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> The profession is lavishly paid: $350,000 is the average salary according to a recent paper Plenty of people in tech getting TC like this.

by sfc32 3y ago

strikelaserclaw 3y ago
Is this really true? Define plenty of people. An average doctor in America would probably make much more than an average software engineer. If you are comparing the top 10% of software engineers, then we should probably compare them the top 10% of doctors (who probably make close to a million dollars).
- game_the0ry 3y ago
  At the top tech companies, yes. [1] That would be standard TC for a senior level engineer. But not at at a typical fortune 500, bank, or any other traditional type company that does not have tech as their main strategic business offering. [1] https://www.levels.fyi/ https://www.levels.fyi/
  - strikelaserclaw 3y ago
    yes but comparing the top x percent of software engineers to the "average doctor" seems a bit misleading.
- SkyPuncher 3y ago
  Why? There's a clear skill and education floor between the fields. It's probably reasonable to compare the top 90% of doctors to the top 10% software engineers. In fact, I'd suspect most doctors would be 1% engineers if they put the same effort being a great engineer as they do for med school/residency.
ipnon 3y ago
This is the average salary of all kinds of doctors in all parts of the United States. A relatively subpar doctor in South Dakota makes as much as a highly skilled engineer in one of the largest corporations in the world. Silicon Valley is not the exemplary of the nation’s software engineering industry, many of us are making much meeker TC than $350,000.
rqtwteye 3y ago
Plenty of doctors make >1,000,000.
Merad 3y ago
Median TC for SWE in the US is $170k according to levels.fyi.
- strikelaserclaw 3y ago
  keep in mind, normal swe don't even know levels.fyi exists so the self reporting is done by people who probably know what leet code is (which means they know the "game" to some extent).

> The profession is lavishly paid: $350,000 is the average salary according to a recent paper Plenty of people in tech getting TC like this.

by sfc32 3y ago

> The profession is lavishly paid: $350,000 is the average salary according to a recent paper Plenty of people in tech getting TC like this.

strikelaserclaw 3y ago

Is this really true? Define plenty of people. An average doctor in America would probably make much more than an average software engineer. If you are comparing the top 10% of software engineers, then we should probably compare them the top 10% of doctors (who probably make close to a million dollars).

game_the0ry 3y ago
At the top tech companies, yes. [1] That would be standard TC for a senior level engineer. But not at at a typical fortune 500, bank, or any other traditional type company that does not have tech as their main strategic business offering. [1] https://www.levels.fyi/ https://www.levels.fyi/
- strikelaserclaw 3y ago
  yes but comparing the top x percent of software engineers to the "average doctor" seems a bit misleading.
SkyPuncher 3y ago
Why? There's a clear skill and education floor between the fields. It's probably reasonable to compare the top 90% of doctors to the top 10% software engineers. In fact, I'd suspect most doctors would be 1% engineers if they put the same effort being a great engineer as they do for med school/residency.

ipnon 3y ago

This is the average salary of all kinds of doctors in all parts of the United States. A relatively subpar doctor in South Dakota makes as much as a highly skilled engineer in one of the largest corporations in the world. Silicon Valley is not the exemplary of the nation’s software engineering industry, many of us are making much meeker TC than $350,000.

rqtwteye 3y ago

Plenty of doctors make >1,000,000.

Merad 3y ago

Median TC for SWE in the US is $170k according to levels.fyi.

strikelaserclaw 3y ago
keep in mind, normal swe don't even know levels.fyi exists so the self reporting is done by people who probably know what leet code is (which means they know the "game" to some extent).