programming stuff for an electric company.) And you have to have a few years experience; it’s not normal to get paid that much for entry level even at some of the biggest tech companies. So that excludes the Midwest for the most part, except remote tech companies are changing that. Places like Automattic or Airbnb (from their recent announcement) don’t pay based on location anymore, and won’t dock your pay if you move to the Midwest. These higher salaries are driven by VC money and demand for sure. In my personal experience and network, small startups, midsize startups, and massive tech companies are are all hiring as much as possible. Plus, the classic startup approach is to use VC money to fund product development by quickly increasing the number of devs, and then figuring out profitability down the road after you have tons of users. This leads to an environment where smaller startups don’t need to cut dev teams or hiring to increase profit margins — the main goal is to build the product asap and grow users. And that means hiring lots of decent devs. And then big companies like Amazon just have loads of money and tons of products that need constant improvement, which only happens with devs. So with significant competition and need to hire devs and lots of available money, developers have space to negotiate pretty great salaries. Again, this varies everywhere and maybe isn’t the same for “non-tech” companies quite as much (because that VC money and massive scale might not exist as much outside of tech).

barry-cotter 4y ago
> And you have to have a few years experience; it’s not normal to get paid that much for entry level even at some of the biggest tech companies. There’s someone in Pittsburgh on L3 (entry level) at Google, earning $158K total compensation. https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/Pittsburgh-Area/ https://www.levels.fyi/Salaries/Software-Engineer/Pittsburgh... That’s substantially below what Google usually pay for entry level, $195K but that’s the joy of living in the Midwest, right? https://www.levels.fyi/company/Google/salaries/Software-Engineer/ https://www.levels.fyi/company/Google/salaries/Software-Engi...

leesec 4y ago

It's a global company but not particularly known for being Tech-y. It's also my first position that's entirely globally remote, I'm currently working from Montenegro for a month, then Greece. Pay has really jumped in the last year or so as demand has risen.

mdmglr 4y ago
Wow that's a sweet gig!
- leesec 4y ago
  Hell yeah brother. A decade long dream come true.

matwood 4y ago

Around that salary is getting pretty normal for big companies, even if they are not 'tech'. I think it's a combination of inflation, lack of competent supply, and old school companies realizing their dependence on technology.