4 ms·

Could you please forward me jobs advertised that have the real possibility of "ridiculous amounts of money"? All the programming jobs I see are about 90k?

jotux 12y ago
Compared to the median income for most of the US ($40-$50k/year), $90k for a new grad is pretty high.
- randomdata 12y ago
  Not to mention that $50K is the median household income. Individuals earn even less, on average.
  - codesuela 12y ago
    this is a perfect illustration of why people protest the Google Shuttles in SF
    - VMG 12y ago
      and the Google Shuttle is an illustration of what a CS education is good for
    - pekk 12y ago
      What? Google has the right to rent a bus as much as its employees have the right to pay for taxis. Or their own cars.
    - obstacle1 12y ago
      Perhaps if those folks spent their time learning CS instead of protesting, they could actually ride the shuttle.
    - ryanpardieck 12y ago
      I thought the further-up comment--where the poster apparently didn't realize that many would see 90K as quite a lot of money--was a better example of this.
- sytelus 12y ago
  This number is very deceiving so be careful comparing your salary with it. Problem is that vast majority of population does not live in the SF, NYC, Seattle area so the median of entire US population is not comparable for people who live in these areas. The median metric is especially notorious in eliminating outliers like these areas. Even within these areas, you want to compare your income with median in your closest neighbourhood of about 10,000 people. In most of these neighbourhoods with tech population, $90 would probably place you in bottom 30% bucket. In essence, you will be relatively "poor" and get pushed you out to fat outer areas of community where there are either no good schools, facilities and/or commute is ridiculous. Always look at median of your target neighbour to compare your income, not the national median.
agotterer 12y ago
Move to NYC or SF. Engineers fresh out of college are getting $90k. Startups are paying $100k - $150k to engineers with 5+ years experience. I don't know if you can call that "ridiculous amounts of money", but its definitely better than average. It's worth noting that engineering salaries rise a lot quicker then traditional non engineering salaries, but the also plateau much earlier. The engineers making $150k with 8 years experience aren't far or are at the ceiling of their earning potential (without going the management or architect route). It will be interesting to see if the continued increases will be sustainable over the long haul. From my non-scientific back of the napkin math it seems like NYC tech wages are up about 30% from where they were 4 years ago.
- cenhyperion 12y ago
  > Move to NYC or SF Factor in cost of living and you're really not making much more.
  - omarhegazy 12y ago
    Yes, but factor in all the activity and opportunities and life of the city, and it's worth moving there. Besides, it's not really higher cost if the wage of the industry you're working in scales nicely with the cost of living (true for programming). I live in Manhattan. Within some 2-digit amount of minutes, I can experience the Tribeca Film Festival, I can visit some of the best museums and galleries in the world, I can get involved in the thriving nightlife, dozens of top restaurants, hundreds of huge retailers, and a massive tech scene. Whether we're talking conferences or weekly meetups or user groups or opportunities like Hacker School, there's just a higher chance it's going on in NYC than in a smaller city. Obviously when it comes specifically to the tech scene SF+SV+Bay Area is the juggernaut, but comparing NYC and SF to some small town is comparing some top college football player to some NFL players to your local middle school's quarterback. Yes, if I lived in the Midwest, I could get a McMansion and slightly larger numbers in the bank account if my industry's salary doesn't scale well between city sizes (again, programming does), but is it really worth it to give up all the other opportunities and stuff in bigger cities?

jotux 12y ago

Compared to the median income for most of the US ($40-$50k/year), $90k for a new grad is pretty high.

randomdata 12y ago
Not to mention that $50K is the median household income. Individuals earn even less, on average.
- codesuela 12y ago
  this is a perfect illustration of why people protest the Google Shuttles in SF
  - VMG 12y ago
    and the Google Shuttle is an illustration of what a CS education is good for
  - pekk 12y ago
    What? Google has the right to rent a bus as much as its employees have the right to pay for taxis. Or their own cars.
  - obstacle1 12y ago
    Perhaps if those folks spent their time learning CS instead of protesting, they could actually ride the shuttle.
  - ryanpardieck 12y ago
    I thought the further-up comment--where the poster apparently didn't realize that many would see 90K as quite a lot of money--was a better example of this.
sytelus 12y ago
This number is very deceiving so be careful comparing your salary with it. Problem is that vast majority of population does not live in the SF, NYC, Seattle area so the median of entire US population is not comparable for people who live in these areas. The median metric is especially notorious in eliminating outliers like these areas. Even within these areas, you want to compare your income with median in your closest neighbourhood of about 10,000 people. In most of these neighbourhoods with tech population, $90 would probably place you in bottom 30% bucket. In essence, you will be relatively "poor" and get pushed you out to fat outer areas of community where there are either no good schools, facilities and/or commute is ridiculous. Always look at median of your target neighbour to compare your income, not the national median.

agotterer 12y ago

Move to NYC or SF. Engineers fresh out of college are getting $90k. Startups are paying $100k - $150k to engineers with 5+ years experience. I don't know if you can call that "ridiculous amounts of money", but its definitely better than average. It's worth noting that engineering salaries rise a lot quicker then traditional non engineering salaries, but the also plateau much earlier. The engineers making $150k with 8 years experience aren't far or are at the ceiling of their earning potential (without going the management or architect route). It will be interesting to see if the continued increases will be sustainable over the long haul. From my non-scientific back of the napkin math it seems like NYC tech wages are up about 30% from where they were 4 years ago.

cenhyperion 12y ago
> Move to NYC or SF Factor in cost of living and you're really not making much more.
- omarhegazy 12y ago
  Yes, but factor in all the activity and opportunities and life of the city, and it's worth moving there. Besides, it's not really higher cost if the wage of the industry you're working in scales nicely with the cost of living (true for programming). I live in Manhattan. Within some 2-digit amount of minutes, I can experience the Tribeca Film Festival, I can visit some of the best museums and galleries in the world, I can get involved in the thriving nightlife, dozens of top restaurants, hundreds of huge retailers, and a massive tech scene. Whether we're talking conferences or weekly meetups or user groups or opportunities like Hacker School, there's just a higher chance it's going on in NYC than in a smaller city. Obviously when it comes specifically to the tech scene SF+SV+Bay Area is the juggernaut, but comparing NYC and SF to some small town is comparing some top college football player to some NFL players to your local middle school's quarterback. Yes, if I lived in the Midwest, I could get a McMansion and slightly larger numbers in the bank account if my industry's salary doesn't scale well between city sizes (again, programming does), but is it really worth it to give up all the other opportunities and stuff in bigger cities?