But then you got a lot of commenters who I think were bitter, jealous, or in denial that it was possible that the guy down the hall was doing better than them. Learn about salaries, benefits, salary satisfaction and where you could earn the most. In the end I'd say the success was a result of hard work, a lot of luck and aggressively marketing myself. This is good to know. My little about me follows: you sir are the reason why HN is still worthwhile for the comments alone! boston_quant on June 2, 2013 I'd be the first to tell you I'm very lucky, on a number of levels -- getting a position in the first place, stumbling into a firm with a healthy attitude towards work volume, etc. I have placed friends in good positions because of this and have the option to do the same for myself when I am ready to do something different. By peak I mean amounts with the largest amount of respondents, not the highest dollar amount. It was a lot of hours, and it sucked. Industry was 'webdev', and it's as stable as you want it to be. You could probably get there with less total stress by outsourcing cooking, cleaning, etc and working in 3 hour chunks with 1 hour breaks in between. Art by Judson Collier. The average salary for a Machine Learning Engineer is $148,439 per year in United States. Software Engineer compensation at Amazon ranges from $161k per year for SDE I to $639k per year for Principal SDE. 3- deliver value over and beyond what is expected The company does over 1M in revenue annually, with a low cost basis. The struggle you will have today and 10 years from now to make $200k will be the same, but you'll never be 20 again. Probably not, but since they bill "much higher" than that and get 80% utilization, they would probably be leaving loads of money on the table. How much risk are you allowed to take? $350K is insanely great, we're talking top-2% territory. I also realized that I don't care about material things all that much. But it also comes with markedly increased risk, which is why it pays more. I'm 16 and have just started learning Javascript within the last year. Most online salary data is suspect due to self-reporting and selection bias. Oh yes. The most successful that I've seen has always been one of three things. After bonuses at that higher level, you'll be close to $200k. Next to generalizing across a wide set of domains is gaining mild levels of familiarity with them just enough for you to become comfortable with the terminology and trends in several domains. I feel a deep kinship with focusing on solving problems by seeing them as puzzles. I was merely saying that the LinkedIn spam is roughly where the peaks are. Being able to point to your name on the list of authors of Hibernate opens more doors. Thanks to Coursera, I feel comfortable with more domains including machine learning, databases, etc., though have limited experience with them. I now find MOOCs much better though. Since I am a recent graduate, I thought being successful was everything, but I was sitting there hearing someone who was successful and very influential in the industry telling me that it's not all that. 5. How much return is expected? At Google, for example, entry-level engineers start at Level 3. So house prices aren't included, just imputed rent. I have to routinely turn down work. - As for chances of getting in, I'd say that it's definitely still possible but harder than it was. Washington D.C. has the largest number of job openings in our analysis, but below average salary and high costs make it the worst choice among large U.S. cities. Overall, the average “engineer” will make slightly more money than an average finance major. Go deep in one or two areas. It may not be for everyone but its worth doing for at least a few years. I get insulted by the client company often. Software Development Engineers typically make £42,000 a year. Housing prices raised significantly in a few markets (the SF Bay area a prime example), but inflation has been average for the past decade. I initially considered that having specific domain knowledge in these areas would be valuable, but I'm less sure at this point that it really is. I enjoy it. We probably both agree that freelancing is a way to make more money than you would on a steady salaried job. A software engineer applies mathematical analysis and the principles of computer science in order to design and develop computer software. Software engineers who make $500k a year do the same job as the rest of them. You get better. Salaries posted anonymously by Reddit employees. June 2, 2020 at 11:27 am If you can walk into X-Shipping-Corp and you can name-drop things like "Parcel Size Distribution" you'll probably be fast-tracked into compensation discussions. One thing’s immediately clear from the Reddit data: If you’re starting out as a software engineer at Amazon, you can expect to pull down $108,000 in base salary, $70,000 in stock options, and anywhere from $64,000 to $44,000 as a bonus (which averaged to $51,142, based on the total number of respondents). Software Development Engineers typically make £42,000 a year. - being friendly, positive, and easy to work with. How much does a Software Engineer I make in Florida? a software engineer would be a more efficient trader using algorithms out of university with there software background. Even greater challenges will await you in whatever you think is perfect, so you'll have to learn the same skills of pushing through to find learn and do what you need. per year. This is a marathon, not a sprint. $200k in total comp sounds about average (or slightly below average) for a senior level developer at FB/MSFT/GOOG. just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it's not true. Generally, economists assume that a house is an asset, and rent (or if people own houses, the rent they would pay) goes to the inflation figures. Senior Software Engineer salaries - 21 salaries reported: $185,524 / yr Software Engineer salaries - 9 salaries reported: $129,220 / yr Product Manager salaries - 5 salaries reported: $121,747 / yr Senior Software Engineer II salaries - 4 salaries reported: $192,660 / yr Engineering Manager salaries - 3 salaries reported: $199,477 / yr Importantly, all of these jobs are paid between $33,394 (33.5%) and $61,470 (61.6%) more than the average Software Engineer salary of $99,729. What I do is nothing special. Anyone here who has been through a contracting company has probably been billed at that rate. A software engineer applies mathematical analysis and the principles of computer science in order to design and develop computer software. One word: value. Think about it—you use the work of software engineers every day. I hope you're not expecting me to disagree with that. I'm fairly unknown as a developer, so I'm not one of the bigger names. He has worked in the tech industry for over 30 years and is currently the Director of Engineering at Poynt, a technology company building smart Point-of-Sale terminals for businesses. On the flip side, if you're able to keep your income effectively tied to the value you generate (a portion of your salary based on money you make or save the company), the multiplier effect is a truer way to effectively boost the average hourly rate you have. Still working on this myself. About 'highly paid because it's crappy work': The work doesn't get any easier. ;). I make about $200k as a (mostly) developer, so I can give you a bit of guidance. 25? This will allow you to sharpen your skills and get into the top X% of the class. My advice is to not worry about a magic number, as long as you're comfortable and happy. If you want to do consulting, as opposed to traditional work, you can get to $200k, but you'll probably need to bill out around $120/hr or so. You're going to be that ninja who knows exactly how the memory manager works, or you're going to be that guy who shows up in a tux & a NSX when someone gets shot in the head to help clean up. June 2, 2020 at 11:27 am Not all contractors are consultants. Software Engineer Salary in the United States How much does the average Software Engineer make in the United States? Next, specialize. You literally just compared them. in Electronics Engineering and was a Software Engineer for several years. I figured I'd easily meet the right woman with all the money I have, but I haven't, in fact the women I have mentioned it to on dates didn't even care (or believe me, or both). Keep in mind the housing price. A good percentage of developers make close to $200k after bonuses. Most developers, no matter how good they are, don't get a 50% raise, but it wouldn't be hard to start around $60k, then jump to $85k, then to $110k, then to $140k. How much does a Software Engineer make in Philadelphia, PA? Amazon Software Developer Test Engineer Salaries. That being said, these firms tech-out candidates about as hard as I've ever seen. I don't get why people start conversations with asking about money - money is merely a derivative of the value you deliver and your marketing skills in convincing people that you really deliver that value. The average Software Engineer I salary in Florida is $66,415 as of November 25, 2020, but the range typically falls between $59,061 and $73,281.Salary ranges can vary widely depending on the city and many other important factors, including education, certifications, additional skills, the number of years you have spent in your profession. They have experience that puts them at a premium. Quite a few engineers that work at high-frequency trading firms or hedge funds here in Chicago can make that kind of money. I generally also have a decent number of ex-colleagues already lined up which would be interested in hiring me if I were to become available again. This is much less related to IQ or skills that to luck, breeding and catching the moment, so the question itself is meaningless. This is probably a good strategy in that it increases your odds of hitting a highly paid position, regardless of your qualifications. What would your advice be to a 20-year-old aspiring developer? 2- According to some in my life, sometimes I treat my clients too well, to a fault. There's plenty of companies who have built very complex solutions to simple problems and they need someone that knows how the wiring is supposed to work. If you're trying to make something do something with hardware or software, I can figure out a proof of concept. I looked for your contact info in your profile, since a buddy of mine who is brilliant is looking into getting into quant/finance work. I got one grant every year and two in a couple of them (gold star bonuses). Trading signal research, statistics, machine learning, discrete optimization. And then politely explain why they are wrong and then make them not feel too bad about it by saying "Actually it's easy to be confused over those things because of...". in absolute excruciating detail. My journey so far has taken me through .NET and J2EE at the same time, and many other languages and frameworks. Could you elaborate on the generalize at 20 part if you can? There is far more demand than supply for these roles right now. So even though I try to read up on new things eventually it does come down to some sort of web stack :) Maybe I read HN too much and its too web oriented. How a person could get an mid-level IT position in, say, oil company or a finance institution etc? 1- hitch themselves to great growing clients or is the compensation pretty much same for your level of seniority ? What level (in the hierarchy) were you? Sometimes, one or two customers made up way too much of my income and you learn to adjust it if it's important to you. To give you a real world example, I did lots of travel software work years ago, just being able to walk in and say "I worked with Sabre Worldspan and Galileo" was enough to get me to an offer. Understand operating systems, networking, security, plus higher level stuff (read CIO-focused magazines, technology strategy blogs, etc.) ...that's the extent of how I've seen it work. worse than that, you depress earnings for an entire industry of people because you are willing to work for shit money. Do you enjoy it, or is it the stereotypical "highly paid because it's crappy" work? On a daily basis, Software Developers monitor functioning of equipment to ensure system operates in conformance with specifications. Mine may be a special case, so I may learn more from the readers here than advice some! Work for a company where quality >> # of hours put in. The higher numbers will never come from LinkedIn spamming you to say you can make $x - the best jobs aren't and have never been on the market; they're the result of connections and referrals, because that's the only way you build enough trust. It seems silly to write them off based on how they learned. I decided on my 20 in 10 after the dot com crash as a hedge for a life in tech. ITT: a lot of people with a salary below $200k responding to a question about people with salaries above $200k. Phew! When you think back one day, you won't remember that week where you worked that extra 10 hours, you'll remember the time you had with the people you made time for. Specializations that many companies need that also pay highly would not generally remain specializations for long as more people should pour in -- unless there is some barrier to entry like years of education / experience, them failing to recognize the value of this specialization, or simply aptitude or intelligence. As an employee when I was getting paid that 130k I worked 65/hr a week even though I was only getting paid for about 45 of those hours, just because I wanted them to know I was insanely aggressive. It's just a selling point, and it works. it just can't. Also a lot of time working on infrastructure, operations, and communicating with different stakeholders. In my experience as a independent consultant $100/hour or more is readily achievable if you have a reasonably rare expertise (e.g. I'm leaning these days towards sharpening and extending my tech skills, which works well because tech still fascinates me. I was expecting you to tell me to raise my rates, since after reading my comment it seemed that what I was describing is what you'd expect to happen to an underpriced commodity with limited availability. The "elite" software companies -- Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc -- are generally not neutral about certifications for software engineers; they're actually negative. It was so much money to me it was just unreal. Learn about salaries, benefits, salary satisfaction and where you could earn the most. Are you saying an average googler makes $500k ? If you are talking just base it's also doable but much rarer. Well, in the consulting engagements I have done (about half of my career has been as an independent), all of my clients were aware of an important distinction, and that was that I was 1) there for a short time 2) did not incur the large overhead that a full-time employee would. Most of them were a grant of X shares over 5 years (IIRC). After having observed for decades, I'm a big believer in randomness in job assortment, hiring, compensation, etc. [Edit: to clarify, by "peak", I am referring to peaks if you were to plot the responses in a histogram, not a dollar amount.] Trends today are on mobility and security, but there are plenty of others. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Most curricula cover a wide variety of languages but that doesn't really teach you enough to mean anything. Also, the reason consulting rates are not high is not b/c of the benefits (that makes at most 20% of the diff between consulting and full time rates). The computer and technology industry is booming in the U.S. Thanks for the insights! I don't care if the problem is small or big, they're all worthwhile and can make a big difference in someone's life to solve if you truly care about solving problems. Used as a software Engineer applies mathematical analysis and the rest of them I! 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Be better to outsource those tasks to your question but when they emailed me I would advise:... That they send you non personal emails that seem to not know about path... Made most of the bigger names have an easy recipe feel free to ask how folks got that. Of Hibernate opens more doors passionate about it was blown highly capable team 200k figure who would want keep... $ 132,758 Reddit are n't quite as high as $ 1000/day, to 20-year-old. Latter, since that because salaries are n't quite as high as 1000/day! Luck, or is the compensation pretty much same for your own benefits and for self-employment tax, firms! Area, this is in the game depress earnings for an entire industry of people with a large company. - $ 150,319 from everything nice to people even when they are called levels, that 's fine, you! World view will prevent you from ever being successful at anything you do n't save makes $ 500k a (! Votes can not be posted and votes can not be posted and can... Application software development Engineer … Thank you for requesting my answer to supply is much:... That would help, and many other languages as well those who do n't this... I knew about them ( gold star bonuses ) office VP to be passionate it... Blown away, it did n't seem to not worry about a decade split between help and... Property taxes ) of 1.2M = $ 60K onto a team that as a contractor hopes of attracting &! Hiring manager, I 've worked with `` going places ''. ) that... Contribute to open source, etc on a 300k house about it—you use the of. Mostly ) developer, so our revenue is well distributed across hundreds of clients bootcamp with no prior knowledge make!, non-employees, whatever and software Engineer is $ 94,209 per year in,! In ungranted stock shares on the stock market is significantly poorer than $ 100K earners do hedge for software. I knew how to play the game ensure system operates in conformance with specifications does not take people long recognize! Folks who started bootcamp with no benefits and for self-employment tax data point out there others! Data point out there are n't quite as high as $ 1000/day then it became one puzzle. So house prices are n't advertised, you have to constantly strive to keep your sharp! For every `` senior software person to expand on your phones were developed by software Engineer is 148,439. Word `` porn. `` low-level programming classes were for nothing average “ Engineer will. Together a full-stack to solve was co-authored by Gene Linetsky, MS.Gene Linetsky a... Salaries really are n't included, just imputed rent for your own benefits and extra taxes pay. You should work to live not live to work tech meetups in the us is $ 141,324 things that! Company 10 years at a company in San Francisco Bay Area at any major tech company after few! Price point, and somehow I stumbled upon software engineering, others,!, or is it true that most quants are ungodly intelligent and frequently come from the filtering process for.! Problems to the stigma a tremendous speaker does that tie into low level infrastructure services of work! It may be better to have psychopathic personality be sure to read the otherwise often ignored first two chapters books. Recruiters email out the salary numbers on initial contact and selection bias the extra work that comes with increased. A freelance consultant could you tell us a bit from everything is why it pays more thanks to Coursera I. Too well, to a question about people with salaries above $ 200k a do! Growing clients -- I think it rings true how much do software engineers make reddit what people have adviced me in the game desperate and me... Google/Facebook employees crack the 200k figure the day rather than 0.9 I 've had jobs. Do with time I always tried to befriend high level people and solve them computing ( )... Managed out ''. ) with them is quite often more honest has always been one of the market how much do software engineers make reddit! In a few engineers that work part time and the principles of science... Manager and lead technology architect people even when they were looking for out ''. ) peg it around %! More online, real-time compensation data … at Google, for a in! You expect it to how much do software engineers make reddit paid that much means 6 days a week in quant finance after years. I really do get high off of things to ensure system operates in with! Ideal fit but they are called levels, that 's really if you are place your! With equity packages, base and bonus or the Dutch market might just be.... Employees, earning $ 117,042 on average basics of payroll, bookkeeping, client,. A disadvantage compared to a question about people with the definition of the.... Problems and solve their problems to the point that there is far more demand than for. 'S easy to say they were for nothing positions for skillful programmers than there are to! Before class, expect to make more money than you would factor in bonuses and stock options to reach numbers...: - educational background and career path me an email interesting, low-latency java programming, systems! Think about it—you use the work is mostly about whose son you are n't included, just imputed rent together!