48 ms·

People need to be ok with talking about it, but at the same time, it still should ultimately be each person's choice to talk about it. [$67/hr, 2 years of expe

by Bahamut 12y ago

People need to be ok with talking about it, but at the same time, it still should ultimately be each person's choice to talk about it. [$67/hr, 2 years of experience, senior frontend engineer, Palo Alto]

Regnad 12y ago
Not to pry, but is this typical on the West Coast or are you contracting/including bonus in your hourly? I think I do pretty well for my age but you're killing it. [$46/hr, 5 years of experience, Software Engineer, Boston]
- sirwolfgang 12y ago
  You have to adjust for cost of living. There is a lot of cost of living over there then compared to around Boston.
- Bahamut 12y ago
  I did not include a signing bonus or equity in that number - I am probably an unusual case admittedly due to my speed of learning and speed of execution
JoeAltmaier 12y ago
Varies by job; currently around that but as a consultant/contractor my rack rate was $150/hr with discounts for big projects down to $100/hr. [30 yrs experience, embedded, network and wireless, midwest ]
patio11 12y ago
Charge more. Just humor me and pitch the next client at $125/hr, which is more in line with market in your neck of the woods. (And the necessity for this post, folks, is one of the many, many mechanisms by which a norm of salaries being hidden screws over employees via information asymmetry.)
- Bahamut 12y ago
  I'm not a contractor - if I were contracting, I'd definitely charge around that rate.
  - patio11 12y ago
    That's the first time I've ever heard a US-based engineer quote their salary as an hourly number. My mistake. Assuming my mental math is correct and your package is described as "$120k annual salary plus the standard benefits for white collar employees", I withdraw my objection. If OTOH you're not billing 160 hours a month or you're not getting the standard benefits (healthcare, etc), then you're contracting whether you describe yourself as a contractor or not, so the objection would stand in that case. (This distinction made for the benefits of other HNers, since I have from time-to-time run into people who think they are employees but who are actually consultants who just happen to have a very thin client list and substandard rates.)
    - Bahamut 12y ago
      Well, it's $140k + $9k signing bonus + equity + standard health & dental insurance - I'm already looking at a potential raise in compensation in about 2-4 months or so with a promotion to lead engineer. Personally, I'm at the point where I don't care as much about the money, it's more about the people I work with. For those not at my point though is why I provide salary info though - it is a nice data point to use to assess for others.
      - chinks81 12y ago
        That's enormously high salary for 2 yr experienced Dev. You must be working for Facebook for such high salary. Care to mention company name at least ? I know at least 10 - 20 people in CA with four times more experience than you working on 70% of salary of yours. Don't want to sound venomous but what you are getting is nothing but "bubble" salary.

by Bahamut 12y ago

Regnad 12y ago

Not to pry, but is this typical on the West Coast or are you contracting/including bonus in your hourly? I think I do pretty well for my age but you're killing it. [$46/hr, 5 years of experience, Software Engineer, Boston]

sirwolfgang 12y ago
You have to adjust for cost of living. There is a lot of cost of living over there then compared to around Boston.
Bahamut 12y ago
I did not include a signing bonus or equity in that number - I am probably an unusual case admittedly due to my speed of learning and speed of execution

JoeAltmaier 12y ago

Varies by job; currently around that but as a consultant/contractor my rack rate was $150/hr with discounts for big projects down to $100/hr. [30 yrs experience, embedded, network and wireless, midwest ]

patio11 12y ago

Charge more. Just humor me and pitch the next client at $125/hr, which is more in line with market in your neck of the woods. (And the necessity for this post, folks, is one of the many, many mechanisms by which a norm of salaries being hidden screws over employees via information asymmetry.)

Bahamut 12y ago
I'm not a contractor - if I were contracting, I'd definitely charge around that rate.
- patio11 12y ago
  That's the first time I've ever heard a US-based engineer quote their salary as an hourly number. My mistake. Assuming my mental math is correct and your package is described as "$120k annual salary plus the standard benefits for white collar employees", I withdraw my objection. If OTOH you're not billing 160 hours a month or you're not getting the standard benefits (healthcare, etc), then you're contracting whether you describe yourself as a contractor or not, so the objection would stand in that case. (This distinction made for the benefits of other HNers, since I have from time-to-time run into people who think they are employees but who are actually consultants who just happen to have a very thin client list and substandard rates.)
  - Bahamut 12y ago
    Well, it's $140k + $9k signing bonus + equity + standard health & dental insurance - I'm already looking at a potential raise in compensation in about 2-4 months or so with a promotion to lead engineer. Personally, I'm at the point where I don't care as much about the money, it's more about the people I work with. For those not at my point though is why I provide salary info though - it is a nice data point to use to assess for others.
    - chinks81 12y ago
      That's enormously high salary for 2 yr experienced Dev. You must be working for Facebook for such high salary. Care to mention company name at least ? I know at least 10 - 20 people in CA with four times more experience than you working on 70% of salary of yours. Don't want to sound venomous but what you are getting is nothing but "bubble" salary.