[Xaos]

You're probably thinking "Oh no, ANOTHER salary question." Well, yes and no. I've creeped a lot, and noticed a lot of the salary threads, and I realize salary isn't everything (Making $70K, never having to go to office and getting free trips is a sweet deal). But there is a pretty big salary difference with programmers (you guys) that are very skilled and a lot of you don't have degrees from big universities (well-known, nationally prestigious. Though this doesn't apply to everyone) and the salary sits. For example, someone making $50K with years of experience and a very good programmer. I look on a site like salary.com and that same person I said 80K+. Just to check, I got on indeed.com and realized in my area (Metro-Atlanta) even Junior Developer jobs (only requirement is a CS degree, in terms of experience) pay a huge amount of money. I've seen entry jobs get as high as ~$90K. Is this just my area that's weird? Someone please explain this to me. By the way, most of those jobs were Java, .Net,not much C, C# or C++ though.

[depricated]

Looks like I'm moving to Atlanta

[lordofduct]

First off, C# is .Net

Secondly, pay is very region specific. Atlanta is a big tech hub, so there's a lot of high paying jobs.

You might go to another region that has lower, or even higher paying gigs.

The USA is a big place, and cost of living varies, with it comes varying pay scales.

[modi123_1]

Quote

realized in my area (Metro-Atlanta) even Junior Developer jobs (only requirement is a CS degree, in terms of experience) pay a huge amount of money.

Is this all of them, or just a few you've seen?


Don't forget the ever so important cost of living adjustment.

http://money.cnn.com...cost-of-living/

[tlhIn`toq]

No different than any other job with the same title. A retail clerk at Sears in Frogwart Missouri doesn't make the same money as a retail clerk in San Diego CA. But the job description would be nearly the same: Help customers, sell product, stock shelves, etc.

I don't see why you think programming is any different than any other job in the world.

This post has been edited by tlhIn`toq: 13 March 2014 - 05:58 PM

[lordofduct]

modi123_1, on 12 March 2014 - 09:17 AM, said:

Quote

realized in my area (Metro-Atlanta) even Junior Developer jobs (only requirement is a CS degree, in terms of experience) pay a huge amount of money.

Is this all of them, or just a few you've seen?


Don't forget the ever so important cost of living adjustment.

http://money.cnn.com...cost-of-living/

I checked that calculator out.

None of the cities I've ever worked in, other than Los Angeles, are available as choices.

Oh, New York and Yakima are on there. But I didn't work in Yakima, and I didn't live in New York.

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 12 March 2014 - 07:31 AM

[Xaos]

modi123_1, on 12 March 2014 - 09:17 AM, said:

Quote

realized in my area (Metro-Atlanta) even Junior Developer jobs (only requirement is a CS degree, in terms of experience) pay a huge amount of money.

Is this all of them, or just a few you've seen?


Don't forget the ever so important cost of living adjustment.

http://money.cnn.com...cost-of-living/

Of the ones I've seen the salary listed. The lowest was a web developer job at around $50K. I'll try to find some specific examples.

I also think there's a lack of programming talent in Atlanta. The research triangle is right up north in NC, there's a bunch of government jobs in SC, etc. While GA Tech is right there, it still isn't enough to fill the demand. And the south isn't known for being as technologically advanced as the NE Corridor, Research Triangle, Silicon Valley, metro-Texas, etc.

tlhIn`toq, on 12 March 2014 - 09:24 AM, said:

No different than another other job with the same title. A retail clerk at Sears in Frogwart Missouri doesn't make the same money as a retail clerk in San Diego CA. But the job description would be nearly the same: Help customers, sell product, stock shelves, etc.

I don't see why you think programming is any different than any other job in the world.

Not so much that, I guess I just highly underestimated the cost of living. I knew GA has very low cost of living, but I guess it's normal big-city costs in metro-Atlanta.

[tlhIn`toq]

Xaos, on 12 March 2014 - 08:35 AM, said:

Not so much that, I guess I just highly underestimated the cost of living. I knew GA has very low cost of living, but I guess it's normal big-city costs in metro-Atlanta.

Tell ya what... Here's a quick test:
Check the cost of a 2bedroom, 2bath apartment for rent in San Diego, Houston, Atlanta, New York then some small towns around the country. Then do the same to buy an 1800 sq.ft. 3 bedroom 2 car garage house in all those same cities. You'll find huge differences.

Then there are other cost of living considerations. Some states don't have a state income tax for example. Nevada no, Arizona yes. There's 10-15% of your income right there. Property taxes are much different in different states. Oh... and climate control. It costs a lot more to cool your home in Las Vegas' 120° summer than to cool a home in North Dakota. But the heating in North Dakota -30° winter is more than in Scottsdale Arizona by a long shot.

If you want to live on the sand at Long Beach or the mountains of Aspen its a lot more than the open plains of Nebraska.

When you look at the pay you have to look at ratio of income to outflow, as well as the lifestyle you want. If you make 100k/year that's good if your annual cost of living is 50k and you're close enough to walk to work. It sucks if you spend 90k just to live and have to commute 2 hours each way.

My two best jobs were in small towns that weren't tech centers for anything. But the entrepreneurs that founded them started locally usually with a client that was willing to take a chance on an unknown coder and in exchange get very customized product. They grew big but stayed in their small towns. So you don't always have to go Houston and work for Shell to find a good job in a place you will be happy living a lifestyle you can enjoy when you punch off the clock.

[lordofduct]

Agreed with tlhIn'toq.

Like I said, most of the places I lived weren't even in that calculator. Yet I've made great money, relative to my cost of living. My cost of living is like 25k where I live currently (before partying... woooh), and I own a house. I'm close enough to big city that if I want to visit I can, but far enough away that it's pretty cheap living (not as cheap as some no name town in the middle of nowhere, it's still a pretty hopping town where I'm at).

So cheap that I'm not even living there, and I'm working remotely from New England, again in a small town, where my living costs are low, but I can go skiing in just a half hour drive (well that'll stop this month).

Sure, I work for a small company no one has ever heard of. Sure I will probably never work for Google. But I don't care... I can travel around the country and work remotely out of small places and see stuff the way I like it. And know that if I needed to, for whatever reason, head back to Florida and the sunshine, and still make 3 or even 4 times my cost of living. This for a guy who grew up on food stamps in section 8 housing and doing things not exactly legal... I think I'm doing stellar!

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 12 March 2014 - 08:32 PM

[tlhIn`toq]

I so agree with you lordofduct I spent the last 10 years working remotely from home. My wife and I are full time RVers in a 44' fifth wheel. We could go anywhere in the country, and 3 years in Australia, yet I was working for the same company every day. Head North in Summer, South in Winter. California, Colorado, Connecticut, and everything in between so long as I have internet.

Working remotely is TO ME, the ideal situation.

Spoiler

It also gives you a fairly low cost of living and a small 'green' footprint. The average RV park is less than $500/month and that includes all the utilities. I can't rent a worthwhile apartment for that and would still have to pay my own electric, gas, broadband and so on. Even if you add in the cost of the RV loan, I'm still living well below the average for a very nice lifestyle that most people aspire to when they retire. My thinking is that if I keep living at this level now, then I *can* keep living at this level until the end.

[Xaos]

tlhIn`toq, on 13 March 2014 - 07:45 AM, said:

I so agree with you lordofduct I spent the last 10 years working remotely from home. My wife and I are full time RVers in a 44' fifth wheel. We could go anywhere in the country, and 3 years in Australia, yet I was working for the same company every day. Head North in Summer, South in Winter. California, Colorado, Connecticut, and everything in between so long as I have internet.

Working remotely is TO ME, the ideal situation.

Spoiler

ThunderBolt386x12_ExtSPK.jpg

It also gives you a fairly low cost of living and a small 'green' footprint. The average RV park is less than $500/month and that includes all the utilities. I can't rent a worthwhile apartment for that and would still have to pay my own electric, gas, broadband and so on. Even if you add in the cost of the RV loan, I'm still living well below the average for a very nice lifestyle that most people aspire to when they retire. My thinking is that if I keep living at this level now, then I *can* keep living at this level until the end.

That's pretty awesome, really. I'm not sure it's my cup of tea (I prefer local camping and whatnot) but I'd totally do something liek that after a few years, especially as I get older. But working from home is great 100% of the time />.

Lord, I have similar situations to you, so that's pretty inspiring.

This post has been edited by Xaos: 13 March 2014 - 06:20 AM

[ngroebner]

Different areas = different cost of living. Different companies = different budgets. Obviously working for a little startup wont offer quite the pay that a huge established company pays for the same work. Or how about local government... I work for the state, which isn't going to have the budget to pay as much as the private sector.