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I've wanted to be a software engineer for quite some time now. It always seems to be in those "top 10 jobs" lists, both in terms of salary and satisfaction. This may sound shallow or whatever, but the money is definitely one of the most attractive things about the job. I mean, I am very passionate about computers and programming, but sometimes it's extremely hard, so I think I warrants a high salary. Anyway, I was reading the web dev/app dev salary poll thread and I was kinda shocked to see that most people who answered make less than 50k a year. I have a friend who delivers chips for a living and he makes around that much. I just read that the median income for a software engineer is around 75k, is this true? I imagine there must be alot of SE's around this forum, how much do you guys make?
This post has been edited by DominationXVI: 25 Jun, 2008 - 05:39 PM
I would advise that you take statistics like that with a grain of salt.
My math is flawed here, but think about it: an average is an average. If you have one guy who makes $1m/year, and 10 guys who make $30k/year - what's the average going to be? $120k/year.
I would advise that you take statistics like that with a grain of salt.
My math is flawed here, but think about it: an average is an average. If you have one guy who makes $1m/year, and 10 guys who make $30k/year - what's the average going to be? $120k/year.
So are you saying that software engineering in general is not a well paying profession? I've heard (and read) that entry level positions start in 40-50k range, any truth to this? (remember, we're talking very generally here, I know that actual figures will vary from situation to situation.) Comp. Sci. grads at my school frequently get hired by a company that makes software for the military. I know of one that graduated this past year and was hired, he will be starting around 60k/yr. Is this sort of thing the exception rather than the norm?
I'd say that most of it depends on where you are, and what you're doing. But I would be careful about blindly assuming that you're going to be getting anywhere near 75k - for all that you know someone who graduated and got 60k starting, how many people do you know who might have graduated and gotten 35-40k?
There are always two sides to the coin, and if money is all you're looking for - become a dentist.
This post has been edited by girasquid: 26 Jun, 2008 - 09:26 AM
government work always pays better. Its like construction workers. If you take a cement poorer (had a friend who did this) He made 15 dollars an hour working private jobs, but with government jobs he made 25 dollars an hour. Private sector businesses are looking for those who are willing to take less and do more. So be prepared to take 28.8 to 32k a year to start entry level, and be prepared also to work 50-60 hour weeks.
If you read the comments on that poll, it appears that many of the people in it are still building their career, are students, do not have a degree, or are in IT but not software engineers. IT managers or techs generally make less than software engineers. 45k-60k is a fairly common starting salary for CS graduates, and I'm not saying that just because 'i know this one guy'. After 3-5 years of experience ( on top of the degree), there are more 'senior' jobs which starting hitting 75k+ .
girasquid: your argument is fairly irrelevant here. I am pretty sure no one makes $1M ->salary<- from their programming job. The outliers are not going to mess up the average that much.
Also, web development varies a bit more. Someone making small sites for their local schools and mom and pop stores are not going to make the same as someone developing business apps for a medium to large company . This is also just for the US
This post has been edited by mocker: 26 Jun, 2008 - 10:46 AM
I'd say that most of it depends on where you are, and what you're doing. But I would be careful about blindly assuming that you're going to be getting anywhere near 75k - for all that you know someone who graduated and got 60k starting, how many people do you know who might have graduated and gotten 35-40k?
There are always two sides to the coin, and if money is all you're looking for - become a dentist.
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I definitely understand what you're saying here. I know there are many factors, and perhaps generalizations aren't that useful. I'm not naive enough to think I will start at 75k. I've been looking around the net for more SE salary info. They all tend to say the exact same thing - low, mid, and high figures are all in the same ballpark. Alot of these sites are not just the 'vanilla' salary resource type thing, alot are software dev/CS sites. Here is one I just googled: http://www.devtopics.com/software-developer-salaries/. I mean, I'm a bit bothered by the disparity between what people say here (some of whom are presumeably SE's) and all the other salary reports and such out there. Anyway gira, I'm not saying you're right or you're wrong. Oh BTW, are you an SE?
I'm actually not sure what my title would be - so I have no idea. But the core point I've been trying to get across is that if you're only looking to make money, you might want to try a more lucrative career path. We have one guy here who does have the title "Software Engineer", and I'm pretty sure he's making close to or less than I am currently.
@mocker: agreed, my argument is irrelevant. I just wanted to point out that having an average salary of 75k doesn't necessarily mean a thing.
This post has been edited by girasquid: 26 Jun, 2008 - 12:51 PM
I'm actually not sure what my title would be - so I have no idea. But the core point I've been trying to get across is that if you're only looking to make money, you might want to try a more lucrative career path. We have one guy here who does have the title "Software Engineer", and I'm pretty sure he's making close to or less than I am currently.
@mocker: agreed, my argument is irrelevant. I just wanted to point out that having an average salary of 75k doesn't necessarily mean a thing.
Gotcha. I'm very passionate about computers, and dentistry isn't very appealing to me (i heard they have the highest suicide rate out of any profession - very disconcerting statistic). It's not all about money, not even close. But even Plato (or maybe it was Aristotle) agreed that in order to have true happiness money is important (altho, much less so than philosophy of course!).
This post has been edited by DominationXVI: 26 Jun, 2008 - 03:00 PM
What about Ind. software developers? I have not had a "real job" in years. I make good money and I don't have to answer to the same boss all the time.
Of course there is downsides as well, but if I thought all this industry was good for was 1K a week -- hell, I made that waiting tables years ago with NO responsbility!
....then again..... now I *do* have multiple bosses (customers) -- cash flow issues (no one want to pay on time) and it is harder to guess what next year will bring.
I guess all I am saying is that this industry is one of the few where skills learned are _more_ easily transfered to your own business than some.
I was thinking about specializing in software engineering as well actually, from what I can see as far as job opportunities, they seem to be pretty well rounded. Still focusing on school so haven't had too much time to look for jobs pertaining to it however.
25 Jun, 2008 - 12:59 PM
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