Title: Are people's salaries really as high the numbers people are throwing around here? Around 80-100k for an average salary? My experience has been quite different. Is this just in big tech centers like SF, Seattle and NYC? Mainly consultant salaries? The people I know graduating with masters degrees from regional universities are getting 60k offers with undergrads getting 40-50k offers.<p>A little background for myself:<p>I've had a couple jobs. First was a student sys admin at U of MN computer science dept at about $10/hour (I think). Then in the Army where I made around $30k by the time I got out.<p>My next job in the industry was a relatively small company in the Portland area and there I made about $47k when I left and all new grads/entry level people were being offered $40k, no exceptions. The people there that had 5-10 years of experience were only making in the $65k range. And the senior developer/general manager was only making about $100k.<p>When I was offered the job I asked for $55k which I thought was really pushing it for only having some experience developing stuff in the army and in my classes.<p>So, what gives? What's with the Buick sized disconnect between my experiences and what I hear being discussed here on HN? Is there really a 40k difference in salaries just based on location?<p>All in all I consider myself a very good programmer (Honestly I'd guess in the top 80% of programmers, I haven't met one that's better than myself, but I don't consider myself nearly as experienced as a lot of the people here) that's passionate about coding and I've been doing it since I was in middle school, so I really want to be able to value myself accurately, but something just feels off about it. Looking at everything going on I'm thinking of leaving grad school if I can get offers like this?<p>Am I just marketing myself wrong? Any feedback would be appreciated.<p>You can check me out at github.com/solarmist or http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joshua-olson/5/521/88b.
Upvote: